I always just take the piss and the calls just seem to fade out, the last one I had was over a year ago, and it ended with them not selling me a new phone as they couldn't tell me how many pixel it had on the screen.
just handup halfway through the phonecall, or if they ask if your the property owner, put them onto tony, and hangup.
If I'm not doing anything too important I'll have a chat with them for a while, maybe ask them a few questions about what they're selling etc, generally waste their time. If they're selling double glazing, ask them all you can about it, find out how much it would be to do your house, when they could do it etc before you let them know you already have double glazed windows.
I wish we had the no call list here in the U.K. would benefit alot of people, although i must say i do like to answer the calls sometimes and have a good old rabble with em
There is the telephone preference service. We are signed up with it and get maybe 1 call a year, if that.
I have to say your lucky then, we have signed up to it a bunch of times (apparently you need to renew it every 6 months or something) and it hasn't helped in the slightest, we get at least 4 a week, in the minimum.
I've done some fun things to TMs: -Put the phone on speaker and handed it to a toddler. -same as above, only with a poodle. -Answered questions with a squeak toy. -said 'hang on' and handed it off to a friend, & directed them to do the same. You can hand the phone back and forth for a while. -act like you can't hear them and keep saying 'hello?'
I worked in a call centre for a bit, though I was doing research phoning businesses, never phoned anyone at home. Regardless, I still love toying with telesales folk when they phone. The more of their time I can waste, the better. Really, if you make it too easy for them, then the telesales problem will only get worse. The more grief you give them, the more it costs the company and the harder it will be to get staff - both of these are good things. The Indian call-centres are my favourite. agent: "Hello my name is john and I'm calling from *companyyou'veneverhearof* Telecoms, how are you today sir?" me: "Yip, not bad, how's it hanging?" agent: "uh... I am phoning today to tell you about our amazing offer if you buy -" me: "Wait, is your name really John?..." After going around in circles like this, gradually release information, but eventually they'll get the horrible realisation after half an hour you don't want to buy their crap, and commit the biggest no-no of the telesales operative - hang up on you.
So what? Really couldn't care less. You will be doing them a favour. Should we have left Hitler to is just so we didn't hurt the feelings of the Nazi soldiers? Did you do it recently? It takes a month or two to filter through.
My favorite one is to say "Have you heard about the good lord today? I would like to sell you some <religious group text>s. I think that it will help you along on your path" Then just try to sell them the bibles or whatever the entire time while answering there questions every now and then just so they have to continue. Although i think that i will try the 'AHHH HE HAS A KNIFE" one.
Every time a credit card company calls offering me a new cool cc, I tell them I'll take it if I can get a 1% fixed APR with a 100k limit. They've hung up a few times.
Well I have something to inject into this, BT do and have been doing for a while a Nuisance Call Advise Line, where the advisors will direct you to either free or paid services which will prevent calls from reaching you in the future. These include BT Privacy at Home, which is a registration to the TPS, and caller ID. And also Choose to refuse, which basically allows you to block up to 10 numbers (withheld or passed but UK only) from calling you by entering in a code after the call you receive and perceive it to be a nuisance. CTR has a 28 day free trial through NCAL, but is chargeable after this time, not sure on the pricing for Privacy but I can find out if people are interested... Also text messages, there's a way to opt out/in of receiving text messages to a landline.. same with automated reverse charge calls (there's no way to stop manual ones set up through an operator on 100, but if you have an answering machine and the call is caught by it, they can't charge you for the call... so screen your calls if you get a lot like that) Anyway BT Nuisance call advice line's number is 0800 661 441 who can offer the advice above and more. All pricing information and statements made in this post are either correct at time of post and may be subject to change or are matter of opinion and should not be taken to be fact. Any queries should be directed towards your individual telecommunication service provider.
What I usually do is let them start to spew their info, then silently hang the phone up. There has to be a moment that they keep talking, and they get the beeping that the other end is no longer there. So, they end up talking to no one for a good 4-6 seconds. Im not a confrontational type person, so doing something absurd goes against my better judgement, even though I would love to!
Here is a great prank call on a telemarketer.... So awesome, I love how he leads him on... and the guy takes it seriously!
The best thing to do about telemarketers is to just get registered as Ex-Directory (if in the UK). That way if you get a telesales call, you just politely inform them that they are actually breaking the law to call you in that way. It's amusing how quickly they hang up in that situation.
I'll never understand why people are so nasty to telesales people - they're doing a job tbh, and a pretty thankless one at that. If you want someone to shout at, ask for their manager/supervisor and keep going upwards. Write letters expressing your discontent. Just don't shout at the poor people who have to work minimum wage to get shitty people on the phone. Anyone who's worked public-service jobs knows what it's like to have an asshole, would you wish that on someone? :\ Almost annoys me as much as people who make a mess "because cleaners come and sort it out"...
Because its annoying getting about 5-6 calls a day offering you triple glazing, despite you asking repeatedly to be removed from their damn call list. Usually I just say "Thank you very much, but no thanks", but there are times when I've had a long day and the phone keeps going.... then I get angry.
