Getting even: The Jolly Roger Telephone Company

[Nihilist74]

Most of the telemarketing calls I get are bots that say I won some free vacation because I stayed in some hotel I never stayed in.

[oxymoronic]

Freedomland corporations sell their customers info forward. Repeating as many times as there's buyers.

yeah they had these crazy things back in the day called phone books.

[Dispraise]

But if they didn't take that job and had to take welfare instead, we would be screaming at them for sitting on their asses instead of earning their way.

Yeah. Pretty much.

[HAcoreRD]

the "do not call list" is the biggest load of BS I signed up for. i typically get 3 spam calls a day. I might not pick up, but my answering machine will, and it's always a robot (now) since the last human I got I verbally berated until he hung up.

[Powerogue]

Do we get a recording of said delicious meltdown?

[Dr Assbandit]

Lately I've been stringing along the "IRS tax scam" guys and at the end when they tell me where to send the money I cuss them out in their own language. Some of them lose it while others actually apologize .

[NoRest4Wicked]

I enjoy getting calls from Microsoft Tech Support saying they noticed my PC has a virus and they need to remote in. You can string them along for a good while if you're bored.

[Poopymonster]

I did Telemarketing in the mid 2000s, from a call center. Selling cell phones over the phone, get people to switch to our carrier.

Official policy: If they say take me off your list, at the end of the call, push D for delete. If they ANYTHING that is not "take me off your list" but do not seem interested, R for recycle, pulling that number for 5 or 6 "cycles" as we go from one call list to the next, to the next, then reinserting into the list. If they express interest or bought something, A for AGAIN(?) next time through that list, they'll be on it.

UNofficial policy, dictated verbally in house by the supervisor. "You don't push D. Lists cost money, shortening the list costs us money. Take me off, they get R. Anything else, A."

People need jobs, and this one had no background check. This did not affect me, but the woman with anger issues (On parole, she almost killed her baby daddy over him not selling enough of something. Oh, she almost beat him to death while he was showering. With her bare hands) needed a job. It paid damn well for entry level/no skill. 10/hr base, if you met their sales numbers which were easy, commission got you 14, sell more, get more.

Nowadays, if I do answer a number not in my contact list and get a telemarketer, I tell them politely I know you're doing your job, I understand, I've been there, but no thank you. Then I hang up. Why waste my time and theirs. I'm not going to take their it out on the caller when it's the shitty company. It's a job.

- - - Updated - - -

the "do not call list" is the biggest load of BS I signed up for. i typically get 3 spam calls a day. I might not pick up, but my answering machine will, and it's always a robot (now) since the last human I got I verbally berated until he hung up.

When I did TM work, from signing up, 3 months until you were on the "DO NOT CALL list". If you gave out info, say credit card application and it asks for home phone? Welcome back, you're fair game again. Anything that you give out your number, BOOM, you're a target again.

[Mormolyce]

I feel a little sorry for the people operating the phones. Must be a terrible job.

I try to just tell them to take me off the list, the less shady ones do. Sometimes if they really piss me off I give them the runaround.

Recently I got a few from some company that employs people with US accents but the call origin is from Stuttgart, offering some kind of share market stuff. I guess I'm in the elite ranks of telemarketing scams now, yay.

Maybe it's just me, but antagonizing telemarketers to get back at telemarketing companies has never seemed like a productive use of my time.

That's why they made a robot to do it :P

[Stelio Kontos]

Ah, tele-molesters. Bottom-feeders are gonna be bottom-feeders.

[Mormolyce]

I enjoy getting calls from Microsoft Tech Support saying they noticed my PC has a virus and they need to remote in. You can string them along for a good while if you're bored.

I had a few of those, oddly enough they refused to say they were from Microsoft. I pressed them on what the name of their company was and they said some random company name, but that they "supported Windows".

[PersephoneDankles]

Being on wallfare is less of a stigma than being one of the Telemarketers.

Having been a telemarketer, I feel like people on welfare contribute more to society then I ever did in that position.

[kail]

How to avoid telemarketers in one easy step:

Don't answer calls from numbers you don't recognize.

I should sell this idea.

My mother would be out of business. I might not have the job I have today. If I'm busy, I'll ignore unknown numbers. But there are times where I am expecting calls from others whose numbers aren't saved.

IMHO, telemarketing and door-to-door selling/soliciting should be illegal. There are plenty ways to advertise yourself, no need to disrupts individuals through calls and door knocks.

[aviger]

Get a google number, set it so people have to say their name before it connects them and you never get those calls again.
They simple go into the spam folder and your phone doesn't even ring, very rarely a computer gets through but its been great