Telemarketing - Ditch the Pitch

[Princess_FS]

Thanks for the opt-out link...I got a telemarketing call this afternoon, my day off, and I'm telling this guy I'm not interested....THREE times....and finally hung up...either he was totally persisant....or it was a very good recording  :-/

[dragongirl]

whats really bad is we have an LA remote call forwarding line so when they call the LA line it switches to our 800 # and we end up paying from the calland usually they are out of state cals. The one on septic tanks doesn't even have a # to call.Dinner time brings them on.  Makes me mad too!  

[Ensen]

I have the same thing, but in reverse - my Wrightwood usually forwards down to here.  It might be worth paying the $5 a month for caller id.  The sales calls are usually unknown, where a real person with caller id block shows up as anonymous.  Phone company gave me a free caller id box for signing up.

[Wrightwood]

This was sent by a freind and seems to be worth posting.

Try this if you are not already doing it!

I suppose some degree of commerce would grind to a halt if telephone solicitors weren't able to call people at home during dinner hour, but that doesn't make it any more pleasant.

Now Steve Rubenstein, a writer for the San Francisco Chronicle, has proposed Three Little Words, based on his brief experience in a telemarketing operation that would stop the nuisance for all! time. The three little
words are:  Hold On, Please.  Saying this while putting down your phone and walking off instead of hanging up immediately would   make each telemarketing call so time-consuming  that boiler rooms would grind to a halt. When you  eventually hear the phone company's beep-beep-beep tone, you know it's time to go back and hang up your handset, which has efficiently completed its task.

Do you ever get those annoying phone calls with no one on the other end?  This is a telemarketing technique where a machine makes phone calls and records the time of day when a person answers the phone. This technique is used to determine the best
time of day for a real sales person to call back and get someone at home.

What you can do after answering, if you notice there is no one there, immediately start hitting your # button on the phone, 6 or 7 times, as quickly as possible. This confuses the machine dialed call and it kicks your number out of their system. Since doing this, our phone calls have decreased dramatically.

When you get ads in your phone or utility bill, include them with the payment let the companies throw them away.

When you get those pre-approved letters in the mail for everything from credit cards to 2nd mortgages and junk like that, most of them come with postage paid return envelopes, right? Well, why not get rid of some of your other junk mail and put it in these cool little envelopes.  Send an ad for your local chimney cleaner to American Express.   Send the pizza coupon to Citibank. If you didn't get anything else that day then just send them  their application back!   If you want to remain anonymous, just make sure your name isn't on anything you send them. You can send it back empty if you want to just to keep them guessing!

Eventually, the banks and credit card companies will begin getting their junk back in the mail. Let's let them know what it's like to get junk mail, and the best of it is that they're paying for it.  Twice.

Let's help keep our postal service busy since they say e-mail is cutting into their business, and that's why they need to increase postage again.

Send this to a friend or two or three...or fifty

[Wrightwood]

Lola was right.......

Californians can now pre-register here for the nationwide Do Not Call list that the Federal Trade       Commission (FTC) is expected to launch this summer. California is joining in the national Do Not Call registry which is FREE to consumers.

http://nocall.doj.state.ca.us/

[Stitches]

Warning: this topic has not been posted in for at least 120 days.
Unless you're sure you want to reply, please consider starting a new topic.


I considered starting a new topic but it fits in here so well.

The last couple of days I've gotten calls from a phone number 123-456-7890.    That is what my caller I.D. says.   Actually, my mother in law has been getting them and I've dealt with them as she is not capable of doing that. 

Anyway, the first time it happened, he says his name and it is clearly an normal name.   However, the accent is clearly foreign.   I'm not going to name a country as that would just be speculation and inconsequential.

As anyone else been called by a persistant "telemarketer" who is relentless?  How do we report them?   I don't even believe their phone number is valid.

[ChattyCathy]

I got a call today from 999-999-9999 and it says First National.  I picked it up before I looked to see who it was, and there was no one there.

[lagomorphmom]

I got a call today from 999-999-9999 and it says First National.  I picked it up before I looked to see who it was, and there was no one there.

I used the reverse phone book, and neither number came up as a valid number. Then I looked up the area codes. There is no 123 area code and for 999 it said

"Often used by carriers to indicate that the area code information is unavailable for CNID, even though the rest of the number is present"

[Stitches]

Thanks for doing that lagomorphmom.  Why didn't I think of that?  So does that mean I can't block that specific number because that number is bogus anyway?   I'm going to have to call Verizon and find out.     

