How To Stop Telemarketers From Calling You
Do you get Telemarketers calling you most nights trying to sell you a produce or saying that you have one a free holiday if you signup to their product? Are you sick of these people because they always interrupt you while watching TV or cooking dinner? If you answered yes to any of the above questions, read on to find out how get them to stop calling you.
I was reading a blog post from List and Notes and their solution was for you to tell the telemarketer that they have to speak to “Fred” (or some other fictional name), but say Fred is away for a few weeks, and they can only speak to Fred about this matter.
Although this solution may work, they are still going to call you back when they think Fred is back. So here’s another alternative so they will not call you back.
If this method didn’t work, I won’t be telling you it, but it does. I used to get at least 3 calls a week, now I don’t get any and I have tried this on 2 phone numbers that did get a lot of telemarketing calls.
So what is the trick?
The trick is pretty simple. All you have to do is follow a simple rule: “Don’t hang-up on them, make them hang-up on you”
How you get them to hang-up is up to you, but don’t be disrespectful and blow a whistle into the phone – they are human beings just doing their job.
Below are a couple of ways to get telemarketers to hang-up on you. For this to work and to get the best results, you need to be bored or have a lot of free time. So here we go:
- Say you can’t hear them so they have to repeat themselves
- Keep saying hello when you answer and say you can’t hear them, anyone there?
- Act as you are dumb and have no idea what they are talking about
- Have a huge delay when you respond to them
- Transfer your call to different people in your house and get the telemarketer to repeat what they are saying to everyone – like what your phone company does when you have a problem. Keep going around in circles until the caller gives up
- Make them feel that they have a sale and that you are interested in what they are offering and drag the conversation on for a while, then just turn around and say I already have that and make them hang-up because they wasted so much time
- When they sell you a phone deal (or some other sort of deal), say that your with one of their competitors on a really great (but realist deal) that they cannot beat. Always ask “Can you beat XX plan?”
- If they say you have won a holiday, say your already on holiday and your phone’s diverted, or even say that you own your own holiday resort better then what they are offering
- If they say you have won something and they are about to say “but… you have to do this first”, interrupt them, scream and cheer to your family that you have won a holiday and how it will change your life because you are really poor – make them feel bad
- Say you’ll get someone who can help you, do something for a minute and come back to them saying that person isn’t there. Depending on their response, try and find someone else
- Say you’ll get someone else who to take their call because you think like they will enjoy what the telemarketer is offering, and pretend to have a really loud (maybe abusive) argument about something and make sure the telemarketer can hear you
- Play a pre-reordered message to them selling a product of your own
- Do some self-promotion of your own website, products, blogs etc
- Ask them a lot of questions about what they are offering, hard ones if you know the topic in detail and try to make them think
- Ask them stupid questions that are plain ridiculous
- Ask them how their day was, have they made any sales, how you can become a telemarketer just like them because their job is so cool
- Every couple of seconds, press a button on your telephone to make a beeping sound
- Ask for their contact details
- Get them to take up the offer and say you will only take it up if they take it up first. If they are selling you a cruise and they say they will take it, tell them to get off the phone and pack their bags right away
- Speak a different language of gibberish
- Keep sneezing (faking it of course) and get them to repeat themselves
- Change your voice pitch all the time from high to low
- Ask them “Do you know who I am” and pretend that you are a really famous person
- Tell the telemarketer you are interested and that you are going to get a pen and then just leave the phone off the hook for a while – By Joachim
- Tell them they are in violation of Department of Defense regulation 16A or some random number and that this constitutes a federal offense and that they will be contacted shortly by the FBI for having a secure number – Ken
- Answer the phone pretending you are from some telephone chat line where the caller gets charged $2 per minute – Deanna
- Act as you are a hostage negotiator and aim to get the telemarketer to release the hostages – Deanna
Update: Since I got mentioned on LifeHacker, here are a few of LifeHackers readers suggestions
- If they ask you a question and they expect your answer to be yes, say no or the opposite. If for example they ask “Do you want to go on a free holiday”, say “I hate holidays, I just want to be worked to death” or “I wish we could eat Panda bears to extinction – they look tasty”. It makes them confused and adds to your enjoyment – By Teaman
- A trick I learned from a mate was to let them rant on so you seem interested. Then at the end you say in your creepiest seduction voice “before we proceed further with the deal, I have one question…. what are you wearing?” – By Xavier
- Try the Seinfeld approach – When you first answer tell them you are busy but interested and how long will they be at work for. Then say you wont be available to talk to untill they finish work. Ask them for their home number and say you will give them a call (when they will be having dinner). Of course they don’t like to do that which means you can say in your sincerest voice ‘oh i understand, you dont want people calling you at home’ to which they always say ‘yes’ and you can say ‘well now you know how i feel’ and hang up – By Mark
- Ask for their ABN, or other business contact information. They freak out and hang up on you – By Jake D
- My favourite technique is to pretend they’ve called to buy something off me. I go into a sales pitch and start blabbing on about how I can help them and ask them to clarify exactly what it is their company is looking for. It totally bamboozles the poor telemarketer. The start arguing, trying to explain they are the ones selling and it’s all I can do to keep from dying in fits of laughter – By Travis Y
- Ask where they got your contact information from and make it sound like they broke a federal law and will be personally liable for contacting you – By B8two
The whole aim with the above is to get the telemarketer frustrated so they hang-up on you. If you do this a couple of times to them, in a couple of months they will get frustrated from calling you and will give up. If they suspect another time they may make a sale off you, they’ll keep calling you back.
