I need help stopping a telemarketer

[darkshadow0001]

Is the number for your cell phone? You might have an option on your phone to put the person on your reject list. It won't stop the voicemails, but it will keep the phone from ringing when they call (sending them straight to voice-mail).

No, that's the number of the telemarketer. I don't think the do-not-call list will help me, I put my number into insurance sites to try and get insurance for myself. All but this one has stopped calling, after I told them I already have it. I am waiting for them to call me today and then I'll give them a piece of my mind

 

[MacLeod]

This is what one Brit did

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-20068927

Basically he said call me again and I'll charge you £10/minute. They called again he took them to the small claims court they settled out of court.


It should be noted however that he was registered with the TPS which is supposed to stop cold callers, as they are supposed to check to see if people are on the list before calling.

 

[the 4th hanson bro]

Don't answer the phone if you recognize that number? Just because the phone rings, nobody's holding a gun to your head to make you answer. If it's your cell, block the number.

So they leave a voice mail that you delete without listening to, big deal, takes 5 seconds and you're on to something more important.

Eventually they'll get the point and quit wasting their time.

 

[Melakon]

I never get telemarketer calls anymore.

the answer is simple:

1. Allow telemarketer to babble on.
2. Keep saying yessss.....yeesss...in low tones. Throw in a "that's so gooood"
3. Wait for them to ask a question "it's that something you'd be interested in?"
4. Reply with "first....what are you wearing"?
5. No matter how they reply, answer with some sort of orgasmic sound.

...and welcome to the permaban telemarketers list.

NEVER say "Yes" when you have a telemarketer on the phone. Unscrupulous companies will use that Yes, regardless of context, as you giving consent to whatever they're selling.

Disclaimer: I worked telemarketing for 5 years and hated every minute of it.

 

[darkshadow0001]

http://www.fcc.gov/complaints

That's the first step and hopefully the last.

If that fails officially charge them with disturbing you (however that's named correctly) at the police and start an official investigation.

Whatever you do please don't be a dick to the phone operator.. that's a person just doing their job and they're told to call you. Most of the call center people i know who have to do cold calls or telemarketing hate it themselves with a passion because they know they're disturbing people and some people they call are downright nasty to them and there's nothing they can do against it.

So please tell them politely you're not interested, if possible to put you on the "Do not call again" list and be done with it (that worked for me).

I really doubt that if I have told them twice already that I'm not interested and not to call anymore that they are doing their "job" if they call me everyday. The first time I told them I did not need help the guy just simply said "When can I call you back again to help you" I'm like really, after I just said I don't need help?

They called again today so I called Verizon and they put a block on that number for me. I couldn't get to my phone fast enough to tell them off but I hope what Verizon did works. I'll find out tomorrow around 11 or so, that seems to be the time they called.

If it was their job to call, I would assume they would stop calling after I have told them I am not interested. That's what all the other legit insurance companies did, except for this number. When I google the number it doesn't even have a business name just a the "person" who owns the phone so I don't think this is a real business. But I'll find out tomorrow if they will still try and call.

 

[Campe]

Sounds to me like a salesperson with very good skills at follow-up but atrocious skills selling. Personally, I'm a fan of the "If you call me again, I will be calling my lawyer." If it's a telemarketer, I always do the Do Not Call list thing. Just indicating either one of those things to the person on the other end in a very forceful tone is enough to get people to stop. At least in my experience it is.

 

[Owain Taggart]

NEVER say "Yes" when you have a telemarketer on the phone. Unscrupulous companies will use that Yes, regardless of context, as you giving consent to whatever they're selling.

Disclaimer: I worked telemarketing for 5 years and hated every minute of it.

Yeah, this. I've heard that this is the case through an investigative reporting show. Nice to hear it backed up from someone with experience

 

[bigdaddy]

Because you called them first they have the right to call you, so the Do Not List doesn't work.

I use my mom's number as my main one because I have a cheap (aka I can't hear) cell phone. So several years ago this one place would call her asking for my sister. We told her and she said it was a scam to get into because she didn't have a loan for them. Never bothered calling the local police, they are useless. So after they would call no less than 5-6 times a day I started answering the phone with this...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPIy0Et75F4

They called three times in one day, I played that all three times as loud as I could and then never called again.

