Telemarketer

Here's an idea,
If a Telemarketer calls, give the phone to your 3 year old and tell her its Santa !

You're a little late, people in New York are already doing it.

For people who don't have a 3-year-old, I recommend Ooma. It's very good at screening telemarketers if you go the extra ten bucks.

I ask them who they are, and then say "I don't know you, and I was always taught not to talk to strangers"


After they persist, I now say in a demented kind of weirdo voice ..... " but I'm NOT SUPPOSSED TO talk to Strangerrrrrrrrrs"



Sometimes they use fowl language before they hang up. LOL


Rick

If they are selling carpet cleaning or similar services, I usually go to my demented voice and ask if they can get the blood out of the carpeting or off the sofa, walls, and a couple spots on the ceiling.

As the telemarketer, I'd go on to explain to your child that Santa is an evil monster and got so fat by ripping the arms and legs off of little children and eating them. I would do this, of course, in my most evil and terrifying voice filled with maniacal laughter.

After you pick up the phone, and say "hello" several times, because you were dialed by a computer and the telemarketer then picks up when he sees a connection, and after they butcher your last name, you claim you are not that person they are asking for and ask the marketer to wait while you go to try and find the person.

After about five minutes, you come back and see if the person is on the phone. Most times they will not be. You then ask the telemarketer if you can take a message for the person they are trying to reach and that you will give that person the message.

This screws up all of the telemarketer's routine. I realize these guys are trying to make a living, but they call during some of the worst times, including during dinner and football games, etc.

If you think things are bad now, just wait. There is a bill introduced in the House that would relax existing telemarketing laws regarding cell phones, and there are a lot of big businesses pushing for it:

HR 3035

The reason most people don't get many telemarketing calls to their cell phones is the current law prohibits calls to devices where the consumer incurs a cost for the call, (and that means both taking away some of the minutes you pay for or a text message that you have to pay for). But if enacted this law would:

1) Change the definition of "automatic dialer" to one that doesn't apply to most of the machines currently in use, which would allow the more common "predictive dialers" to call cell phones. It also means more calls where you'll answer the phone to find nobody there as the predictive dialer has "abandoned" you.

2) Make the current laws requiring "express consent" from a consumer before contacting them more liberal by adding :

And there is no mechanism in the bill to allow you to "opt out" of these calls. If you've given them "consent", (and the legislation doesn't specify any time period, so even if you gave them your number 10 years ago in theory it would still count), they can keep calling you even if you ask them to stop. It is supposed to apply only to "informational" calls, such as flight information, but again that isn't clearly defined and leaves a large loop hole open for interpretation and I would expect businesses to interpret it rather loosely. After all, calling to tell you that they are going to have a big sale soon is "informational" isn't it?

3) Prohibit state laws from being more restrictive than the Federal law, (on these issues, not on general telemarketing laws).

So if you'd rather not have your cell phone ringing at all times of the day with calls that will eat up your minutes you might consider calling or writing your representative to let them know how you feel. There are times when you look at the Congressional Calendar and wonder why they have so few actual work days, and then there are times when realize we might just be better off if they took the whole year off.

Edited to add:


UPDATE: Rep. Terry pulled this bill late yesterday so it is now dead.

Especially during bedtime at 8:30pm......

Does anyone ever remember how to use an answering machine or voicemail? It's so damn easy and you don't have to listen to any of the messages if you don't want to.

I always screen my calls, it's too damn easy.

My home phone does not ring and all calls quietly go to voice mail that I don't check.

My cell phone rings, but if you're not in my address book I don't answer. And if you are in my address book you have at best a 50% chance of me answering. I don't have voice mail.