"We're Not Telemarketers..."

[Butter]

...Because we're not selling anything over the phone.

 

This is what a telemarketer said to me last night.  The same one has been calling for a couple months.  We told them not to call back, but we're within the legal time range where they can keep calling.  Last night I said, "We don't do business with telemarketers."  He paused and then said, "We're not telemarketers because we're not selling anything over the phone.  I'm trying to set up an appointment to send someone to your house.  It will be the salesman who comes to your house who will be selling to you.  That's very different."

 

Face palm.

 

I shouldn't be surprised.  A woman from the same company a couple weeks ago asked me what the definition of a telemarketer was and was shocked that that's what she was doing.

 

I told them to never, ever call back.  We'll see if they do.

 

The most annoying part is they spoof the phone number on the Caller ID so it looks like it is coming from a San Antonio cell phone.  People at church have their numbers come up on Caller ID like that all the time so I can't just ignore the calls completely in case it's one of them.

[Jyhwkmama]

You could let them leave a message. A church friend will leave a message and you can return it.

[Monica_in_Switzerland]

Sometimes when a telemarketer calls, and I'm in a bad mood, I do a few "uh huh, uh huh" and then I just set the phone down and see how long they will keep talking.

 

I HATE telemarketing.

[Jean in Newcastle]

A company that spoofs calls doesn't care if they are obeying laws or not.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[zoobie]

nomorobo.com has cut down telemarketing calls so much! I love that service.

[Butter]

You could let them leave a message. A church friend will leave a message and you can return it.

 

I don't have voicemail.  I despise voicemail.  I never check it so there's no point in having it.

[goldberry]

 

 

The most annoying part is they spoof the phone number on the Caller ID so it looks like it is coming from a San Antonio cell phone.  People at church have their numbers come up on Caller ID like that all the time so I can't just ignore the calls completely in case it's one of them.

 

I HATE that!  We have also had calls that show up with our own name and phone number...  Every time that happens I yell "The call is coming from inside the house!" ;)

[Garga]

Oh, they're told to say that and probably hate their lives right now. 

 

Try to get them to stop calling, but if they keep calling cut them off as soon as you can and say, "I am not interested in anything you're offering and I don't want to waste your time, so I'm going to hang up now," and gently hang up the phone.  They'll be talking as you push the "off" button, but at least they'll know to move on to the next victim customer.  

[kiana]

I don't even try to wait for a chance to cut them off, I just hang up. Literally because they won't. stop. talking. I know it's their sales pitch and they're just trying to hold a job, but I'm not going to waste my time and theirs waiting for a chance to tell them I'm not interested. 

[goldberry]

I don't even try to wait for a chance to cut them off, I just hang up. Literally because they won't. stop. talking. I know it's their sales pitch and they're just trying to hold a job, but I'm not going to waste my time and theirs waiting for a chance to tell them I'm not interested. 

 

I usually just say it while they are still talking "We're not interested but thank you for calling" no pausing, do not wait for response, hang up the phone.

 

I feel slightly better than just hanging up in the middle, because I know they might not even realize I hung up and then feel really stupid. (My first job was telemarketing long distance back in the 80s.) 

[Seasider]

You could let them leave a message. A church friend will leave a message and you can return it.

This is what I do. It's annoying, but I never pick up a number that I haven't already associated a contact with. They will have to leave a message to get a hold of me.

 

Also, before I call anybody back and if there was no message left, I will Google the number. Often it shows up as a call from a telemarketer source and I then just block that number.

Edited April 20, 2017 by Seasider

[Lanny]

We have a rule in our house, that if someone calls and says they are in a bank, or elsewhere, that we must assume they are calling for criminal reasons. If we call the phone number of a bank, we know that we called a bank. If someone calls us and says they are in a bank, we have no idea of whether or not that's true. We have a rule we do not give out any information (our names, etc.) to people who call. We must assume they are calling for criminal purposes.  Is your phone number on the "No Call" list? When we first got the magicJack (which has a phone number in the USA) I picked it up a couple of times and those were telemarketing calls.  I added our magicJack phone number to the No Call list.  The deception with them spoofing phone numbers in your caller ID should be, if it isn't, illegal.  They say they are not Telemarketers but that they are trying to set up an appointment for a Salesperson to visit your house. That's the same kind of hard sell you would get if you stayed in a Timeshare and they try to get you to attend a presentation. Each person involved gets a lot of $ if they make a sale. Tell them NEVER to call your phone number again and then  hang up!

[Butter]

Is your phone number on the "No Call" list? 

 

Yup and it has been for almost 4 years since we got it.  There are ways around it, though, and the telemarketers use it.  We've even had one pretend to be doing a survey making it "legal" for them to call (it was clear very quickly the survey was just to get you to listen and answer and then move on to their sales thing).

 

Given how the woman reacted and how this guy last night responded, I'm pretty sure the company they work for tells them they are not telemarketers because they are not selling anything directly by phone.  When I google the name of the company they said they are with I get a protein powder place.  They're not.  They're trying to get people to take out a loan from them to put solar panels on their house and then pay the loan back by selling the electricity made with the solar panels to the company so they can sell the electricity to the electric company.

[DawnM]

That would make me mad.  But I hate salespeople.  

[DesertBlossom]

While I try really hard to be honest in general, I have no problem lying to telemarketers. If you can find out what they want and disqualify yourself, they will stop calling. If they want to talk to someone over 18, tell them you're only 16. Do they want to know if the homeowner is available? You're just the renter and the homeowner doesn't live there. Are they wanting you to refinance your mortgage? You JUST paid it off. Computer problems? You don't even own a computer.

 

I worked at a couple telemarketing places in college. (It was awful) We had a series of questions we had to get through to find out if the person we were calling fit the profile we needed. If they didn't, we HAD to let them go. And, it took their name off our list. If they just hung up on us, their number went back into rotation for later. But if the person didn't fit the profile that we needed, we quit calling. So now I use that strategy to my advantage.

Edited April 20, 2017 by DesertBlossom

[DesertBlossom]

Yup and it has been for almost 4 years since we got it. There are ways around it, though, and the telemarketers use it. We've even had one pretend to be doing a survey making it "legal" for them to call (it was clear very quickly the survey was just to get you to listen and answer and then move on to their sales thing).

 

Given how the woman reacted and how this guy last night responded, I'm pretty sure the company they work for tells them they are not telemarketers because they are not selling anything directly by phone. When I google the name of the company they said they are with I get a protein powder place. They're not. They're trying to get people to take out a loan from them to put solar panels on their house and then pay the loan back by selling the electricity made with the solar panels to the company so they can sell the electricity to the electric company.

Tell them you rent and you're not allowed to make any changes like this to the property.

[Sammish]

nomorobo.com has cut down telemarketing calls so much! I love that service.

 

I second this - I love nomorobo! For those who don't know: it's free, and the way it works is that if it detects that the same number is calling a bunch of different people at the same time, it automatically rejects it. So the phone at your house will ring once, and then stop. 

 

We've had it for months, and I still grin every time the phone rings just one. Haha, got you! (I had it happen 5 times this morning alone. And yes, we're on the incredibly useless Do Not Call List). There are still a few that get through, but it's so, so much better.