Robo Calling

Dave31 · Aug 24, 2014

I am just about at the point I am going to get rid of my home phone. I've been keeping track and I receive around 13-23 soliciting phone calls a day and all of them always a pre-recorded message.

The National Do Not Call List is a joke!

What I do not understand is I try to speak with a live person. Okay, you want to help me with credit cards, fine! But if I push 1 to speak to a representative it always just hangs up. Whats the point of calling me? I never can speak to anyone?

Then I always get this one for a medical bracelet, same thing happens. "Press 1 to make an order press two to be removed off the caller list."

I've pressed 2 many,many times over. And when i press 1 it just hangs up? I have been receiving this stupid medical bracelet calls for years.

And blocking the number only works once, they just call back using a different number.

Its has gotten to the point I never answer my phone unless I recognize the number. And I've pissed a few people off because they could not get a hold of me because I never answered my phone.

Mike B · Aug 24, 2014

Yes, I get plenty of that too, so much that I don't answer the phone unless I hear a real human voice on the machine.

I wanted to be so cold and impersonal that I didn't even record my own message, I just left the "machine voice" on that came with the answer machine.

I tell everyone that I know or do business with to speak up and I'll pickup, I'm usually here.

The latest rush of calls is for "zero down solar" you must act now, this offer will not last.

Yes, it's just the escalation of the phone wars. People got tired of solicitation calls and got answer machines, so the solicitors went to robo calling.

Amazing.

Mike B · Aug 24, 2014

You get too excited Tom, not good for the blood pressure -

Just let them talk to the box. Kinda like "talk to the hand" eh?

2door · Aug 24, 2014

Mike B said:
You get too excited Tom, not good for the blood pressure -

Just let them talk to the box. Kinda like "talk to the hand" eh?

Actually Mike, I consider it 'venting' and isn't that supposed to decrease pressure? Sort of like a relief valve on a boiler.

Tom

Mike B · Aug 24, 2014

Anything to put beans on the plate is a real job.

I don't mind them nearly as much as the door to door peddlers that ring the bell and make the dog bark and interrupt what I am doing. But hey, they gotta eat too.

Exterminators, HVAC service, lawn service, alarm companies and the ever present god salesmen. That's really good. They come by and sell god like some bug spray.

I've got a weak spot for the kids though, they are the only ones I buy from. And those "Worlds Finest" chocolate bars are tasty and worth a buck a bar -

Ludwig II · Aug 24, 2014

We get them here. A lot of them are call centres based in India, and the workers are told to call themselves something English, to fool us. I am sorry, but an accent dipped in curry from birth is a bit of a giveaway.

On the plus side, one was a real Robocaller. He said he was Alex Murphy.

Lungcookie · Aug 24, 2014

I hate these guys too. Never answer the phone.

The Microsoft scammers are a serious pain in my butt.

I have a brass bowl (singing bowl, not actually just brass) I put the phone in and...DINNNGGGGGGGGGG!!!!!!

A no trespassing sign in the driveway works wonders for the solicitors.
Except the Jehovas, just have to ask them a couple questions and they get confused and don't return.

Mike B · Aug 24, 2014

So what's a "real job"

Ludwig II · Aug 24, 2014

I found a way to make the God squads run away:

Tell them you're happy to compare religions, that yours is perverted sex, and they have to strip before they come inside your house.

It works for me.

Mike B · Aug 24, 2014

I just tell them (all) that I'm not interested.

Another one that is guaranteed to work is "Are you the homeowner" No.

Going2Hell · Aug 24, 2014

I used to do the telemarketing thing... I can't help you with the robocallers but I can help with the humans!

If you really want to ruin their day, go along with the story, with false information of course. Use up their time and possibly give them a new, fake contact number! Now they are satisfied... Another person will call later that day with the same outfit claiming the previous person was a floor rep and I am the sales rep. When this second person calls back, tell them you have no idea what they're talking about. Too many of these in one day will get a telemarketer fired. I've been doing this since I quit 10 years ago and have it down to 3 robocallers.

Mr.B. · Aug 25, 2014

Occasionally I’ll have a little fun with the Indian accented Microsoft scammers and try to stretch it out as long as possible- Playing dumb and acting like the error log they try to scare you with won’t open.

At some point well into the conversation I’ll reveal I have a Mac, which usually gets a “you’re lying” response. On 2 different encounters I’ve actually got them so frustrated that they have ended up cursing at me and hanging up...

Other times right off the bat I’ll simply accuse them of being scammer’s, thief’s, & lair's and that will get them to hang up pretty quickly.

Hey scammer, if it didn’t work the first 100 times, why on earth do you keep trying, Ha!

AssembleThis · Aug 25, 2014

Hi Dave 31!

Sorry to here someone else is going through this as well. I tossed my home phones in the garbage about 10 years ago for the same reason. When your physically disabled getting up 15 to 20 times a day for no reason is no joke. It's torture, plain and simple. Since then I only use a cell phone and it is turned off most of the time. If you don't have one of my emails at least, I really don't want the phone to ring. And I never listen or answer voice mail unless I know you.

Dave
AssembleThis

.xx.

Allen_Wrench · Aug 26, 2014

Ages ago, I rented a one-bedroom in Lakewood. And I used to get plenty of telemarketers. But the vinyl siding guy was the best. I answered one day while waiting for a friend to call. He started his monologue without pausing to ask if I was the homeowner. When he finally asked if I could appreciate the advantages of vinyl siding, I said I could but it wasn't up to me. He asked if he could please speak to the homeowner. I told him the lanlord has several properties so he'd need to mention the Madison Avenue place. He asked if I thought the ladlord might be interested in vinyl siding. I told him probably not; it's a brick building. He then, very honestly I thought, said he was sorry for wasting his time.

2door · Aug 26, 2014

Tele-marketers trying to sell vinyl siding is one thing. The idiots that come to your door are quite another.

"It's a brick home." I say and point to the wall next to the front door.

"Oh, yeah, right, sorry." And they leave to go next door, which is also brick, as is the one next to it and the one next to it....the whole neighborhood is brick homes, you morons!

Tom

Greg58 · Aug 26, 2014

Thats funny Tom because something similar happen to me, it wasn't a robo call but a vinyl sideing company from the Atlanta area trying to get business. You know one of those that won't let you get a word in edge wise, so I let him go on and on about vinyl siding till he decided to ask me what I though about what he had told me about the siding. I told him I thought it was great that's why I put it on my house about five years ago.......silence click.

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Robo Calling

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