How do you handle telemarketers and solicitors.

[susans]

1) What tips you off that any given call is a telemarketer or solicitor?

2) How do you handle it?

3) How often and why do you actually take down the number or put someone through?

For me? First I am on a no call list, but when I do get the random call it depends on the mood. Sometimes I nicely go, "Can you give me your name and number, so I can report to the people on the no call list know your company?"  Sometimes I admit, I get rude and go no thank you and hang up, I realize there are business that maybe cold calling but actually have something I need (rare), so I tend to listen first then decide on the course of action... what does everyone else do?

[spitfire78]

Well, now at home I feel no need to be polite to these callers.  First of all, I am also on the no-call list, so they shouldn't be calling me anyway.  Secondly, I didn't ask them to call, I have no interest in anything they have to say, and they have usually interrupted me at an inconvenient time.  If I'm feeling really nice that day, I interrupt them in mid-sentence and say "I'm not interested in whatever you're selling, please don't call me again" and immediately hang up.  If I'm feeling annoyed or they've really interrupted what I was doing, I usually shout "Don't call me again" and then slam the phone down.  Yep - rude, I know.  But in my mind, they have intruded into my privacy when I didn't ask them to.  So, I feel no need to be nice.  Now at work, obviously, that's a different story.

[adminbydesign]

When I get these at home, I generally use the "I'm sorry, but you've interrupted our evening prayer meeting."  Don't mean to be disrespectful, but it shuts them up and they don't keep trying to talk to you.  :-)

[diamondlady]

Yep, I agree with Sptifire on this one.  And when they ask to talk to your spouse and get nasty wtih you when you ask who's calling, then its fair game.  If you can't be polite to me, and tell me who you are, then you don't deserve to talk to my husband.  Or, If I am really nasty about it, I'll just say they aren't home right now and can I please take a message, if they persist, then it's if you can't talk to me then we're not interested. This is Mrs. xxx, if you can't talk to me then don't waist our time.  That usually works.  I got really nasty with the last person that tried that, and they got mad at me and hung up. Gee, I didn't ask you to call me, you wanted something from me, and I wasn't interested, nor was my husband.  What makes them think that if they can't talk to a spouse, I guess I'll never understand.

At work, it's a different story, but at home they are fair game to any mood.  If they are polite to me, I'll return the favor, but if not, then certainly will get one of the above or plain hung up on.

Diamondlady
Peer Moderator

[msmarieh]

Well now actually we have a couple of approaches...

1) Usually we just say thank you but no thank you. Please remove us from your calling list as we are already on the do not call list.

2) Sometimes though, when we are in a good mood, my husband and I play a game... The game is "who can keep the telemarketer on the phone longer" (which certainly causes the telemarketer to lose money on commissions - too bad for them!)

One of my absolute favorites was when a phone company called and started talking about their great package deal. I responded by saying that I had no friends and no one wanted to call me... would you be my friend??? I carried on and on about how sad and lonely I was and how this phone package just reinforced the sadness of my life because every month those unused minutes would just keep rolling over and proving that I was a worthless sad little person with no friends to talk to... (etc. etc. etc.). My husband and I were dying laughing so hard (while not laughing on the phone - cause I sounded totally serious). It took a long time for the guy to catch on...

Other times we'll twist the person's words around and get them all flustered, like if they say a model comes in blue, we'll keep asking what's wrong with purple? Do they have something against purple?

Sometimes when my husband plays along I'll ask lots of questions and then say, wait, tell my husband about your great deal and hand the phone over... Well they have to start their whole spiel over from the beginning, because they can never start in the middle.

My husband is just as bad as I am about having a little fun with them. hehehe I think our record was about 20 minutes.

With an unlisted number and being on the do not call list too, we rarely get those calls at all anymore, so we've sort of lost a fun part of our lives... sigh... I hadn't even thought about that until this post. LOL

Marie

[mlm668]

I try to be polite with them regardless of the time of day they call.  I figure that most often these are folks who needed a job and this was the best they could get at the time.  (You can usually tell by the tone of their voice).  When they start on their spiel, I simply so no thank you I'm not interested, please remove my number from your calling list.  If they start to get pushy, I say it again but in a stronger tone.  If they still persist, I tell them again and that as I'm registered on the do no call registry, if they call my residence again, I will report them.

