kanebear

Used to be when someone called up trying to sell stuff I'd be polite, listen for a second and 99.9% say not interested and hang up. But it seems that a TON of firms (especially Oracle) have offshored their calling. I don't even waste the time.

The moment I hear the crappy IP connection and an accented voice bidding me hello from (insert vendor here) corporation I just hang up. I figure if they need me they'll call back. Thus far, no one ever has. IMO if someone wants to pitch me they damn well better do better than that. I do have to thank them for making it SO much easier to weed those calls out.

anteo

I have a little fun with them

Caller: Are you interested in home finance?
Me: No... I dont live in France

UALOneKPlus

I have a whitelist feature on my phone, so no unwanted calls come through. Love it.

BearX220

US residents who have put their numbers on the do-not-call list should be getting very few of these calls... mostly from survey firms, non-profits and politicians looking for contributions.

I sometimes answer the surveys if I have the time. The others? I say politely that I never respond to telemarketing and they should kindly remove my number from their lists. No need to be rude, just firm.

iff

Yes, those darned French people keep calling...

oh wait, I'm the foreigner.

I've been getting constant sales calls here from the local cable & telecom services. Last week I waited a few seconds and then politely told the woman I wasn't interested, at which point she started to argue quite vehemently with me about why I should get their service. I hung up.

This week I had a call for TV service. I just moved and don't have a TV yet in this apartment, and I said so. The lady sounded shocked. "But... how do you get your news??" "From the internet," I said, so she bid me good evening and hung up.

In the US, whenever I would get a call with that telltale silence followed by call center noise, I would simply hang up before they started talking.

Telemarketers are disliked enough already; do companies really think they're going to get a better response by outsourcing to people whose accents are often difficult to understand?

Wingnut

In the UK you get a lot of calls to your cellphone from phone companies trying to sell you an "upgrade" package. It's slightly disingenuous, because they're just dialling randomly generated numbers, but pretend that they know who you are ("can I just confirm the name of the account holder?" - that kind of thing).

When I've got the time I play along with these. I can do a good 15 minutes (without actually giving any genuine information). Lots of umming and ahing about what kind of upgrade I'd like, often digressing into long rambling pointless anecdotes ("It does have a camera on it, doesn't it? I do love a camera on a phone. I've got some lovely shots I took of my holiday last year in southern France. I don't know if you've been? I found this fantastic self-catering farmhouse... etc etc etc").

Then, just before they're about to close the deal:

Me: "Oh, I'm so sorry Laura, I need to answer the door / put the kettle on / floss my teeth. Give me your mobile number and I'll call you back later."

CSR: "You can call me here in the office on..."

Me: "No, give me your mobile number."

CSR: "I'm afraid I can't give you my mobile number."

Me: "Why's that Laura? Is it because you don't want complete strangers phoning you up and wasting your time?"

Pause. Penny drops. CSR hangs up.

gdeluca

I definitely hang up without saying a word. I too used to be polite and patient, but no longer. I would love to know what "whitelist" is? I am on the do not call list but we get numerous calls these days for student loan consolidators.

Love what WingNut said. My DH does the same thing

UALOneKPlus

A whitelist is where only the numbers I specifically stored are allowed to ring through. Everyone else get a recorded message "your call cannot be completed" - stops them cold.

dhuey

The OP brings up one of my pet causes. I am on the Do Not Call List, yet I'm getting about two such foreign calls per week. This end around Do Not Call is a threat to the whole program.

I think many of these foreign telemarketers are deliberately calling those on the list. It makes a lot of sense, really. Those on the list haven't been getting many sales calls in recent years, so there's probably a better chance someone on the list is interested in the sales pitch. Also, keep in mind that there are multiple adults in the households of millions on the list. It could be the one who opted for the list isn't the one answering the phone.

The bottom line is that these foreigners face no risk of any punishment for violating Do Not Call. I have played along with the pitch (always mortgages in my experience) long enough to get transferred to the USA representative. I get their name/company/phone # and then tell them that the have violated Do No Call. They play dumb, acting as though they had no idea their foreign partners violated the list. I then submit the complaint on the FTC's website.

My hope is that others will do this, and that the FTC will reject the domestic company's feigned ignorance.

MBM3

I hang up if no one says hello immediately after I answer the phone. Should someone be live and not behind an autodialer I will generally be polite and ask them not the call back again. Lately we have been getting a lot of Indian telemarketers calling at odd hours and throughout the weekend. I have ZERO tolerance for calls on Sunday or early in the morning and tell them so.

As for cable companies, Cox and ATT are battling in our neighborhood and come to the door weekly, often feeding my wife misleading information about VOIP.

clarence5ybr

Works great with a few exceptions--for example, when someone you want to talk to calls from 'new' number because the battery died on their cell phone and they're using a calling card or borrowing someone else's cell phone. Admittedly rare, but it does happen.

hsh101

Additionally, anyone you've dealt with before (or are delaing with currently) can also call you, without violating the do-not-call list. These are actually the ones I get most often - from newspaper delivery services, to phone companies. The most annoying are from Comcast - it's not like I can tell them to pound sand, as they don't have any competition in our area (not yet, at least!).

Zarf4

I used to hang up on telemarketers until I realized the way they make money is to make as many calls as possible per hour with the hopes of scamming a pigeon. These days I always respond "I'm really interested, hang on a sec I've got to turn off the stove first", hit the hold button and go about my business.

PTravel

I feel no obligation to be polite to anyone who invades my privacy without some reasonable assurance that I would welcome the interruption. My response is short and always the same:

"Is this a solicitation call?"
"Yes."
"Put me on your do not call list and never call this number again."
click

voop

I either just let them talk, put down the phone and then they end up hanging up by themselves -- or I play the game...

CSR: "Hello sir, I am here to offer you a cheap option for long-distance phonecalls"

Me: "Sorry, I don't have a phone..."

CSR: "But....you're talking to me now, aren't you?"

Me: "Yes"

CSR: "So you have a phone, then..."

Me: "No, I am just answering to the voices in my head..."

(Etc. etc. etc.)