| Author | Message | ||
| Peter Sedlak (Peters)
Member Username: Peters Post Number: 381 Registered: 1-2003 |
I did the 'prayer meeting' line this evening. It was great! The poor gal on the other end kept saying 'NO, No, I can't stay on the line for that!'...Excellent idea. I'll do it again. | ||
| Jere Dunham (Questioner)
Member Username: Questioner Post Number: 582 Registered: 1-2003 |
I wonder if maybe we said something like, "I am so glad you called. I represent New World Encyclopedias and we are offering a special tonight only. I can get some special pricing for you if you can make the decision while I am on the line with you. May I have your name and how many are in your household???" Do not give them a second to start their line of crap. If they do just ignore it and go back to..."And for the first ten households to purchase this exhaustive set, we are prepared to ship to you at no additional charge the New World Atlas of the World. Now, if you can give me your credit card information, we can go ahead and finish the order and get these shipped out quickly. And since the price is so low for such a fantastic resource material set, we can either take a one time payment of $1,995 or can break it into six payments of $332.50. Which do you prefer???" If they continue to try to go into their pitch, just say, "And we at New World Publishing thank you so much for the call." Now just hang up and go back to what you were doing. They will not call back. | ||
| Carl Roberts (Carl63_99)
Junior Member Username: Carl63_99 Post Number: 62 Registered: 10-2001 |
I had a call last night from SilverLeaf resorts near San Antonio. I had told them last time to take me off their call list. Obviously they did not. I told the jerk on the line that I wanted to talk to his supervisor right now. He started jerking my chain, asking why would he want to talk to my supervisor. I said, "NO, your supervisor." he got more difficult, and we both yelled back and forth. But, now, I'm contacting the phone company and filling a compliant. | ||
| Peter Sedlak (Peters)
Member Username: Peters Post Number: 353 Registered: 1-2003 |
When I lived in San Jose,CA, I had a nice stereo (I'll get to this in a bit) in my office. When the telemarketer called, I went along and listened. After about two minutes, I told him (or her) to hang on because I just heard a strange noise in the hallway. I banged my fist on the door (for the audible) and shouted "NO!! NO!! I did not know that was your wife I was seeing...She told me she was single!..NO! NO! Don't......" With my stereo full blast, I had a sound bite of a gunshot that I played once. With a final moan, I left the phone off the hook. This was a lot of fun until about the forth telemarketer I played this on. He called 911 in my area and in about three minutes, I had three squad cars and four cops at my front door. Needless to say, they asked me not to do that again (after I explained what I did to the telemarketer). One of the cops thought it was kind of funny and wish he thought of it at his house! | ||
| Jere Dunham (Questioner)
Member Username: Questioner Post Number: 568 Registered: 1-2003 |
Said, "Excuse me, we were just in the middle of a prayer meeting. If you will give me your name and what you need prayer for, we will be glad to add you to our list. Now just hold on while we get started." Have not had one person give me their name to want to be included. Hmmm, we weren't even having a prayer meeting either. But it works. | ||
| DES (Sickspeed)
Advanced Member Username: Sickspeed Post Number: 3869 Registered: 8-2002 |
Lloyd - ROTFLMAO...!!! HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA...! i think paying your local phone company to have telemarketer calls blocked is ridiculous; i want a list of employees names, addresses and phone numbers who work for telemarketing agencies and i want to call them at home and harass them... Maybe that's not right, but still, neither is calling me 5 times a day... i just got off the phone with AT&T and had the woman connect me to a supervisor, who i gave a hard time and asked her to take me off her list; he said it take 30 FULL BUSINESS DAYS...! can you believe that crap...? i got a call this morning from some other phone company offering a free $50 gift certificate (that i had to pay for) and all i kept telling him was that i needed to take a shower, 'cause i hadn't showered in about a week and that i was really dirty... i kept telling him, 'my nuts are really itchy, you don't even understand' and he just rolled right with it... | ||
| Willis Huang (Willis360)
Intermediate Member Username: Willis360 Post Number: 1224 Registered: 8-2001 |
I get calls from long distance carriers. Most of us get these but, in my case, I get them from Chinese speaking marketers. Apparently, they just go through a list of everyone who has a Chinese last name. When told to put me on their "do not call" list, they fein ignorance (some cases are true because they sounded fresh off the boat). I usually tell them to put me through to their supervisor to stop the calls. It got so bad in one case (the 3 letter company's name start with "A") that I emailed the company in a forceful letter against their targeted campaign. They apologized and never bothered me again. I use a tele-zapper now and it eliminates most marketing calls. | ||
| Carl Roberts (Carl63_99)
Junior Member Username: Carl63_99 Post Number: 60 Registered: 10-2001 |
http://antitelemarketer.bizland.com/index2k18x6.htm Great site for some of the things people can do! I hope to get a security service calling, so I can pretend to be the robber. "No, this isn't the man of the house. Alarm systems. Well, you may want to keep this number, when they get home, they'll want to call you!" | ||
| Lloyd (Lloyd)
Junior Member Username: Lloyd Post Number: 72 Registered: 8-2001 |
In Texas we have a law where for a few bucks you can put name on a no call list that telemarketers have to abide by. This has reduced calls dramatically. However prior to this I used to always get calls from portrait studios wanting to get family photos. I just told them, �no, not since the fire�. The silence I heard next was deafening. | ||
| Mark (Study)
