Judge just ruled USA national DO NOT CALL list was unjust...

[rallynavvie]

I don't think it will be overturned though. I think it may get called upon on a state-by-state basis. If anything the "do not call list" should be made freely available to telemarketing firms instead of charging them for who they can't call. That part of the law never made sense to me.

[i_am_dave]

Yeah - no need to go on raging at them. Have you ever heard any of those wav files from a few years back? With tech support calls and such? I don't know if they were genuine or not, but - sheesh - some people get downright abusive.

I can't think of any funny stuff quickly enough, so I developed my one line years ago and just stick to that.

Gees is right. There is no real benefit to flaming the poor soul doing his/her job. It really ticks me off to here someone in a resturant or store blast the cashier because something was mispriced or they thought is was too expensive.
Find the manager and flame them, or in this case, flame the higher level life forms at the telemarketing firm.
The worst way to hurt them is to spend as much time talking to the poor grunt on the other end of the phone and then not buying anything. But, please be nice.
I guess I am just more sensitive than others because I did some tech support a few years back.

[Devanshu]

I understand that...but they should just hang up if you say you're not interested in buying thier product...after a while, they just push your buttons too much.

[MOVIEGEEK]

If you ask a telemarketer to put your number on a "do not call list" and they call you again you can sue them for $500 per call(in CA) and they can be fined up to $11,000 per call.

www.donotcall.gov/FAQ/FAQConsumers.aspx

They can call me again as much as they want because I need to pay some bills.

[galactica]

Man, if only all states would do like CA.
and if you actually could get the money, id welcome telemarketer calls then

could help me get some more peripherals for my comptuer

[Jester700]

IME, the tone changes the moment you request to be taken off their list. You just gotta be frank & firm. About the need to take 2 "no"s - sometimes it's more than that. I used to work at a Circuit City, where we were supposed to need *5* nos to a service policy pitch. So I asked a telemarketer point blank how many he needed. He said 3, so I said, "no, no, and no. Now, wasn't that easy?". But I'm not beyond screwing with them.

And I don't agree that it's terrible to slam these people. Unlike a waitperson or cashier, these people made a conscious decision to take a job in which they knew they would annoy a shitload of people. They deserve what they get, IMO, and should grow a very thick skin if they stay in the job.

I think part of the reason there's so much of this is that long distance is so insanely cheap these days. When it cost a quarter to make a long distance call, it would be cost prohibitive to do this.

[Devanshu]

Today, I used a combo of tgpo's trick and my imagination...here's a paraphrased version of my convo.

Telemarketer: Is Devanshu --------- home?

Me: This is him

Telemarketer: Oh blah blah blah blah blah blah interest rate?

Me: I'm 13

Telemarketer: Oh you are, well I wonder how we got our records mixed up? Well, are your parents home.

Me: Yes

Telemarketer: Can I talk to them?

Me: They dont like to be interrupted when they're meditating.

I made up some ridiculous stories for quite some time and it was one of the best convo's I've ever had

[RabidDog]

Long distance is so cheap nowadays that in the UK, they are paying INdians in call centres to disturnb us at night. They teach them to pretend they are british and to have british names like dave or Bill. They even tell them what the weather is like in the part of the country they are phoning, and they start by saying "ohh its a bit dark out". You can still tell tho as there is a slight delay and they also cannot understand cockney. I usually make them an offer like "five quid for all the calls I can eat"
"quid sir? what is quid?"
"its dosh you muppet!"
"my name is Dave, sir".
But this means even the low paid call center jobs are being shipped overseas.. you have been warned..