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Laura's Babies
03-20-2008, 08:19 PM
Lets hear your telemarketing stories! What have you said or done when they call you?

I have answered and they asked if I am the lady of the house, I told them "no" put the phone down and scream "MAMA! PHONE!!!!!" and just sit it down and leave it there until I hear that noise it makes when the call had ended and you need to hang it up.

Other times I have put on some of the most county, country music I had in the house, turned it up and let them listen. (Sometime gospel music)

My boss topped any story I have ever heard. He would act interested and tell them "hang on, there is someone at the door" and be gone awhile, come back and ask if they were still there and if they were, he tells them "sorry but I didn't want you to hang up so hang on, I'll be back!" and go again for while, come back and finally tell them "OK, I can't get rid of these religous nuts so I am fixing to scear the day lights out of them, I am going to hand them my snake, so hang on and listen for their screams!!!" and be gone a long, long time. Usually, by the time he came back they had hung up..

If it was a nice sounding woman, he would start flirting with her, asking her personal PRIVATE stuff, telling her he wants to meet her and could she come over to his house and they have some "fun" together.. He would not let her get in a word edgewise. If that didn't work, then he would tell her he would like to.... ugh, if I say that I should have posted this in the Dog House... But he is a nut and cracked me up telling me the things he has done to them. He sure can make a long car trip a lot of fun!

What are your funny telemarketer stories?

Alysser
03-20-2008, 08:57 PM
I usually don't answer but sometimes I do just for fun. If I start speaking in Spanish most of them hang up. ;)

crazyboutanimals
03-20-2008, 09:06 PM
oh i have got one for ya:

when they call i tell them that i would like to get there name and phone number and call them at home to discuss issues and see if they are interested in what i have to say. :D

**NOW ANYONE UNDER THE AGE OF 18 PLEASE CLOSE YOUR EYES FOR THIS ONE*** :eek: :eek: :eek:

one time a man called and i lowered my voice and started moaning the answers to his questions, he paused ALOT ;) and then i got all high pitched and was like "YES YES YES HUH HUH HUH" and he kept asking questions, i told him to hang on a minute :D and then put the phone up to one of THOSE TAPES ... :eek: :eek: :eek: and you could hear him on the other line say things like " OMG DUDE, listen to this"... and he would start t laugh.. finally he hung up!!! it was tooo funny!!!

chocolatepuppy
03-20-2008, 09:12 PM
The other day a man called from a finance company and wanted to know if we wanted to consolidate all of our bills. I told him "you don't have that much money" :p He hesitated, then laughed and continued on, trying to get me to buy a new car.

Laura's Babies
03-20-2008, 10:25 PM
I knew there were some good ones out there...MORE! MORE! MORE!

Uabassoon
03-20-2008, 11:45 PM
I have a story from the other side! When I was younger I worked for a company that did phone surveys. So I called and a man answered when I asked if he would be interested in the survey he asked me to give him a good reason as to why he should. I explained that I was in college and I needed this job to earn some extra money for school. He then got excited and explained to me that he had a son in college too and if I was interested he could introduce us! The entire survey he kept talking about his son and how I sounded like a nice, hard working girl and we would be great together. His son sounded like a total dork! When his own father describes him as having a "great personality but a few social issues" and is trying to hook you up with a stranger on the phone you know the guy has some problems!

Jessika
03-20-2008, 11:54 PM
When my sister and I were much younger, before the "no-call" list came into play, my parents would get so many telemarketing calls. Normally they'd just give us the phone, because as anyone knows kids looooove talking on the phone to anyone who will listen.

One day my parents were out and I was watchin my sisters when we got one of those infamous calls. When they'd asked if mr or mrs X was home, I started sounding choked up and tried to sound brave and told them my parents had recently been killed in a terrible accident, I forget the details, but the lady sounded very concerned, and sorry for bringing them up and making me upset. Oddly enough after that call we hardly received any more ;)

columbine
03-21-2008, 08:01 AM
I used to love to toy with telemarketers, shouting in a fake Eastern Euro accent and acting like I couldn't understand them. But then I started meeting people who couldn't get any job but telemarketing, and it's just such a lousy situation that I couldn't be rotten to them any more. A lot of the time the working conditions are ridiculous, with supervisors standing over them with stopwatches and only one bathroom break a day allowed.