One guy that got to me was calling with one of those "the government owes you money, give me your info so we can tell you how to get it" scams.  When I told him I wasn't interested, he got snooty and asked me if I was refusing "free money".  I told him I wasn't stupid, nothing in life is "free" and if this was legit, I knew the government had my address and they could send me something in writing directly.

On the other hand, my daughter isn't nearly as nice.  This scam guy made the mistake of calling one day while she was home sick from school with a migraine and woke her up.  She gave him an earful when he tried to get her to give him MY checking account information so he could send me the "free" money.  

Michelle

[raindance]

We don't receive many of these sorts of calls in my office.  Those that we receive are mainly from building services, conference venues, directory publishers and solicitors.  

I am always courteous to everyone on the telephone, although it can sometimes be hard to have dialogue with someone who is following a script!  My boss takes the view that she won't talk to anyone who won't talk to me, and naturally doesn't want to be bothered with unnecessary calls.  A Chief Executive is far too busy doing other things!  

If the call is about something that is not of interest to us, then I say so, politely but firmly.  If it is interesting to us, then I ask for details by email or post, but I never make promises to companies.  At most, I can "promise" to pass on their information to a colleague in another department, if that is relevant, or to keep their details on file.  Conference venues, in particular, are of interest to us, and we have retained the services of a couple of law firms to deal with specific projects, whose representatives just called us.  

What tips me off that someone is trying to sell us something?  That can be difficult because some of them are just plain devious .  I think one just develops the right frequency on our lovely admin-tracker-antennae.  

I always try to think of the other person who is calling.  I may not "owe" them anything - except for the normal courtesy that I would extend to anyone - but they have a job to do. If they are really obnoxious - then I can be a little bossy.  

Raindance

[countrigal]

In the office, I politely inform them that we are a government agency and therefore are restricted on who we may do business with.  If they persist, stating that they are an approved vendor, then I simply tell them that we do not do the ordering ourselves, but that it goes through a budget office and that we only order from the vendors on our list, which are handed to us by the National office.  And no, I don't have their number or who they need to speak to, and no, I don't think that anyone in my office would like to talk to them.  If it does sound like something we might be interested in (and if they get that far) then I request that they send something in writing, that I'd get it to the right person and then they would be contacted in return.

On a personal front, I'm on the "do not call" list too, and that has really, really cut down the calls.  Those that get through are told that we are on that list, and please put us on their do not call list, as future calls will be seen as unsolicited and therefor harrassing and will be reported.  If it's my phone company calling yet again to offer us internet options, or different calling plans, or whatever, I simply tell them that we're happy with what we have, that our cable modem costs less than their plan, and that we have their website and will contact them if we see any options that interest us.

The ones that get me the most are the "please support our..." folks.  About twice a year we can guarantee to spend about a month (each time) getting these calls, for the highway department, local sherriffs office (for both the county/city I live in and the one we work in), the firefighter's association, etc.  What gets me with these is that they always say "we'd like to know if we can count on your continued support..." and going on to make it sound like we've donated for years.  They are more than willing to take the donation over the phone via checkcard or credit card, or checking account.  When I politely ask for something in writing be sent to me in order for me to send the check in that way, they always follow with "it's tax deductible..." and I simply say thank you but not at this time, perhaps they could send me something and I will send a donation in at a future time.  This always floors me because I don't send donations to all of these places, and they sound like I've supported them for years (even when I had just moved here!).  I do support our local police, highway patrol, and firefighters, but I do so at honest-to-goodness fund raisers that they have for the community.  Since we're rural, we really support our volunteer fire department and know the men who will come door-to-door asking for a donation by selling a certificate for a professional picture (to be taken at the fire department at a future date), or through barbeque sales, etc.

My most assured way to get off the phone?  Let one of my kids start crying (which isn't difficult, they're 1 and 2 and are constantly fighting and fussing with one another, or are hungry) and let me sound r-e-a-l-l-y frazzled and they tend to ask if they've called at a bad moment and I'll say, no... well sort of... I have 2 babies and they're (hungry, fighting, whatever).... and how it's so stressful having 2 kids and trying to take care of them all by myself.  They tend to say thank you, and hang up, with a few saying they'll call back another time.  If they don't ask if they've called at a bad time, then I simply tell them it's a bad time, etc, etc, and then they get off the phone with me.

CountriGal
Peer Moderator