Member Username: Study Post Number: 467 Registered: 10-2001 |
The best one, was by a guy who turned pro on giving telemarketers a bunch of crap. When carpet cleaners called... He quickly said "great, just who I needed to talk to! Can you get blood out of my carpet? Lots of blood, its on the walls also?" Carpet Cleaning company called the cops. Cops did show up at guys house. But cops had a good laugh with guy and admitted they hated telemarketing calls also. Guy was lucky. | ||
| Horsefly (Arlie)
Intermediate Member Username: Arlie Post Number: 1101 Registered: 5-2002 |
When the caller ID says "unknown caller", you can practically guarantee that it's a boiler room telemarketer. So I just pick up the phone and say nothing. You can usually hear the crowded boiler room in the background as the caller waits for you to say hello. But I never do. They usually hang up after about 10 seconds. Or sometimes, I just act like some old geezer with bad hearing. I just keep saying, "HEELLLLLLOOOOO" real loud over and over. Maybe throw in a few "HUH, WHO IS IT,...EEHHHHH?" They usually hang up. | ||
| Dan (Bobafett)
Member Username: Bobafett Post Number: 543 Registered: 9-2002 |
Mark, that abortion bit is hysterical. I've used the Seinfeld routine a few times. That's always good for a laugh. --Dan | ||
| Mark PDX (Markpdx)
New member Username: Markpdx Post Number: 8 Registered: 4-2003 |
Got a couple of favorites that I have used alot. When windshield repair places call I like to thank them for calling and say, "I do have a really big crack" they will usually yap for a while with the sales pitch and eventually ask what the vehicle is which I reply "the crack is in my a$$". At that point they will usually hang up. They also call asking if we would be interested in vinyl house siding. To this I reply "actually the house isn't in very good condition and we were thinking about burning it down to collect the insurance" mostly they just laugh at that. Sometimes they will call with a survey about radio or television veiwing habits. To this I say "I'm sorry we are Amish and choose not to own electrical machines or partake in worldly things". They usually apologize and say goodbye. I have used this at least a dozen times and only once has someone asked why then do I have a telephone. My best one is last week somebody called from a pro life group wanting support for a a ban on partial birth abortions. Now I really don't care that much either way on abortion but I do feel it is my duty to F with people who call me. She yapped for a bit about the evils of abortion, blah, blah, blah which gave me time to think up something. So then I asked her "I have a question about abortions do you mind"? She said she would be happy to answer any questions. So then I say "My son is 14 years old but he is a really difficult sometimes, do you think it is too late for a late term abortion"? Then she hung up on me. | ||
| DES (Sickspeed)
Advanced Member Username: Sickspeed Post Number: 3864 Registered: 8-2002 |
PAT - LMAO...! Boy, do i have some telemarketer stories... Everything from pretending to be a woman and telling the seller from Discover that my husband beats me to pretending to be the man of the house, telling the seller that i'm on my out the door with my mistress; none of these times were in my house, either... i'm so bad...  | ||
| Ron Thomas (Ronsupercar)
Member Username: Ronsupercar Post Number: 757 Registered: 5-2002 |
Lol Pat! | ||
| Pat Pasqualini (Enzo)
Member Username: Enzo Post Number: 492 Registered: 2-2002 |
No matter what the telemarketer is trying to sell me I just tell them that I have radiators and that usually leaves them confused long enough to hang up. (Inside story: My first house had radiators and a heating and cooling firm called up and wanted to sell me a new furnace and A/C unit. I played along and as soon as I told them I had radiators THEY hung up on me. So I just use it on everyone now) | ||
| Eric Eiland (Eric308gtsiqv)
Member Username: Eric308gtsiqv Post Number: 788 Registered: 11-2001 |
Caller ID works for me....if it's an "unknown caller" then I don't answer....after 3 rings the answering machine kicks them off. | ||
| chris cummings (Entelechy)
Junior Member Username: Entelechy Post Number: 228 Registered: 5-2001 |
When they call asking to speak to Mr. so-and-so, my father tells them "just a minute" then leaves them hanging on the phone forever. Probably only works if you've got multiple phone lines... | ||
| Eric Perkins (Eaperk)
New member Username: Eaperk Post Number: 10 Registered: 3-2002 |
I had this Boileroom scam operation calling my house for about two weeks. They informed me I had won some sort of cruise, they only needed my credit card number to confirm it was me LOL!!! | ||
| Erich Walz (Deleteall)
Member Username: Deleteall Post Number: 254 Registered: 12-2001 |
Telmarketers are persistent and annoying for a reason-they get paid more that way. Most places give an hourly rate plus bonuses. I used to live in Omaha, which is a telemarketing mecca. Six years ago, one could make $14-$16 an hour with bonuses. Average pay was $10-$12 an hour. Not bad for a job requiring no education or training. | ||
| Jordan Witherspoon (Jordan747_400)
Member Username: Jordan747_400 Post Number: 919 Registered: 12-2002 |
One time I was asleep and havnig a rather nice dream about my girlfriend. The phone rang and I subconciously picked it up and started talking randomly while I was still asleep and dreaming. I remember saying "But Peilin (my gf's name), why arent you at soccer practice? I love you...hows your mom doing?" Shortly after I dropped the phone and slept for a few more hours. I woke up and saw the phone unhooked and on the floor, I scrolled through the calls and it was a telemarketer. I must have scared him half to death I had another telemarketer one time hold a conversation with me. He was a young guy and after giving up on selling me the phone service he just started chatting about how his job socks and where he wants to look adn what jobs he has been looking at. | ||
| Schnelles Fr�ulein (Miss_m_treiber)
New member Username: Miss_m_treiber Post Number: 22 Registered: 4-2003 |
anyone have any funny stories about them? what is your response when they call? |