 

[Starbreaker]

You can block numbers on your carrier's website and there are several good apps that will block the call and not even leave a notification.

 

[Peach Wookiee]

Because you called them first they have the right to call you, so the Do Not List doesn't work.

I use my mom's number as my main one because I have a cheap (aka I can't hear) cell phone. So several years ago this one place would call her asking for my sister. We told her and she said it was a scam to get into because she didn't have a loan for them. Never bothered calling the local police, they are useless. So after they would call no less than 5-6 times a day I started answering the phone with this...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPIy0Et75F4

They called three times in one day, I played that all three times as loud as I could and then never called again.

I prefer their F-Off song.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

You can block numbers on your carrier's website

For a monthly fee...

 

[propita]

Here's something that I've found effective in the past:

:you see the number calling in, answer:
"Darkshadow Consulting. Can I have your client ID #, please?"

"Um, what?"

"This is a private number for an IT consulting business that is only given to customers. We charge $125 per call. Do you have an existing client ID #? If you've been referred by one of our other customers, I'll be glad to set you up. What business did you say you were calling from?"

"Can't Stop Calling Insurance"

"Okay. And I have your phone number here. We'll get the rest of your info in a moment, I'm going to read a brief statement to you. Continuing this call, or calling this consulting number again constitutes agreement that you are authorizing that you will be billed $125 for each call for consulting services. Okay, we can proceed. Can I get your address, your name, and a direct number to reach you at?"

And so on. And then, if they keep it up, REALLY BILL THEM. I've never personally had to take it that far, but I've heard of large companies actually paying other people who also do this. In which case, the calls wouldn't be so bad, would they?

OMG! I love it!!

 

[YellowSubmarine]

Whatever you do please don't be a dick to the phone operator.. that's a person just doing their job and they're told to call you. Most of the call center people i know who have to do cold calls or telemarketing hate it themselves with a passion because they know they're disturbing people and some people they call are downright nasty to them and there's nothing they can do against it.

This.

Some marketers get me angry, and sometimes think even the operator deserves what they get for agreeing to do such job, but the disturbance they caused you with calling – which they didn't initiate – is still not a valid excuse to make their day shit, which it probably already is.

I had a very nasty colleague who ran the marketing of the company I worked for, whose ideas alone earned them the dislike of the rest of us and eventually got them fired. And they'd put newly hired people to do even nastier things they were in no position to challenge. One of them took it very hard when they realized their instinct had been right, and the rest of the company also disapproved of what they had been told to do. But they had already done it. And that's without getting verbally attacked by anyone. I wouldn't want to additionally ruin the day of someone in that position.

Unrelated, but like everyone I had many urges to troll certain spammers. After getting a lot of spam for real estate in Brazil, I eventually responded harshly to a message in Portuguese without even attempting to read it. It turned to be some Brazilian kid who immediately crafted an apology through Google Translate, basically for me being an ass. Not having much to do with telemarketers per se, but it made me seriously think about how your responses might affect somebody, and how such "clever" judgements might turn out to be totally misplaced when you don't know that person on the other side of the line, email or whatever it is.

Quickly crafted troll ideas are not always very wise – please troll the company, not the person calling. Making the operator uncomfortable through sexual innuendo, for example, is a very disturbing idea. Even if I first liked it upon reading it, upon a little reflection it's not a nice thing to do at all.

(Not that I blame anyone for doing such a thing, it can be so irritating that you'd eventually lose your cool. But I don't think advising people to be dicks on purpose is a good idea either.)

 

[Melakon]

Back when I did telemarketing, the client we were representing was only contacting established customers who were familiar with their products (books and magazines). They never had us do cold calls, for which I was grateful. But occasionally there would be someone who couldn't just say "Don't call back." Instead, they'd do some little stunt like those mentioned above.

One guy tried to do the routine from a Seinfeld episode where Jerry got a telemarketing call. He got all the way to the line "Oh, is that because you don't like these kinds of calls?" I had not seen that particular episode at the time, so I wasn't able to feed him whatever the desired response was. Instead, I truthfully answered "No, it's because I can't afford a phone."