Now I just say "I never respond positively to telemarketers because it's not a practice I want to encourage," or if it's one of those fake charities, "I never make contributions over the phone," and hang up without wasting any more of their (or my) time. These days most of them have such thick Spanish or Indian accents and such awful connections that I can't understand them anyway.

pitc9
03-21-2008, 09:34 AM
When people call selling meat (like Omaha Steaks) I tell them I'm a Vegetarian. That shuts them up quickly!

shepgirl
03-21-2008, 09:52 AM
Those replies are killing me-------I never know how to get rid of them and sometimes I get so upset when I've jumped out of the shower to answer the phone only to hear a telemarketer's voice. All these hints are going to be so much fun to use...

Carol Bulger1944
03-21-2008, 11:31 AM
Well, once when they called and ask if this was the lady of the house I ask which lady do you want, this is a whore house......They hung the phone up in a hurry!!!!!! I know that sounded bad but it's a quick solutation to the problem

Jessika
03-21-2008, 11:36 AM
Well, once when they called and ask if this was the lady of the house I ask which lady do you want, this is a whore house......They hung the phone up in a hurry!!!!!! I know that sounded bad but it's a quick solutation to the problem
...this is CLASSIC! :D

lvpets2002
03-21-2008, 12:02 PM
;) I have been known to bang the receiver against the table several times.. Usally they hang up then.. :p Also when they ask if I am the person of the house I will say no, but can I have them call you back.. Click they hang up again.. :D

Sirrahsim
03-21-2008, 12:11 PM
Apparently my voice sounds young over the phone because telemarketers would always ask to speak with my Mom or Dad :D Thank goodness for the Do Not Call list!!

Uabassoon
03-21-2008, 12:39 PM
But then I started meeting people who couldn't get any job but telemarketing, and it's just such a lousy situation that I couldn't be rotten to them any more. A lot of the time the working conditions are ridiculous, with supervisors standing over them with stopwatches and only one bathroom break a day allowed.


That's how I feel too. Tucson has a ton of call centers because we have what is considered a neutral accent. They usually pay around $10 per hour which is a good starting rate for a job that requires little to no skills to get hired. Most of the people working there are single moms because it's an easy job and if you don't have an education or a trained skill it's hard to find a job that will pay more than $10 around here.

gini
03-21-2008, 12:42 PM
Even after the Do Not Call list came about, I still get a lot of telemarketing calls.
Because of caller ID, I don't pick them up. But I have reported them on the complaint feature of the Do Not Call list.

My biggest complaint is that I receive a lot of faxes selling stocks, insurance and other things. It bugs me because they are always in huge bold type and use tons of toner to print out. Those little cartridges are expensive!

Once, they gave a fax number for me to use to send something back to them.
I sent their original fax back to them about a dozen times. Haven't heard from them since.

I have reported those too, if there is a phone number to report. It seems to have helped because I receive a lot less of them.

Catlady711
03-21-2008, 01:21 PM
My step mom does a great poor hillbilly accent. I mean like hatfield and mccoy live in a one room shack kinda accent like on tv. She also happens to LOVE to get sales people going. So some guy calls wanting to give her a credit card. She goes on and on asking questions about what you can buy with a credit card and at first the caller gets all excited thinking he's got a sale. Then she hits him with the 'well I don't have any money and the bank won't give me anymore so it would be great if we had a credit card, all that free money would really help because I've got 8 kids (she doesn't) and we just live in this ol' one room shack papa built for us. Wow with a credit card we could even have indoor plumbing.' Usually by this time the sales people hang up on her.