Have you tried this before? Has it worked for you? Do you have any other methods that have worked? Share your stories.
As most telemarketters are immediately transferred to the next person that’s picked up their auotmated dial outs as soon as the current call is finished, the best thing to do is to use up as much of their valuable time as possible, thereby hitting their revenue.
The simplest and easiest thing to do is just respond to their initial query with something like “I am very interested, let me just grab a pen” and then place the handset on the side (preferably on mute) and leave it there. Thinking they have a sale they’ll hang on for quite a while before they give up. As most marketters are on commision this is by far the best way to deal with them.
With a call ended quickly they’re right back in the game with someone else as soon as you put down the phone – tying them up needlessly is far better. So simply waste their time whilst NOT impacting on yours at all and don’t bother spending 5 minutes pretending you can’t hear them etc.
Simple and effective.
I have done the endless hold before, sometimes they hang up and call back!! #1 that has worked for me is to keep asking ” why” in as many different ways as possible (why or what for?), it frustrates them to no end!!
Honestly the tactics I find here that you all are using are utterly appaling! Have you never stood up for yourself and told some one you weren’t interested and to remove you from a call list? This is a legal procedure; CERTAINLY better than being an idiot and ignoring them or playing these games. You all are NOT children; and trust me; telemarketers or any one calling you for that matter do care about their time. There is NO reason to waste time or “revenue” as you all put it; even though this doesn’t do either of both. Just be an ADULT and SPEAK FOR YOURSELF!!
Kevin,
I see that there is two types of telemarketing calls (my point of view as an Australian)
Those who call within Australia with a legitimate product or service that I may be somewhat interested in, or from a business I know (E.g a Utility companies), and where I can actually understand the person.
And those who say I have won a free trip if I spend $XX dollars are go to some uninteresting seminar, and getting the call from someone who I can’t even understand who does not seem to be located in Australia.
Kevin, this post is for the later example. If a telemarker calls me and says I have won a trip somewhere, there is a catch that would ‘waste my time’, I’m going to waste their time, and have some childish fun along the way (as like other commenters here do).
Hi Joachim,
That’s another great and effective way if you are really busy with things. Sometimes it can take a while for you to actually be able to say anything because they just keep talking telling you what they have to offer, so you have to wait a bit.
When that happens, don’t hang up. Like you said, just tell them your interested and getting a pen.
I will add your suggestion to the list. Thanks again for your comment.
You could also simply wait for a break in their speech and just say “We’re not interested, thanks, bye” BUT that doesn’t guarantee that they won’t call you back…
I’ve done the “can’t hear you thing” and I felt quite cruel doing it (and I really pissed off the telemarketer).
Good/amusing suggestions nonetheless.
Thanks for your comment Shehan!
I would probably say most people would say”We’re not interested”. I think that if you keep saying your not interested, they will ring back (or another company will ring you back) selling you something else.
The theory is that telemarketers share their information, so if they know a number gives them crap and wastes time, theyƒ??ll take you off their list and others.
Pissing of the telemarketer is a good thing – but have fun doing it in an amusing fashion.
I just turn the fax on myself.
Oh yes. Great idea!
No one can stand those fax noises – or you can dial out through your dial-up modem for those who still use them.
Thanks for the comment Glenn 😀
I usually try to convince them that I’m the great taco, Quetzalcoatl. 😀
Does it work? What is their reaction usually like?
give the phone to the 2 year old.