He didn't like that at all, because he suddenly went quiet for three seconds, then angrily demanded "Let me talk to your supervisor!" So the supervisor got on the line and apologized, and we took him off the call list. All he had to do was ask, but he wanted to play games.

We called all over the country, and sometimes into Canada. One night, one of the phone workers got connected to someone on the East Coast (we were based in Arizona, but the client was hq'd in Emmaus, Pennsylvania). The customer she got apparently was in severe depression and suicidal. The phone worker made her supervisor aware of the problem, the supervisor called emergency services for the customer's location, and the phone worker (who had crisis line experience) kept the customer online by listening and talking to them for 30 minutes until help arrived at the scene.

I hated the job passionately, but I needed work and couldn't get back into something I was more experienced in (computer specialist on mainframes). I hate talking on a phone even at home. The job stressed me out so much after 5 years, I wound up having a stroke and now can't work anymore. That was about 13 years ago.

 

[Peach Wookiee]

^Your co-worker saved a life.

 

[TiredFather]

Hello, recently I had to try and find ways to get insurance for myself when my job dropped ours and I searched for ways online to get find some. I put my phone number in some sites to get some info, and yes, I know agents will call me. But most of them have stopped after I politely told them I already found insurance through a local agent except for this one number. 574-850-2203. I've told them twice that I found insurance and I want them to stop calling me, even left voicemails, and they keep calling every single day and I would like it stopped without having to change my cell number.

Any ideas?
And yes, I have tried googling a solution, too..

Thanks!

I found this link for the number, but it may not give more info than you already have.

http://www.badnumbers.com/574-850-2203/

As for stopping these calls I suggest you buy yourself a T-Lock. Just let it hang up on these callers for you. Over time they go away on their own.

 

[Random_Spock]

@ TiredFather: Thanks for sharing that link. Will keep it handy in case I have to look up any suspicious numbers in the future.

 

[FPAlpha]

http://www.fcc.gov/complaints

That's the first step and hopefully the last.

If that fails officially charge them with disturbing you (however that's named correctly) at the police and start an official investigation.

Whatever you do please don't be a dick to the phone operator.. that's a person just doing their job and they're told to call you. Most of the call center people i know who have to do cold calls or telemarketing hate it themselves with a passion because they know they're disturbing people and some people they call are downright nasty to them and there's nothing they can do against it.

So please tell them politely you're not interested, if possible to put you on the "Do not call again" list and be done with it (that worked for me).

I really doubt that if I have told them twice already that I'm not interested and not to call anymore that they are doing their "job" if they call me everyday. The first time I told them I did not need help the guy just simply said "When can I call you back again to help you" I'm like really, after I just said I don't need help?

They called again today so I called Verizon and they put a block on that number for me. I couldn't get to my phone fast enough to tell them off but I hope what Verizon did works. I'll find out tomorrow around 11 or so, that seems to be the time they called.

If it was their job to call, I would assume they would stop calling after I have told them I am not interested. That's what all the other legit insurance companies did, except for this number. When I google the number it doesn't even have a business name just a the "person" who owns the phone so I don't think this is a real business. But I'll find out tomorrow if they will still try and call.

Sometimes companies can be huge douchebags and simply ignore your wishes if there is the tiniest chance they can make a sale.

They sure don't care about your time, well being and privacy and many of them treat their telemarketers as human robots, i.e. they give them predefined phrases and flowcharts which they run through like a human computer which only infuriates the person on the other end because it's an added insult when they realize a live person is talking to them but won't really engage with them in a normal discussion.

All this, once again, is not the fault of the operator. As all of you know we have to do what is required of us at work and most of us have a boss enforcing this to a certain degree. Many of us have some wiggle room or freedom in how to do their job as long as the result is ok.

Telemarketers usually don't have that kind of freedom as opposed to customer service people who you call when you have a problem of some kind. So you won't achieve anything if the company the telemarketer works for doesn't play by the rules and you have to take stronger measures.

It's not the guy talking to you that's the problem but the company though i admit it's hard to keep your cool sometimes when you have the xth phone call from the same company after you have told them to stop calling.