My own mom loves to mess with them too. Once some door to door magazine sales people came to sell her a dozen subscriptions to stuff she doesn't read. So she said she was sorry but since they didn't carry any porn she couldn't possibly subscribe (she don't watch porn BTW). Usually they stammer then leave with very red faces hearing this from a 'nice old lady'. ROFL

She also once got a guy on the phone selling carpeting (she rents mind you). She asked a TON of questions about materials, durability, and instalation services. They answered the questions with enthusiasm and pushed for an instalation date and sale. She said that would be fine with her if they could guarantee installment over a dirt floor. The guy stammered then asked again for clarification before finally hanging up. ROFL

Suki Wingy
03-21-2008, 01:32 PM
We have caller ID but if I do pick up, I usually politley decline then hang up because I feel sorry for them. I hate phones and I can only imagine having to sit around all day and class complete strangers only to be harrased.

RedHedd
03-21-2008, 07:57 PM
I'm on the Do No Call list however I still get telemarketing calls. My first response, my only response to them is "please put me on your do not call list." They are required by law to do so. I almost never get calls anymore. Problem solved

K9karen
03-21-2008, 11:10 PM
Thanks to No Call, I rarely get soliciting calls anymore. But, since I have no backbone (or at least a part of one), and have known people who telemarketed for money while in college, I hate to be rude. I will say, thanks, but no thanks and hang up. One time, I was rude and arrogant and totally pissed and hung up. The guy called me back and yelled at me for hanging up on him! I swear! My friend was sitting right there and we peed ourselves laughing!

AdoreMyDogs
03-22-2008, 12:12 AM
I haven't had time to read all these, but the few I've read have been funny. I don't like to be rude to people, so I can't do anything too rude to the telemarketers. Last year I had a funny idea, some telemarketer was trying to give me a 'free trial' to something. I politely told him I wasn't interested, and he blurted out "you don't want such and such free product?" I then told him, "no, I hate free stuff". He and I both laughed and we hung up. I thought it was funny and I'm sure he hadn't heard that before because it caught him off guard.

I've now got this freeking car warrenty place calling me dozens of times per day and they won't stop and they hang up on me when I ask to be taken off their call list. It's makeing me crazy upset. I've had 5 different telemarketers from that blasted company hang up on me now when I ask to be taken off the call list. I wish I could get that company into trouble but I have no idea what company it is, since they keep hanging up on me. They're trying to sell me an extended warrenty on a car I don't even have...I don't have a Jeep but they insist on trying to sell me extended warranty on it, and when I tell them I don't have a jeep, they just hang up on me....GRRRR!

IRescue452
03-22-2008, 02:20 AM
We get the car warrenty place too several times a day. Sometimes it shows up on the caller ID as a cell phone. They must pay people to work from home and give them phones I swear. I'd love to find out exactly which company this is (scam I'm sure). Next time I might tell them I'm disabled and don't have a car.

If they ever start faxing stuff to us, we'll remove the paper until such time when we need to use the machine and we know who's sending stuff.

Jessika
03-22-2008, 10:25 AM
Yeah the car warranty people... we get letters from them in the mail CONSTANTLY... even for my car... and it's eight years old!! The warranty on that expired before we bought it LOL

Maya & Inka's mommy
03-22-2008, 10:41 AM
I once got a call that went like this:

" Dear lady, you've just won a trip to Marocco!!"
" For free?
" Oh yes!!"
" Nowbody gives away trips just for free!!, so what's the catch??"
" You don't believe me? Why not??"
" Like I said: nobody gives away trips just like that!!"
"This is true, you've one a trip to Morocco!!"
" I don't like Morocco! '

And a month ago;

"Hello, can I speak to your mommy, sweety??"
"I am NOT your sweety sir!!!"
"OK, please give the phone to your mom now!"
me yelling "mooooooommmmmm!!!"
"You really want to speak to her, sir?"
" Yes!"
" She's not answering, sir!!"
" Why not?"
" Because she lives 1 hour away from here, celebrating her 85th birthday :p ;
shall I give you my husband???"
CLICK.....

ramanth
03-22-2008, 06:58 PM
Classic Lut! :D

My friend would don an accent when answering the phone at her parents and would act like a Maid. She'd tell telemarketers about how the Mrs. was on Sabatical or Holiday and wouldn't be home for months. :)