Tips for Handling Telemarketers

[UH_OH_5_OH]

Don't know if this is a repost...cause I didn't read the Telemarketer thread from the other day...but here goes"



Tips for Handling Telemarketers

Three Little Words That Work !!
(1)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 much more time-consuming that boiler room sales would grind to a halt.

Then 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.

These three little words will help eliminate telephone soliciting.

(2) 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, is to immediately start hitting your # button on the phone, 6 or 7 times, as quickly as possible. This confuses the machine that dialed the call and it kicks your number out of their system. Gosh, what a shame not to have your name in their system any longer!

(3) Junk Mail Help:
When you get 'ads' enclosed with your phone or utility bill, return
these 'ads' with your payment. Let the sending companies throw their own junk mail away.

When you get those 'pre-approved' letters in the mail for everything from credit cards to 2nd mortgages and similar type junk, do not throw away the return envelope.

Most of these come with postage-paid return envelopes, right? It
costs them more than the regular 41 cents postage 'IF' and when they receive them back.

It costs them nothing if you throw them away! The postage was around 50 cents before the last increase and it is according to the weight. In that case, why not get rid of some of your other junk mail and put it in these cool little, postage-paid return envelopes.

One of Andy Rooney's (60 minutes) ideas.
Send an ad for your local chimney cleaner to American Express. Send a pizza coupon to Citibank. If you didn't get anything else that day, then just send them their blank application back! If you want to remain anonymous, just make sure your name isn't on anything you send them.

You can even send the envelope back empty if you want to just to keep them guessing! It still costs them 41 cents.

The banks and credit card companies are currently getting a lot of their own junk back in the mail, but folks, we need to OVERWHELM them.

Let's let them know what it's like to get lots of junk mail, and best of all they're paying for it...Twice! OR....just use THEIR envelopes to pay your bills with !!!

Let's help keep our postal service busy since they are saying that e-mail is cutting into their business profits, and that's why they need to increase postage costs again. You get the idea !

If enough people follow these tips, it will work ---- I have been
doing this for years, and I get very little junk mail anymore.


THIS JUST MIGHT BE ONE E-MAIL THAT YOU WILL WANT TO FORWARD TO YOUR FRIENDS!

[TheBimbo]

lmao- we've been returning envelopes for months now!!! I get all excited when the junk comes in heck sometime I even catch the mailman when he hits the bottom street and mail them out that same day ...

We've never thought about using "their" envelopes to mail out our legitimate monthly bills though... I'm guessing if we can fit the return addresses in the right window it will work!!!



Christy...

[Muttling]

ewwwwww.........That's a GOOD one on using their pre-paid envelopes. Heck, white out or a white label sticker will fix any address problems you might have.



I LIKE IT!!!!!!

[Freed]

I've been sending the postcards that fall out of magazines that say "No postage necessary if mailed in the United States" back for years. I'll look into the free postage on the envelopes as well.

[dwd5813]

NICE! I'm definitely going to start doing that with the junk mail!

[TheBimbo]

Okay we've got the junk mail covered... Now what can we do about the gas prices???





Christy...

[Freed]

Use the 5% gas credit cards for gas only and pay them off in full every month. Don't floor your gas pedal to get up to 35mph in the city or even on the highway. You will save 20% in gas IF you slowly bring the car up to speed. I do it by not going over 1500 rpm in my truck and 2000 in my car. You wouldn't believe how much gas I save compared to all the lead footers, of which I used to be.

[Muttling]

Originally posted by TheBimbo
Okay we've got the junk mail covered... Now what can we do about the gas prices???





Christy...

Take off and nuke the planet from orbit, thereby causing a nuclear winter......It's the only way to prevent global warming.

[Satori]

Originally posted by Muttling
Take off and nuke the planet from orbit, thereby causing a nuclear winter......It's the only way to prevent global warming.

No need. The super-volcano under Yellowstone has been pushing the surface 3 inches higher each year since 2004. When that blows, it'll be like 100 Hiroshimas.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21699317/

[BigSkyBart]

Originally posted by Satori
No need. The super-volcano under Yellowstone has been pushing the surface 3 inches higher each year since 2004. When that blows, it'll be like 100 Hiroshimas.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21699317/

let me know when thats gonna happen, my office window faces due south, towards yellowstone, I don't want to miss the show!

[Satori]

I think you'll be the first to know!

[NewNanoDude]

Lol...

Here is what i do when a telemarketer calls me.

Answer, hello...

When they ask for me by name, oh hey how ya doing?

They go on to try to tell me I got a free vacation, or we got info that you may be interested. OK

SO when the go on to try to sell there stuff. My first words are always ok sell me what you got. When they start talking I repeat every word they say. "You have been entered to recieve a free vacation" OH REALLY? Ok I have been entered to receive a free vacation. At this point they start jumbling there words. I then usually tell them they sound like a stoner that just got high and cant speak. They start laughing here. Then, I say well if you cant sell it to me because you cant talk, pass me on, im interested. They usually have to hand the phone off to the manager, or next rep sitting next to them... Hello sir I hear your interested. Here are the details. At this point I just go on to say wow I finally get the details. This person stumbles also right after this. So then you just say, well, you guys just dont know how to talk.. I dont know what i am getting, take me off your list. Dont call me again.

