I posted this on the Online Mechanic section, figured it would be better discussed here. It's in response to getting rid of the home phone in order to avoid telemarketers.

Greg

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Yep, avoiding telemarketers is a good reason to ditch the home phone. But I've been successful in not getting the calls in the first place.

If you've had the same number for a long time, it's probably hopeless. But for future reference....

1) call the 3 credit agencies and tell them not to sell your information to marketers. i did that and lots of calls stopped, plus my mailbox dried up (used to be full of credit card offers). if they don't know your credit profile, they can't offer you anything!!

2) consider every company you do business with the enemy. unless specifically told not to, they will sell your personal information.

3) only donate to charities if you can do so anonymously. they make big money selling their lists of donors. plus, i think better to give lots of money to a few local charities rather than send money to a bunch of national organizations.

4) if your state has a no call list, sign up for it. might help.

The only marketing calls I get now are automated ones... those are annoying (esp. when the computer leaves a voicemail), but infrequent.

I have a listed number, but don't see that being a big source of calls. Marketing is about information, and a name and phone number are not enough information to market a product or service.

You do have some control. Use it!!!

(I'm not a homeowner, so that helps... I'm sure mortgage companies are the #1 enemy in selling information).

What I'm saying is that getting a lot of telemarketing calls is largely your own fault. It results from a failure to control your personal information.

err, ok....

......... :sleep ................ :squint

boMex wrote:......... :sleep ................ :squint

ha-ha... it is pretty dull. but one day you'll be stuck at a dinner party with a bunch of middle-aged homeowners (they love to whine)... consider it good material to shut them up.

:slap

Hey there is nothing wrong with the info posted. He is just passing along advice. I am not middle aged but I am a home owner and I hate stupid telemerketing calls namely the local newspaper harrassing my a$$ at around 8:00PM. Of course anytime they do call just hang up no biggie

ive got two things for all the telemarketers that call me. caller id, and the inspiration of the jerky boys and crank yankers. i actually look forward to them calling sometimes...

iwantanr34 wrote:ive got two things for all the telemarketers that call me. caller id, and the inspiration of the jerky boys and crank yankers. i actually look forward to them calling sometimes...

the jerky boys are bad arse!

getting a live telemarketer isn't that bad. what really boils the blood are the autodialers that call your house and when you answer no one is there. it's the telemarketer calling 10 houses at a time and whoever answers first gets the marketer, the rest just gets hung up on.

Mayhem: ive never heard of that, but it really sounds like something they do just to be ****s

They start with telling you about this new thing or an offeri say im not interested... then i go telling them about this new product that just came out of the bathroom toiletit makes for a good center piece at the dinner table and it can be theirs for only 3 easy payments of 5.99... originally 20$ but marked down in price just because they called me!:rotflmao

...and before you know it your asked to give your credit card number. two weeks later in the mail you get a "special introductory offer" of exercise equipment... if you dont want to pay for it, youve got to ship it back to the company. but better, do it quick, cause you know theyre gonna bill your a** for something... shameless bastards.

Have you guys seen the Snickers commercial with the telemarketer? That commercial is the ****.

Try pretending that you can't speak English. If you chose Spanish and they speak Spanish, yell "TU MADRE ES QUESO!!!!!!" and hang up.

Greg,

Sign up for the Georgia No Call List, a mere $5.00 a year. It helped me out with calls. One problem, I waited a month or so to re-up with them, now I am getting telemarketers sporatically.

My parents have this "telezapper" phone thingy. when the computer dialed calls are sent the zapper sends a msg back to the computer that the number it dialed is no longer in service or disconnected...so the computer takes your number off the list and never dials you again. they've had it for a couple of months and the computer phone calls have stopped by like 80% (the other 20% being new company computers that just get ur number, but they will be zapped soon).

I always like jerry sienfields explanation on it. When they call and ask for you say you're not there, but if you could get their name and # you will call them back at an inaproprate time. hehe then they are like "we can't do that" and then you go "why not you're doing it now, why can't I?"

ATL alty max wrote:Greg,

Sign up for the Georgia No Call List, a mere $5.00 a year. It helped me out with calls. One problem, I waited a month or so to re-up with them, now I am getting telemarketers sporatically.

I did sign up for that, but guess it's been a while... didn't know I had to renew.

At least web site makes it easy.... Thanks for the reminder!

Hopefully that'll stop all the automated health insurance offers. That's about all I get these days. Glad to see it stops charities too.... I'm tired of feeling sorry for people. Boo-hoo.

https://www.ganocall.com/

Spectre wrote:Try pretending that you can't speak English. If you chose Spanish and they speak Spanish, yell "TU MADRE ES QUESO!!!!!!" and hang up.

your grandmother is cheese??? sounds like fightin words to me...