OT:Let the stuttering Chinese guy explain it to you

I know this all too well.

last night I get a call at home, and this lady speaking broken english, says I have been picked to recieve a minimum in $25 thousand dollars in Govt. Grant money, and proceeds to tell me I can use this Free money for what ever I want. I let her go on and on, then she says she needs my checking acount info and to pick date to pay the $229 to recieve the package in which will have my application materials for the supposed Free Govt Grant Money... I told her I was not interested, she proceeds to tell me that it was all secure and that the whole conversation would be recorded for poof.........I said poof this and hung up... they continue to call but will not cease despite telling them to remove my number from their files.... I thought this was supposed to stop after getting on the no call list!!!!

There is no no-call list for con artists amigo. What you describe is an illegal scam to get your money and access to your bank account. These people pray on the greedy and stupid. Just hang up or tell them you would like their phone number to pass on to the attorney generals fraud department and you will here that click soon enough. You might also want to hang up, report as spam emails or throw away faxes & letters from supposed third world folks that for, insert one of many BS stories, wants to use your bank account to smuggle hugh sums out of their country and give you a slice of the action. At the office hang up on any one giving you a BS story that they need the model and serial numbers off your fax, copier, printer or other office equipment. They want to send supplies for the equipment at unbeleivable high prices and claim because they have the equipment numbers that you ordered it. I get these calls at least three times a week.

Bob Ruth

My standard answer for any phone call that starts with "Hi sir, how are you today?" is "click" followed by a dial tone. Unless it (as it often is) during supper in which case I chew the caller out first then hang up. I am totally, utterly fed up with telphone marketing, it's tantamount to people parachuting into your living room with sales brochures. Well, maybe not quite but it ticks me off nearly as much and I have no more patience for it. I get the most from the competing long distance service providers. The occasional telemarketer gets offended saying "I'm just doing my job" to which my response is "maybe you are and nothing personal, but you are representing your employer and they're pissing me off so your job is to hear about it".

Mike D. More curmudgeonly by the minute.

Lately, I've been deriving a great amount of enjoyment by answering these calls, asking the person on the other end to "hold on a minute" whereupon I put the phone on my desk, or toss it on the couch, & go about whatever it was I was doing before I was interrupted. I like to time how long they'll actually wait before they hang up.......20 minutes is the record so far. Apparently telemarketers have a "no call list" of their own, as since I've started doing this, the amount of unwanted calls has dropped to almost nothing. Time is money to these guys, & I just love making them spend money.

I like it! Must try that next time.. snicker.

When you get a telemarketing call ( a I seem to be getting fewer now) just tell the "I'm busy now. Give me your number and I'll call you back." Works like a charm!

Steve

first then hang up.

How about the wife's relatives and friends of 20-30 years?

I hear my wife say "Hello", then she replies to an obvious question from the caller with "Eating supper".

DUH??? Double DUH???

Seems like when you hear "eating supper" at the same hour, day after day, year after year, someone would catch on. Guess not! :-)

Bob

I like the guy calling to give you a real deal on aluminum siding if they can use your house as a model in the neighborhood. Sure come out and give me an estimate . . . . Brick houses really give them a PITA.

Then if you have nothing better to do play a game with these callers. See how long you can tie them up with questions like you are real interested in whatever they are selling, if they appear to tire a bit explain that you don't hear so good and have them repeat the whole thing to your wife . . . who asks more questions.

Red S.

you ought to try cancelling "Earthlink"--they won't accept e-mails, and the phone # they give you has a circular menu--to talk to a representative, press "8". this restarts the entire menu...and never do you get to talk to a person...

w4jle wrote:

Yeah, I had the same problem with Earthstink. I just phoned my credit card company and told them the situation and that I DO NOT authorize any further payments to Earthstink. Problem solved!

Roger wrote:

A variation of that one, is what we did to salesmen (or women) that called our parts department when I worked for a Ford dealership back in the '70s. Their pitch was to sell us a pallet of electronic ignition modules, or other high movement part (Ford was having a _real_ problem with the first run modules going out back then), and we'd get a brand new Remington/Winchester/Marlin/Ruger rifle/shotgun/pistol (depending on the vendor) shipped to our home address. After they went through the whole spiel, I'd tell 'em it sounded great, but I'd have to let them get it okayed by my boss, and turn him/her over to the former parts manager, who by that time was a line mechanic. After they went through the whole 15-20 minutes again, he would turn them over to the current parts and service manager, who would listen about

30 seconds, then say "We don't want any", and hang up. When they sometimes called back, upset at being led through it and hung up on, we just hung up on them again.

Word apparently got around; after about 2 weeks straight of getting one or two calls a day, we got one about once a month.

J.D. to e-mail, pull the post

I don't even let them get that far. The moment I have identified a cold call - even if I have an interest in the product - down goes the phone.

If everybody did that, they would stop doing it. Its like trolling on Usenet. If it gets ignored, it goes away.

Yup. Hadn't thought of that.

You let them start their main pitch, quietly lay the phone down, and enjoy dinner.

Bob

Alas, AOL has not changed their tactics since I dumped them more than seven years ago. Finally got it stopped by calling the CC company and disputing the charge. After explaining what had happen the lady at the CC company laughed and said something to the effect that "they get this a lot with them" and that they would handle it. Never saw another billing charge from AOL.

Yep, that works every time. Just do a CC "chargeback" through your card issuer.

Something else that I've used is when the caller starts to make their pitch, interrupt them, and in a low husky voice, ask them slowly "What are you wearing?" - click! I've also asked them, in the same voice, "Gues where I have my hand?" - again, click!

The DougSter

My latest tactic with the telenuisances is to say, "hello" and pause before repeating "hello" again a few times. "Anyone there?" gets thrown in and then I'll say, as though to someone in the room with me, "Doesn't seem to be anyone there . . . must be a crank call" and they hang up. I have heard and yes, this might be apocryphal, that telemarketers hate this because they are required to report any such problem, sometimes file the report in writing and can't ignore it because big sister might be listening.

Once a caller told me he was Jimmy Carrterr from XYZ Mortgage Company; very heavy Indian accent. I told him that if his name was Jimmy Carrterrrr, mine was Mohandas Ghandi. He started giggling so much he couldn't continue and had to call the whole thing off.

When trying to get through an automatic answering system, just repeatedly dial "0 0". Ignore any "that message was unreadable" or such and keep hitting "0 0". Most of the time the system breaks down and you're connected directly with a real person. Then the real fun begins.