Wastes about 20 minutes of there time. Gets a me and whoever is standing around me a laugh. AND I get them to take me off there lists.

For me works great!!!!

[catdoc]

We had some company calling us over an over about refinancing our home. We're not interested and despite telling them NOT to call us back, they do. I promised my 5-year-old she could talk to him the next time. Wouldn't you know, I've not heard from him since!

[der_wille_zur_macht]

https://www.donotcall.gov/

/thread

[TheBimbo]

thanks we were under the impression that we missed it and then hubby heard that if you signed up now it would only be 'good' for a couple of years... thanks did our home and our 2 mobile numbers as well... hmmm the kids each have a cell #... hope they don't get bothered...




Christy...

[der_wille_zur_macht]

While I'm no fan of junk mail either, I can't really advocate something as wasteful as returning empty envelopes and hence incurring postage fees upon the advertiser. I mean, if it's Bob's Mattress Warehouse, that's one thing. but when you are doing that to Citibank, or some other legit corporation that provides legit services to real people, all you're really doing is incurring the cost of that postage upon the organization's real customers. Unless a vast majority of people receiving these mailings use that strategy, the company won't even notice it, and hence it won't be any more effective a deterrent of junk mail than simply not responding.

[JokerGirl]

I'll have to try some of those when our next telemarketer here at work calls.

Had a good one the other day where I proceeded to tell him we don't take soliciting calls. He tried to tell me it wasn't soliciting as we were already an AT&T customer, but that it was a promotional call. I told him it's soliciting. His answer was "well some us wouldn't have the same opinion as you" then hung up on me! It felt great.

[catdoc]

We had signed up for the state and national do not call registry before, so I'm not sure why we're getting the calls again. Not sure if this is a loophole, but the callers have sounded foreign (Indian). Can US companies bypass this rule if they outsource their telemarketing out of the country?

[kfisc]

Kindling! It all makes great fire starter. Except the glossy stuff, which just won't catch and sputters out.

[dwd5813]

i always liked this scene from boiler room:

Seth: "(Phone rings) Hello?"
Ron from the Daily News: "Hi, Mr. Dahvis, this is Ron from the Daily News. How you doin' this morning?"
Seth: "It's Davis, and I'm not interested."
Ron: "Okay, I'm sorry to have bothered you. Have a nice day."
Seth: "Wait a minute. Wait, that's your pitch? You consider that a sales call?"
Ron: "Well, um..."
Seth: "You know, I get a call from you guys every Saturday and it's always the same half * attempt. If you guys wanna close me, you should sell me."
Ron: "All right."
Seth: "All right. Start again."
Ron: "Okay. Hi, this is Ron from the Daily News. How you doin' this morning?"
Seth: "Horrible. What do you want?"
Ron: "It's not what I want, sir. It's what you want."
Seth: "Ron, now we're talkin'. All right. What are you selling me?"
Ron: "I'm offering you a subscription to the Daily News at a substantially reduced price. We're trying to reach out to people that have never had home delivery before."
Seth: "Right, so, basically, everybody who already has a subscription is getting bleeped on this one?"
Ron: "Yeah, I guess so."
Seth: "All right, well, I can handle that. So, tell me, why should I buy your paper? I mean, you know, why... Why shouldn't I get the Times or the Voice, you know?"
Ron: "Well, the Village Voice is free, sir, so if you want it, you should certainly pick it up. But the Daily News offers you something no other paper can: a real taste of New York. We have the best features, more photographs than any other daily in New York and we have the most reliable delivery in the city. Now what do you think?"
Seth: "You know what I think, Ron? I think that was a sales call. Good job, buddy."
Ron: "So you gonna buy a subscription?"
Seth: "No, I already get the Times. (He hangs up)"

[der_wille_zur_macht]

No, but if they have a "prior relationship" with you, they can bypass the list all they want. The definition of "prior relationship" is wickedly open.

Still though, if you ask a specific organization not to call you, they have to respect that - aside from the list or any loopholes. If the the same organization keeps calling you anyways, ask for a manager, then tell them you're going to put them on hold and get your lawyer on the line.

I guess I'm lucky or something - it's been a year or two since I had any sort of telemarketer call me.

[oz]

Responding to telemarketers... I do it the Sienfeld way...

[BeltwayBandit]

Originally posted by catdoc
We had signed up for the state and national do not call registry before, so I'm not sure why we're getting the calls again. Not sure if this is a loophole, but the callers have sounded foreign (Indian). Can US companies bypass this rule if they outsource their telemarketing out of the country?

Here is one way that companies get around it. Ever have a clerk ask you for your phone number at the point of sale in a retail store? If you give it to them, you just established a 'relationship' with them and they can now call you. Thats why I always refuse to give my phone number, or just give them a bogus number.

[Crusty Old Shellback]

My Mom got me into sending back the junk mail years ago since she worked for the post office. Said it was paying the bills and now her retirment so keep on sending them back. I've even sent my candy wrappers back a few times if I was eating while opening the mail.

[beerguy]

I try never to "handle" them. You can never tell where they've been.