How do you deal with Telemarketers?
One of life's biggest annoyances has to be telemarketers. They call at dinnertime, they don't give you a chance to speak, they try to convince you that you can't live without their services, and then they don't take no for an answer.
We got caller-ID so we wouldn't have to take their calls, but many of their numbers come up as 'unknown'. If you don't answer, they just keep calling back. We also found that our Canadian family member's number sometimes come up as 'unknown', so we try to answer them.
After concluding that caller-ID was not a solution to the problem, I adopted a different strategy. I started answering the calls, but I would immediately ask to be removed from their call list. In most cases, this worked to end the sales pitch, but not everyone was content to accept defeat so easily -- some would actually continue trying to convince me that I needed to purchase their credit card security feature. The downside of this method is that it doesn't prevent you from getting put on another corporate giant's call list...
A few months ago at Monday Night Football, I was discussing the whole telemarketing thing with Jeremy and Sabino, and they said I should get on the Do Not Call List. I had always intended to get on the list, but hadn't realized how easy it was. If you are not on the list yet, you really should register -- if took about a month and a half for the calls to stop, but for the most part, they have. We do still hear from the occasional low interest mortgage company, and we still get a few charities calling... which brings us to the next moral dilemma...
Should I treat charity telemarketers the same as corporate telemarketers?
I am still undecided... since charity telemarketers don't identify themselves right away, they don't get treated any different than regular telemarketers until they identify themselves. My typical conversation goes like this:
TM: [pause] Hello, may I please speak to Mrs. Stephanie Roth?
Me: Who's calling?
TM: My name is [so-and-so] and I represent a charity she supports.
Me: This is her husband, how can I help you?
TM: Is Mrs. Roth available?
Me: I handle the financial decisions for our family, how can I help you?
TM: I represent [insert charity here] bla-bla-bla, can we count on your support?
Me: We are now giving all charitable contributions through our local church, so we can't help you out this year.
----Conversation ends----
While we do give to charities other than those associated with our local church, we generally don't care to give to charities that choose telemarketing as a form of fund-raising. We will give to many different causes (and probably some that use telemarketing), but we will do it in our own time, not when being pressured over the phone.
So, what about you -- how do you deal with telemarketers? Do you just hang up the phone when you hear the pause? Do you try to be polite? Do you treat charities any different than you do corporate giants?
Comments
You've heard how I handle telemarketers, even at work: I hang up on them without a word. Sometimes I'm even rude to them. They often ask, "May I speak to so-and-so?" to which I usuall reply "No you may not" and hang up. Once I was apparently so rude that a telemarketer called back to complain. Like I cared. (What am I going to do? Fire myself?)
As for charities: here at work, it's easy. I just tell them that we have a policy not to donate to any charity. "If we donated to one, we'd have to donate to them all," I say. "How can we possibly choose?" At home, we hardly ever get calls for charities. Generally there I just hang up without a word. Sometimes I listen and then give an apologetic excuse.
Mainly, though, I never conduct business by telephone.
Posted by: J.D. | January 18, 2006 12:51 PM
I once got fired from two telemarketing jobs on the same day. I think that`s among my greatest achievments.
Posted by: Shining Love Pig | January 18, 2006 3:53 PM
I usually hang up when i get a pause after answering. If I am not fast enough, and the person on the other line cannot say 'Nofziger' I just laugh and say goodbye!!! I know this girl who actually gets the telemarketers to HANG UP ON HER!! They almost always ask for her husband, so she pretends to cry and accuses the lady telemarketers of trying to steal her husband away from her!!!!!!! It is pretty funny, and it works!!
Posted by: kimmy | January 18, 2006 7:21 PM
My cousin, Adam, has repeatedly told telemarketers that his dad (who they are asking for)just died that seems to have dramatically reduced the calls they get!
Posted by: Tiffany | January 20, 2006 8:40 AM
Sometimes death don't stop annoying calls. We had a very close friend that would live with us on the weekends and used our phone number on his credit cards and loans. He was killed instantly one night on the way to our place, the car was totaled, and wasn't paid for.....The loan co would try every way they could to trip us up and find out if Allan was really killed. We got call after call and finally one day I said "If you really want to find Allen you can look in such an such a grave yard or Dial 1-800-HEAVEN." That was the last they called.
Posted by: Virginia | February 6, 2006 11:13 PM
Here's what I do: I act really interested and I ask if I can pay or donate by credit card. When they ask for my credit card number I say, "9487478930348749040338474578489440039038487785985938358969000238477574488484954390093032977594748393478959495669660685439092344889495969067080897" and I just keep on like that until they hang up.
Posted by: Chunk | February 12, 2006 9:11 PM
My friend used to pick up and when he found out that it was a telemarketer, he would start to sing the batman theme song...
I had another friend that would scream "I'm on the toilet!!!" and they would hang up, hehehe.
Posted by: Michelle | June 20, 2006 6:02 PM