Tips On Avoiding Telemarketers

See also: Tips On Avoiding Telemarketers

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Tips

One way to avoid getting telemarketing calls is to completely change your phone number and pay the fee for a non-published listing.
Many people consider this to be a rather drastic course of action, since other legitimate callers may not be aware of the change and a number of personal documents will have to be updated.
The advantage of having a new, unlisted phone number is that you won't be included in a list of potential customers called the phone book.
Many telemarketing calls are generated by professional telemarketing companies moving methodically through numerous phone books.
This also includes removing your name from Internet-based phone directories, some of which obtain private phone numbers through other public sources besides the phone company.

A device known as a Telezapper® attaches to the main phone line and sends out an electronic tone to the incoming telemarketing call.
Many telemarketing companies use a number-generating computer to initiate telemarketing calls. Once the dialing process is complete, a human telemarketer takes over to make the sales pitch.
The Telezapper® sends out a tone which tells the computer your number has been disconnected. This not only terminates the call, but also puts your number on a list of other disconnected or non-existent phone numbers.

Many consumer advocacy groups recommend contacting a national "do not call" list in order to protect yourself against unsolicited telemarketing calls.
This usually involves visiting a government-sponsored website or calling a toll-free number. Once your phone number has been registered with a national "do not call" listing service, you should not receive telemarketing calls for five years after activation.
If you do receive unsolicited telemarketing calls, you can report the caller and they could face fines for every protected phone number they call. You may also be able to ask individual telemarketers to place you on a "preferred calling" list, which may sound counter-intuitive at first, but unless you ask specifically to be put on that list, you could continue to receive telemarketing calls from that company.

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.

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 !!!

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 37 cents postage "IF" and when they receive them back.
It costs them nothing if you throw them away! The postage was around 50 cents before the last increase and it is according to the weight. In that case, why not get rid of --79.119.212.153 12:54, 13 April 2008 (EDT)some

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 37 cents.
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 !