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I have phonebooked my ISP's 'melbourne' number so to avoid further sales pitch and unbelievable offers, I don't answer.This time [thinking I'd fix them!] I got my Columbian friend to answer with instruction to "only speak Spanish, and I am not here"

Well waddayaknow, he carries on yabberin' away in espanol for ages - the other end speaks fluently too ! Phillipines!

Thats pretty funny......... have you tried the "do not call register"?
Since I put us on it we get very few calls at all.
Before that I used to put the phone in front of the telly or the stereo speaker and just walk away, come back in a couple of minutes and they have hung up.
But the ones that really bugged me are the ones where they have a machine that hangs up when you answer, and its only to find out what time you will be home so a person can ring you later.
Once had a two day period where this went on every fifteen minutes or so, drove us mad!

Busdriver wrote:Thats pretty funny......... have you tried the "do not call register"?
Since I put us on it we get very few calls at all.
Before that I used to put the phone in front of the telly or the stereo speaker and just walk away, come back in a couple of minutes and they have hung up.
But the ones that really bugged me are the ones where they have a machine that hangs up when you answer, and its only to find out what time you will be home so a person can ring you later.
Once had a two day period where this went on every fifteen minutes or so, drove us mad!

They also run a system where there it dial's say 100 numbers and the first ones to answer go to the operators and the other numbers get the silence. And like you were saying it records which lines are active to help it sort out phones from faxes/data etc.

I like telling them to wait while I get the homeowner and just leave it off the hook. If they want to waste my time I'll waste theres.

The best one is to tell them the person they are after will be home after 9.00PM - yes that is late is it not? They are not allowed to ring after nine pm !! And it is past their shift time in some OS parts.

The do not call register does not apply to charities or to your own service providers.

My land line is the fax line to the Murray County Hospital MORGUE .
"The fax just indicated a voice call coming in so I answered it, so no one in here has any money "
"oh, sorry" click

They NEVER ask me who I am

if you know who is calling and dont want to deal with them, we had a few telemarketing callers and i had a whistle and blew it on the phone!
Cheers
AP

some telemarketers have taken their revenge for that sort of treatment - they know where to find you as seen on current affair type tv program

I tell them I'm only here cleaning the house for the owner who has been imprisoned for murder. Seems he hacked a telemarketer to death with a chainsaw......

I find the most satisfying way to deal with telemarketers is to waste their time. When answering the call, as soon as you realise it's a marketer just say "oh excuse me for a sec", put the phone down, then forget about it. They will sit there for probably 2 to 3 minutes then finally hang up.
Just go put your phone back on the hook about half an hour later

heh, then again, some of them don't really deserve it. My brother was a telemarketer for a company which was contracted by Telstra. He didn't like it but it was a job and he needed it.

try and sell them something!! see how long you can waste their time for!

Ive enjoyed asking them to repeat their dialogue as the line must is rather bad at times." It went funny soon after you started talking. Can you start from the beginning please" Or asking for them to send the information in writing to be able to ponder - they never can! Also asking precise detail as to who they are, who they represent and return phone number sometimes they terminate the call

yeah another thing we've done, is answer it and let them talk and leave the phone off the hook and they can pay for the call!

Sometimes I let the answering machine running and they dont leave a msg.
Cheers
AP

I was going to join the "do not call" register but am now happy I didn't - I'm going on a cruise, got a new phone... Kidding!

At home we have a competition going to see who can waste the most time of the telemarketer's by enquiring all about the product, chopping and changing to see how far they will go to make a sale, asking them to post out the deal - then argue with them about their inability to post details out; another good one is to ask for the terms and conditions BEFORE you agree to the deal, good luck on hearing them! Also never say "yes" or "i agree" in the phone conversation as that can mean you've accepted their deal - it happened to my uncle.

Another one to ask is if you can get a recording of this convesation sent to your email or on disc to your home/work... Again, good luck on that one!

My PB so far on the only call I've had was 7 minutes 39 seconds. My brother just got one at 9 minutes and 2 seconds - he said something when funny on the line then they were gone but he had perfect reception... go figure!

We're having fun with them and its pretty funny when you know what you're doing, especially if there are mates around that can listen in and know what your up to

Cheers

Bennie

I'll let you know if i can do 10 minutes with the next one then!!

i usually just tell them how successful they are in life to be working in an outgoing call centre and how much of an achievement it is.. there is usually a couple seconds pause, then they hang up... every time.
mean, but funny.

steptoe wrote:as seen on current affair type tv program

Watch from 3:34 onward
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WgSeP-oI ... re=related