Haha, nice one.
“Let me just put you on the phone who will be able to help you out further”
One called me recently. Selling some, umm, video’s or somethin.
I love pissing off telemarketers!
I started speaking in spanish!
“Hola senor! como estas?”
OMG u should have been there! It Totally creeped the heck outta him!
You can try speaking in Any language, EXCEPT the one they are speaking in. I spoke in Japanese once, that worked too. lolz! ;-))
Haha, nice one. Just hope that they don’t know that language, otherwise it would be a bit awkward.
Okay, so let me tell you a real way to get telemarketers to stop calling you for good! Since I am an actual telemarketer…all these things do work, for a few days. And yes its annoying as hell but when I hear a baby or someone walks away from the phone or you hang up or start playing with us. Basically I hang up and put you on the call back list for a few days later…so really youre not winning.
Best thing to do is to say this; “put me on the do not call list” this is a list that were not allowed to call at all. this is the only thing that will really work. or just say you’re not interested.
My favourite:
Answer phone them get them to hold on while you talk to an imaginary person in the room. Say things like “Make sure you fingerprint the axe-handle” and “get a sample of that blood”. Now address the caller and advise them you are a police detective and they have called a residence where a homicide has occurred. Demand to know their name, location, contact details and whether they can account for their whereabouts over the last 24 hours. They’ll probably hang up about now.
Hi Sarah,
That is an awesome one. Next time a telemarketer calls me, I am going to try that one. But it’s a pity, after I published this post, I haven’t had any telemarketers call me 🙁 It’s such a disappointment.
DO NOT impersonate a law enforecementofficer, it is a felony. yes i spelled it wrong- So?
The only problem I’ve had with this approach is the telemarketer says “Let me transfer you.” And then my call is ended.
There really is no good way to prevent calls, except to use the national do not call registry. This stops many, but not all calls.
And no matter what game you try to play, they will call you back in 3 months.
I like to let the call roll over to voice mail, then call the number back to see if I can be removed from the list. Sometimes it works.
OP writes “donƒ??t be disrespectful and blow a whistle into the phone ƒ?? they are human beings just doing their job.”
Then proceeds to list a whole bunch of techniques which are both disrespectful *and* designed to waste the telemarketers time on the job (and cost them money). Now, if you think telemarketers are scum, then fine. But if you claim to respect them, most of these methods contradict that claim.
Personally I try to waste as little of their time as possible (based on the notion they’re fellow human beings trying to make a living), so I just use a very emphatic “No, I’m not interested”. If that doesn’t work, I say “I’m going to hang up now”, then hang up.
I recommend you try something like that before leaving them hanging while you go have a coffee, etc.
Hi Robert, thanks for your comment.
I understand where you are coming from. What I meant by blowing a whistle is that doing so can physically hurt the person on the other end of the line – and most of them wear head pieces, which are could be hard to take off, and could potentially deafen them.
I used to get called multiple times a week, and it frustrated me, as it wastes my time picking up the phone and having a waste less chat. I did these methods, and over a couple of months, the calls drastically reduced to a few a month, if not less. If I waste their time, they’re not going to call back again and waste their time. That’s the point of this list.
With people being telemarketers, they’re just doing there job, and probably don’t care (if they’re on a hourly rate), but I would assume, most of them will be paid per conversion. If I waste 5 minutes of their time, it’s no different to any other job. For example, clients ringing you up all the time because of tiny problems, driving to clients premises and stuck in traffic because of road works, deleting all your spam emails, paper work – they are all things that waste people time caused by other people. Plus, how much time do they waste waiting for someone to pick up a phone, or how much time I wait when they call me and say, your call is now in a queue, please stay on the line.
Plus, some people may find it to simply just hang up on someone while they’re talking – I find that pretty rude as well.
The situation can be looked at in many different ways, and your opinion and my opinion would be different because of our different past experiences about receiving telemarketing calls.
I do see your angle that you are coming from, but I hope you also see mine. Thanks again for your comment.
I get at least three calls a day. When I answer I say hello then get into my own telemarketing pitch that I still remember from 20 years ago. It goes like this…”do you heat your home with oil or gas?” It throws them off and sometimes they even answer me. When they do I try and make an appointment for one of our gas technicians to come to their home to talk about a gas conversion.
The telemarketers always end up hanging up.
