Tips for Handling Telemarketers
Three Little Words That Work!
(1)The three little words are: "Hold On please..."Saying this, while putting down your phone and walking off (instead of hanging-up immediately) would make each telemarketing call so much more time-consuming that boiler room sales would grind to a halt.
Then when you eventually hear the phone company’s” beep-beep-beep" tone, you know it's time to go back and hang up your handset, which has efficiently completed its task. These three little words will help eliminate telephone soliciting.
(2) Do you ever get those annoying phone calls with no one on the other end? This is a telemarketing technique where a machine makes phone calls and records the time of day when a person answers the phone. This technique is used to determine the best time of day for a "real" sales person to call back and get someone at home. What you can do after answering, if you notice there is no one there, is to immediately start hitting your # button on the phone, 6 or 7 times, as quickly as possible This confuses the machine that dialed the call and it kicks your number out of their system. Gosh, what a shame not to have your name in their system any longer!!!
(3) Junk Mail Help:
When you get “ads" enclosed with your phone or utility bill, return these "ads" with your payment. Let the sending companies throw their own junk mail away. When you get those “pre-approved” letters in the mail for everything from credit cards to 2nd mortgages and similar type junk, do not throw away the return envelope. Most of these come with postage-paid return envelopes, right? It costs them more than the regular 24p postage "IF" and when they receive them back. It costs them nothing if you throw them away! The postage was around 29p before the last increase and it is according to the weight. In that case, why not get rid of some of your other junk mail and put it in their postage-paid return envelopes. For example; send an ad for your local chimney cleaner to American Express. Send a pizza coupon to Citibank. If you didn’t get anything else that day, then just send them their blank application back! If you want to remain anonymous, just make sure your name isn't on anything you send them. You can even send the envelope back empty if you want to just to keep them guessing! It still costs them
24p.The banks and credit card companies are currently getting a lot of
Their own junk back in the mail, but folks, we need to OVERWHELM them. Let's let them know what it's like to get lots of junk mail, and best of all they're paying for it...Twice! Let’s help keep our postal service busy since they are saying that e-mail is cutting into their business profits, and that's why they need to increase postage costs again. You get the idea?
If enough people follow these tips, it will work!
THIS JUST MIGHT BE ONE E-MAIL THAT YOU WILL WANT TO FORWARD TO
YOU’RE FRIENDS

This is brilliant, glad to see the UK has as much problem with this as us Yanks. Misery loves company.

Al

Yes, it's a great way to handle these idiots.
I've been doing that for years. Usually (around dinner time), is when they'll call. So I just ask "Can you hold for a moment?"...then I hang up. Works like a charm.

For the junk mail thing, often you will get a SSAE (Self Addressed Stamped Envelope) included, or the postage is pre-paid via bulk mailing, so what I've done, and I might add, not as often any more....is to take the pre-paid envelope, collect a bunch of them, then after a while send them back with some other companies junk offer inside, making sure that at least one of the pieces has my name and address on it. That way, they've had to pay to get someone elses junk mail. It's opened up, they realize what I've done, and also realize that I will continue to do this until I'm off their list(s).
I don't get a whole lotta crap anymore.

I'll post a funny story I've got at home...
It involves the response to some junk mail and the family put their dog's name as the respondent.
He (the dog) ended up with an A+ credit rating, a $15,000 line of credit, scams of all kinds including family tree investigations, and how the dog's ancestors we're notable figures in history, possibly even of royalty decent.Someone would call and ask for the dog (by name) and the kids would tell them "He's out back having a whizz, and that kind of stuff.It's funny reading.

Good posting Graham, I know a lot of people are frustrated by these con artists.

...oops...gotta go...the mail's just arrived...

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...shboom