Tips for Handling Telemarketers

inkasnana

Expert Expediter
(1)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.

(2) 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 !!!

(3) 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 41 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.

(4)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 41 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 !
 

Yesteryear

Expert Expediter
Oh Inkasnana, I can't wait to go home and check the mail! Oh what sweeeeeet delight it will be! hee hee hee :D
 

Turtle

Administrator
Staff member
Retired Expediter
I always send junk back in the pre-paid envelopes. My neighbor is my mailman. He tells me that junk mail is their bread and butter, without it they'd be out of business, so he suggested the return mail thing to me a long time ago. :)
 

bubblehead

Veteran Expediter
Before 911 I used to attach the return envelope on something heavy (usually some junk in my garage) and put it in my mail box. My postwoman loved it! I even got rid of an old junk electric guitar (wrapped in old newspaper) by taking it to the post office...extra postage was charged to the prepay account. Oh those were the days:) Other items included a box of rusty nails, broken motorcycle mirror, burned out headlight...gosh the memories of more innocent times!
 

louixo

Veteran Expediter
Charter Member
I remember years ago there was a campaign in our town to tape the return prepaid envelope to a brick or other heavy object and drop it in the mailbox, or leave it for the postman to pickup. I always wondered how well that worked, as I never heard any followup.
 

cheri1122

Veteran Expediter
Driver
I used to keep a little stuffed clown by the phone - it looked silly, but the laugh when it was poked was downright chilling. One poke, and they never called again. :)
 

letzrockexpress

Veteran Expediter
FYI, the "don't call list" put nearly 350,000 people out of work the first 2 years after it was enacted. Just something to think about.
 

pjjjjj

Veteran Expediter
Many years ago I moved into a community of new homes where they had a 'super mailbox' instead of door-to-door delivery. I got tons of junk mail every day, so I would just slip it into the mail slot for the mailman since I didn't want any of it.
I kept on doing this, and unbeknownst to me, I guess they were actually marking the junk mail before putting it in the boxes, so they would know who it was that was putting it right back in the mailbox section. I started getting notices that what I was doing was an offence.
Go figure?
Regarding telemarketers I now have 'broadband phone'/'internet phone' (not Skype). It is really cool. It allows me to block telemarketer calls, block any previous unwanted callers, block hidden identity callers, and I don't even have to be bothered with hearing it ring, it goes straight to voicemail, or just simply blocked if I want. I can check phone messages online from anywhere, email my messages to anyone else I want to hear it, and it includes all features and long distance for one price, with no 'system access fee'. Turns out to be less than half the price of my old landline with long distance. I know it actually works because someone tried to call using Skype and they were informed by a recording that we don't accept calls from telemarketers.
Thanks Inkasnana for those tips, anything I can do to stop that world of marketers from harrassing me is definitely worth the effort.
 
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