Hi Jill, you haven’t found that your calls have been decreasing by doing this all the time?
And I am sure everyone would like to know, did you actually get an appointment booking with someone?
worked in a telemarketing office before
note to be taken guys & girls
telemarketer dont like their jobs as well, but it pays the bills, so try not to be rude to them and be civil about it.
but for scammers on the other hand…everything is a fair game.
😮 I have told my wife, when they ask for me, to say is that SOB out of Prison again
just go to your country’s do not call website and register your number done.
How boring and unimaginative is that? At least this way, you can have some fun to lighten up a boring day.
I keep getting a repeat scammer, something about my computer… The only thing that has worked so far is:
“sorry, just a moment I need to change the tape on the voice recorder”
I’ll keep you posted…. This guy/group has been calling every day for quite a while…
Well hopefully they will give up calling you, or they have no CRM system what-so-ever, so they probably don’t even know they’ve called you so many times.
Doesn’t work. I have the same company calling me at least once a week to help me with my credit card interest rate, and I don’t have a credit card. My # has been on the dnc list for years. When you try to call the telemarketer back, it is a non-working #. Caller ID spoofers I guess.
thanks
😀
1st time they call… tell them to take your name off of their list. They won’t…. save their number in your phone as “scammer” with a distinctive ring. Next time they call answer…”_________ county (make up a name or use your county name) sheriff’s department” (like a prick cop would)and when they question you, get a little louder and a little more prickish…” No this is the ____________ county sheriff’s department what are you calling for?!?!?!?” This actually works and I had one guy get extremely nice and apologize for calling!! And it was a call from a company notorious for calling over and over again!
Haha – nice idea!
DON’T BE A JERK. Just say that you are not interested and be polite. The people who call you are people-just like you- and are very possibly stuck doing the job to put bread on the table. Treat others the way that YOU would want to be treated with dignity and respect. IF you don’t want them to call you, then just ask them not to call. Better yet put your name on the list http://www.donotcall.gov & you should not get as many calls. Remember, if you play crappy games with people, then you karmically, you are likely to have that negativity come back to you. Just be nice.
For regular calls I see your point. But when they fake multiple phone numbers and call over and over even qfter being told not to…they’re fair game.
Good point. Just like Kay’s comment below.
My favorite way to toy with a telemarketer is to tell them that they have contacted a military installation’s alert telephone, I then proceed to tell them they are in violation of Department of Defense regulation 16A or some random number and that this constitutes a federal offense and that they will be contacted shortly by the FBI for having a secure number. This usually causes them to panic and hang up, I can honestly say that I usually never hear from them again.
Haha, what a great idea! Adding this to the list.
and you do know that it is illegal to use a federal govt. office as a presumption like that? seriously grow up!
You’re probably right Kevin, but the caller would probably be too scared than to report it. Like you said in another comment here, telemarketers do worry about there time, so they have no time to report it as they are calling people to annoying them about free boat cruises to make a sale.
I donƒ??t know about you but if there is one thing that really pisses me off its those stupid calls I get when Iƒ??ve come home from a hard days work and all I want to do is sit down and relax.
Those damn telemarketers always pick the worst time to ring. Iƒ??m either having dinner with the family or Iƒ??m watching a great movie on TV. Well Iƒ??m not putting up with it anymore and if youƒ??re an Aussie you donƒ??t have to either. 😮
By entering your numbers of the governments Do Not Call Register you can reduce them a whole heap. Donƒ??t forget to enter your mobile numbers as well. Too bad registering wonƒ??t stop calls from political parties, but then you canƒ??t have everything can you?
I have gotten a few to stop calling me by using these 😀
1) answer the phone with something like this, “Hello, you have reached Saucy Sally’s Sex Chat Line. Please wait a moment while you are transferred to a live Saucy Sally operator. You will be charged 2 dollars per minute for the rest of this conversation…” You can make it a psychic hotline or really anything that involves being charged. They Hang Up! after all they’re trying to make money not lose it!
or
2) I have also acted as if I was a hostage negotiator, and tried to get the telemarketer to release the hostages by saying something like, “Ok, the Johnson’s have your money…they delivered it just like you asked…release the children!”
I once even pretended to be my countys police department LOL
But as of recently I have this number calling my phone asking for my personal information and when I hang up and call back I get the “This number has been disconnected” bullcrap!!! So annoying! 🙁
Nice responses Deanna! Love’em
not nice actually Jack; its flat out rude; and so is your advice. Sorry but i’m just telling the truth. Its not that hard to stop people from calling you REALLY!