There should be a law to keep these pesky people from bothering senior citizens.    Another one that bugs me is the sales call that is identified as Unknown Caller.    I know that I can block all calls unless they identify themselves by caller I.D. but I don't want to resort to that because some of my mother in laws relatives have unlisted numbers or new numbers that I haven't identified.

I'm at my wits end running for her phone before they talk to her and stress her out.   Maybe I should call AARP.   I bet they have a committee that works on coming with ways to protect senior citizens against relentless telemarketers.

[clint]

"There should be a law to keep these pesky people from bothering senior citizens."

There is. It's the do not call list. I have almost no calls since signing up. It works great.
The only calls I get are from Verizon and police charities. I got Verizon to put me on their internal
no call list and they stopped. And I just ask police charity people for the tax id number and they hand up!

I also just signed up on www.optoutprescreen.com to stop the pre approved credit card offers

[ChattyCathy]

I'm on the Do Not Call list, but I still get calls.  I guess they stay under the radar by displaying false numbers (999-999-9999)

[clint]

Anyone you  do business with can still call you. So your bank, your phone company, your cell phone company can still you. The phone number they use is not relevant as the system is not an automated one that blocks numbers. If you are getting calls, take their company name and report them. They will get fined.

[Stitches]

She's been on the Do Not Call list for years.  I'm on the Do Not Call list also and get very few calls.   Charities, bank card companies, etc that I do business with also call me.   But they are very nice about it when I say, Please Do Not Call and not one more word from them and I don't get called again.

Whoever the caller is, though, is vague about the company they work for and I still don't know what they are trying to sell me.   Something about lost money and blah blah blah.    And the accent is so distracting that I find it hard to understand what they are saying.  So I've resorted to telling them "STOP" "STOP" and they keep talking and all I'm saying is "STOP".   If they do stop I tell them to put me on the Do Not Call list.  Then they ramble on again wasting my precious time.   I just don't have time for it.

What I'd like to do is sick my husband on them and let him yank their chain for a while and maybe they'll think twice before calling again.

[rmschultz82]

Just be careful if you do decide to say yes to a telemarketer. Some of those calls are scams. One got me a few months ago.

The caller identified himself as calling from Verizon, my home phone company. He said he wanted to send me a free phone for always paying my bill on time. He wanted my credit card number for the $4 shipping and handling, which I gave him He said I had also been selected to win a free vacation. He wanted my voice verification for both items, which I gave him.

Never during the conversation did he mention any company name, other than Verizon. And never did he even mention services or prices for any services he might want me to order. When he told me about both free things, I asked him if it was really free, or if I would be charged if I didn't cancel something within a certain time frame. He said there was nothing to cancel, I was not signing up for anything.
 
Then on my next credit card bill, I had been charged $90 by a company called eplayers.com. I called eplayers.com (the phone number was on my credit card statement). They said they had my "voice authorization" to charge me, that I had signed up for it! I said no I did not, and they apologized and refunded the money.
 
Then, the following month, on my Verizon home phone bill, I had a $60 charge from Global Air/ Wave Communications for a voice mail. (Any company can piggy-back their charges onto your home phone bill, and all they need, according to Verizon, is your name and home phone number!! This is happening a lot now!) I called the company, expecting the same apology and refund. The man there was very rude to me, however. He said he had my "voice authorization" so there would be no refund, never mind that the "voice authorization" was falsified.

If this happens to you, contact your home phone service, and depending on the company, you don't have to pay the fraudulent charges. Also, always, always report them to the Better Business Bureau. It is easy to do, at www.bbb.com.
 
The main thing to watch out for is the "voice authorization," but I would say any time anything is free, just say no! If in doubt because it is from a company you use, say "I will call you right back." Then hang up and call the number you have for that company, such as on your statement, and verify the authenticity of the phone call you received. It's better safe than sorry!

[ForestGal]

I've always been told not to ever, EVER give your credit card # to anyone who calls YOU.  Only give it over the phone if you are calling a company, and you are certain you are speaking to the correct party.  Thanx to Caller ID, I never answer 800 numbers any more, nor do I answer most out of area #'s that I don't recognize.  I figure if it's legit, they will leave a message, and I can return the call.  I would say that 99.999% of those callers never leave a message.