Handling Telemarketers

ccoccocats

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Andy Rooney's Tips for Handling Telemarketers

Three Little Words That Work!! 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.


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 !!!

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 37 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 37 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!

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 !
 

krazy kat2

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I always send the junk back with my credit card payments, but had never thought of using the envelopes that come with all the rest of junk mail.
Thanks!
 

sar

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I hadn't thought of some of those!
I am certainly going to use those handy little paid for envelopes! I wonder if they would like some adverts for Manchester Take-aways?!!
 

roxy_loves_cj

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I live in an apartment who the previous renters got a lot of free samples from astroglide, trojan condoms etc. (these keep getting sent to "current resident" so i send the samples to credit card companies. I dont know why, its just something I started doing. Its like a game. Plus they get to pay for the extra weight of the condoms and stuff....
 

sockiesmom

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Originally Posted by Roxy_loves_CJ

I live in an apartment who the previous renters got a lot of free samples from astroglide, trojan condoms etc. (these keep getting sent to "current resident" so i send the samples to credit card companies. I dont know why, its just something I started doing. Its like a game. Plus they get to pay for the extra weight of the condoms and stuff....
LOL!
 

cheeseface

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I wonder if the trick of pressing the # button really works. I will try that next time.
 

me-n-my guys

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Thanks for those tips! Those are great ideas that actually make me WANT to answer the phone next time.
Sometimes if I'm in the mood, I'll play games, like asking for their # so I can return their call at their home. Once I asked if there is some little light that comes on somewhere when I go off-line, that's when they always call, it's so strange. I distracted them so well they never got around to the sales pitch.
But I never thought about the junk mail idea...
 

brianlojeck

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I love the National Do-Not-Call registry. There is nothing like being able to tell them "if you call me again I will file a $10,000 complaint against you with the FTC."

now if only I could keep politicians from calling me, I'd be happy.
 
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