How to deal with them
Complaint
Jason
Country: United States
I am not working so I've got a lot of time on my hands. I get about two or three of these calls a week. I've stopped asking them to remove my number and I've stopped attempting to use their "automated system" to remove my number from their records.
I use one of the following options when I don't recognize the phone number calling.
1. If you have a fax machine, you can do this as well: when the call comes in, I press the option on my keypad to speak with a representative. I engage them in a bit of friendly conversation/banter while making my way to my fax machine. This is important: speak very quietly so that they must turn up the volume on their phone to hear you. When I think that I've got them, I hit the "transmit now" button on my fax machine and let it kick in. I love hearing them shriek! When they've hung up, I let the fax machine answer all my calls for the next few hours in case I get any callbacks. All of my friends and family know to use my mobile phone to reach me. My "home" phone (land-line) is for emergency calls.
2. I love to engage them in meaningless, friendly conversation about their job, their name, their location, what they like to do when they're not at work, what's their favorite color, how much they make (they usually won't answer this question), how they commute to work, do they have significant others in their lives, are they married, etc. When they get insistent about getting back to business, I sound hurt and tell them that I like to get to know the people that I do business with. This will, sometimes, get them to relent to more questions: I then ask them questions about their business, what their company is called, if they like what they're doing with their lives, etc. This really extends the call from a few seconds to well over 5-10 minutes. Now, I'm pretty sure these people are paid to wrap things up as quickly as they can -- and I'm sure they are being audited by their supervisors -- so they, usually, start to get antsy and try to get me back into the "swing of things" by returning to the subject of their call. This is when I start in about "finding God," learning how to swim, my last summer vacation, etc. Again, it's filler and it's made-up but they just can't get me back to the subject. Usually, by this point, they hang up. If you waste 10-minutes or more of their time, they usually get into trouble with their supervisors.
3. I love to ask them crazy questions after a little friendly chit-chat. Once, while speaking with a young man, I asked him, quite politely, if he had ever hit someone with a hammer. The man was quiet. I then told him about how my abductor would hurt me and how I wished that I could hit him with a hammer. Usually this ends up either freaking them out. Sometimes, after making strange confessions, I resort to the old fax machine connection (see number one above) to end the call on a high note.
4. Sometimes, for days/weeks at a time, I leave the fax machine to answer all of my calls. Usually ends up quiet for a couple of weeks after that.
5. Sometimes, I push the option to speak with someone and then put the phone down and play some music or a TV show on my computer -- porn works well too.
6. I've saved the best for last: get to a representative and then take them to your bathroom to hear you do your business.
I hope this helps someone out there. I know how frustrating it is. Since our government is innefectual at routing these [***], it's up to us to get creative and make it a sport.
They're never gonna get you to purchase anything or do anything that they want: why not have some fun?
I use one of the following options when I don't recognize the phone number calling.
1. If you have a fax machine, you can do this as well: when the call comes in, I press the option on my keypad to speak with a representative. I engage them in a bit of friendly conversation/banter while making my way to my fax machine. This is important: speak very quietly so that they must turn up the volume on their phone to hear you. When I think that I've got them, I hit the "transmit now" button on my fax machine and let it kick in. I love hearing them shriek! When they've hung up, I let the fax machine answer all my calls for the next few hours in case I get any callbacks. All of my friends and family know to use my mobile phone to reach me. My "home" phone (land-line) is for emergency calls.
2. I love to engage them in meaningless, friendly conversation about their job, their name, their location, what they like to do when they're not at work, what's their favorite color, how much they make (they usually won't answer this question), how they commute to work, do they have significant others in their lives, are they married, etc. When they get insistent about getting back to business, I sound hurt and tell them that I like to get to know the people that I do business with. This will, sometimes, get them to relent to more questions: I then ask them questions about their business, what their company is called, if they like what they're doing with their lives, etc. This really extends the call from a few seconds to well over 5-10 minutes. Now, I'm pretty sure these people are paid to wrap things up as quickly as they can -- and I'm sure they are being audited by their supervisors -- so they, usually, start to get antsy and try to get me back into the "swing of things" by returning to the subject of their call. This is when I start in about "finding God," learning how to swim, my last summer vacation, etc. Again, it's filler and it's made-up but they just can't get me back to the subject. Usually, by this point, they hang up. If you waste 10-minutes or more of their time, they usually get into trouble with their supervisors.
3. I love to ask them crazy questions after a little friendly chit-chat. Once, while speaking with a young man, I asked him, quite politely, if he had ever hit someone with a hammer. The man was quiet. I then told him about how my abductor would hurt me and how I wished that I could hit him with a hammer. Usually this ends up either freaking them out. Sometimes, after making strange confessions, I resort to the old fax machine connection (see number one above) to end the call on a high note.
4. Sometimes, for days/weeks at a time, I leave the fax machine to answer all of my calls. Usually ends up quiet for a couple of weeks after that.
5. Sometimes, I push the option to speak with someone and then put the phone down and play some music or a TV show on my computer -- porn works well too.
6. I've saved the best for last: get to a representative and then take them to your bathroom to hear you do your business.
I hope this helps someone out there. I know how frustrating it is. Since our government is innefectual at routing these [***], it's up to us to get creative and make it a sport.
They're never gonna get you to purchase anything or do anything that they want: why not have some fun?
Comments
We the People need to be more persistent than the crooks are.
Do you notice the increase in complaints here every weekday at the same time?
Anybody getting robo-calls on Saturdays again?