Like you said, this is my advice. People have the option to take advice or dismiss it. Some people on here have taken this advice, and even have added their own methods that they’d like to share, and some people reject this advice (like yourself).
It also depends when they ring. I could be bored at home by myself, and they ring and I want a little entertainment, or I could be busy and say, don’t call me a gain, take me off your list.
were you born yesterday mr condescending? telemarketers are lying scumbags and will not take you off their list while reassuring you that they will..
Sorry, but I see no reason to be civil to these people. I used to be polite to them, but not anymore. If they don’t want to hear irate responses from people who don’t want to be called, they should get a real job. Bottom line is they don’t listen and don’t stop calling. When they start being civil to me I’ll start being civil to them. I got seven calls today from telemarketers/scammers that I’ve repeatedly told to stop calling. Screw them.
Yes, Meekay, you get to a point where you just get fed up. Sorry to the person who got the blame, from everyone previously calling.
When you receive a phone call with no one on the other end, this is a telemarketing technique, where a machine makes phone calls to record the time of day when a person answers at that number. This determines for the telemarketer the best time of day for a “real” salesperson to call back. What you can do after answering, if you notice there is no one there, is to immediately start hitting your pound (#) button on the phone, six or seven times as quickly as possible. This confuses the machine that dialed the call and kicks your number out of their system.
Thanks for the tip
Some of you are seriously messed up. How can you be sympathetic to the telemarketers? Should we be sympathetic to the guy stealing and selling organs on the black market because “he is just trying to make a living”? No, what 99% of these people are doing is unethical and ILLEGAL.
I would gladly gut them like a fish if I could get my hands on these scammers through the phone. I am going to get a whistle and hopefully I can do some permanent damage to the worthless pile of scum that decides to illegally call my number for the 100th time.
I always try to be polite because I know their jobs suck and a lot of them probably are having trouble finding other work…
However, I have a bit of a horror story. This one particular number has been calling me well over a year now, four times a day, some days 10+ times! I answered after a month and asked politely for them to add me to their no call list. The lady was very apologetic and obliged. I received no calls… for two weeks. It started again, and got worse. I answered after another month and the process repeated. By the third time, I again politely told the woman that my number had been added to the “no call” list TWICE already and she proceeded to YELL into the phone that I needed cable and then scheduled a technician to come set it up for me, after I told her I can’t afford it and wasn’t interested anyway because my family doesn’t watch television nor have time, that being beside the fact that I already told them not to call me. She began screaming at me and I had to hang up on her because I couldn’t even get a word in after that. The calls stopped for about a month, but started up again recently. Today they called me 6 times in a 4 hour span. I’m going crazy. I mean, if a person called me that often after I had repeatedly told them never to bother me again, I could probably file some kind of harassment charges. But since this is a company, I’m not sure what to do. I’m at my wits’ end here. I really want to do the right thing and be polite, but this is insane! 6 times a day, every day?! Sometimes more? That’s so screwed up. I’m considered going into the physical building and politely but firmly refusing to leave until they fix this problem. Not sure what else I can do.
Hi Kay, what a horror story.
Have you tried some of these tatics?
Is it the same person that keeps calling you, or a different person every time?
It’s strange that you keep getting calls. I would have thought the company would have known by now not to waste any more resources call you.
Did you want to name and shame the company?
Maybe you can contact your phone provider and ask them to block any incoming calls from that particular number.
You can actually file charges against them, even though they are a company. I suggest contacting your local Sheriffs Department (through the non-emergency number) for the proper procedures. They will get a writ and subpoena the telephone companies records. From there they will proceed with harassment charges.
Thanks for your useful comment!
just take me off the telemaketer
I hate these telemarketers and scumbags. Iam glad to be directed in this website and I’ll try some that I haven’t tried yet. For the past 8 hours, I have been answering phone calls and even got the shock of my life that for them not to call me back is to pay them just beause I am cancelling an order I didn’t make!! It is aggravating but like what you said, the only thing to deal with these people is to be bored and spare a lot of time. For like 3 hours since, they haven’t called back and I asked them not to since I registered my number to the do not call registry thing which is true. It’s like being held up in the comforts of your home. This will only stop if telephone providers would give their subscribers an added feature over their basic services the option of being listed or unlisted in the phone book. So frustrating.
Hopefully after registering for the Do Not Call Register, you haven’t gotten any calls.