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infmom
04/29/09

In reply to 7 Things You Can Do To Avoid Telemarketers
You can often tie someone up for a fairly long time if they're calling from a business that's covered by privacy rules.

Hello?

Hello, may I speak to _______?

(whether true or not) I'm sorry, but he/she isn't here right now. Can I take a message?

Would you just tell _______ that I called?

No, _______ wouldn't be interested in calling back some anonymous person who refused to leave a message.

I'll just call back.

Well, if you do call back, you'll be speaking to me again, and I won't tell ________ you called unless you state your business.

That's OK, I'll just call back.

Call back all you want, but _______'s time is valuable and I'm not going to waste it, so state your business and ________ will call you back.

And on and on and on. Those guys absolutely will not state their business, and I've found it's possible to keep them going for quite a while by insisting that they do so and refusing to take a message otherwise.

Of course, you have to have time to waste on stuff like that.
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RitaDoe
04/28/09

In reply to 7 Things You Can Do To Avoid Telemarketers
There used to be a device called a tele-zapper.... sold by Radio Shack so everyone assumed it was crap. Actually worked quite well: you left it plugged into an unused phone outlet and each time your phone rang it transmitted a special tone that auto-dialers hear as "line not in service". Not only did the first call drop after one ring, they never called back (I assume the auto dialer updated its database). Not much help for charities, which tend to use real live callers, but took care of about 90% of junk calls. Best $30 I ever spent, but apparently not enough people bought one....
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infmom
04/29/09

@RitaDoe: We had one of those. Unfortunately, after about six months the junk callers caught on, and did something that kept their autodialers from being fooled.

We have some vintage Caller ID boxes from BELTronics that let us put numbers on "reject." The phone rings once, the caller gets a message that we won't accept their call, and the phone gets hung up. Alas, it won't work for unknown callers.
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Skyyboy
04/28/09

In reply to 7 Things You Can Do To Avoid Telemarketers
Nothing is as cool as Tom Mabe!

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Krondonian
04/28/09

@Skyyboy: That's got to be the best method ever.
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Lite: hates Illinois Nazis
04/28/09

In reply to 7 Things You Can Do To Avoid Telemarketers
What I do is take my phone and smash it on the pavement repeatedly. That'll show those telemarketers!
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