When hanging up is the best revenge

Boston Herald ^ | 10/01/03 | A Boston Herald editorial

[kattracks]

Fifty million Americans can't be wrong.
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The appeal of a do-not-call list aimed at commercial telemarketers is obviously enormous nationwide, just as it was when it went into effect here in Massachusetts. (Those who signed up for the Massachusetts list were automatically entered into the federal data base.)

It's hardly surprising that the industry is challenging the new law at every opportunity and using every legal remedy at its disposal.

Congress moved quickly in the the wake of one federal court decision, clarifying that yes indeed, the Federal Trade Commission has the authority to set up the list that could lead to fines for telemarketers.

President Bush signed that bill into law Monday saying, ``The public is understandably losing patience with these unwanted phone calls, unwanted intrusions. Given a choice, Americans prefer not to receive random sales pitches at all hours of the day. The American people should be free to restrict these calls.''

It does seem a fairly basic right - to be free from such intrusions. Ah, but one man's intrusion is obviously another's free speech. And so yet another federal court case looms over the broader issue of whether by choosing up sides - by exempting charities and political calls - the government has put its heavy thumb on the supposedly well-balanced scales of justice. That one could take some time to sort out.

But Yale Law School professor Ian Ayres, writing in yesterday's New York Times, proposed an intriguing market-based solution, allowing the government to use an intermediary - such as phone companies - to offer families the telephone ``filter'' of their choice. Some could opt to allow charity calls through, others pollsters, and still others could make commercial telemarketers pay for their time with a kind of reverse 900-number.

Clearly consumers are mostly just furious at these intrusions and at the telemarketing industry for defending them. If the law is not allowed to stand, hanging up may prove to be the best revenge.

[Jeff Chandler]

On the one hand, access to my phone line by others is not protected free speech. On the other, they can only bother you if you let them. We don't answer the phone during meals or other busy times, but rather let our answering machine do the screening. We can hear if someone leaves a message, and choose to pick the line up or not depending on the urgency of the call. When I do pick up a call from a telemarketer, I just say "No, thank you." and hang up. Problem solved.

[EuroFrog]

I have lived in Germany for the past 3 years, have not once had a call from a telemarketer, its great! Am moving back Stateside in February, can anyone tell me, do telemarketers abuse cell phone numbers too?

[marsh2]

I know that they say if you have crank calls, you are supposed to blow a whistle in the handset to hurt the caller's ears. Is that kosher if it is just a telemarketer?

[ETERNAL WARMING]

What about our rights to privacy? WE pay for the phone. WE pay the bill each month. And we do so for friends and family and emergencies. I don't see how their lame "free speech" entitles them to cancel out my privacy.

[Jeff Chandler]

...you are supposed to blow a whistle in the handset to hurt the caller's ears.

The telemarketer is just some schmuck trying to earn a living. Try instead the seven magic words "Please take my name off your list."

[BJungNan]

If the law is not allowed to stand, hanging up may prove to be the best revenge.

Much more effective method than this. It is called an air horn. A couple of good blasts in the mouth piece and mysteriously the telemarketer is no longer on the line.

[ladyinred]

Hanging up has always been an option, of course, but that is not the point. The very act of a ringing phone intruding into my life while cooking, dining, or doing anything else normal in life makes me crazy. When it is a telemarketer, I am even more irritated! If I want to buy a product, I will either go to the store, or go online at my own leisure. Otherwise, leave me alone!

[Squantos]

When these folks call I just tell em thanks , not interseted and hang up. They call back (rude mode on) I get em a few ways. I sit the phone down untill I hear the beep beep beep of a line left off the hook. They call back I do it again....... (My part in keepin em busy and of somebody elses butt for a while).

After that I go into my best Bevis & Butthead voice and ask the perky little sales girl what she's wearing...........Only time I ever felt really bad afterwards was when a (supposedly) blind guy from lighthouse for the blind tried to sell me lightbulbs and I demanded to know how he knew if they worked ?

Stay Safe and keep calling and mailing mailing all these judges who say it's unconstitutional to stop telemarketers..................:o)

[cricket]

"Is that kosher if it is just a telemarketer?"

Sorry, definitely not kosher. I hate the intrusions as much as anyone; but there are easier and yes, polite ways of handling these calls.

Rudeness to me is kind of like a poison; and you cannot use it, without getting some on your own hands.

[Vigilantcitizen]

Sometimes, when I have the time and am feeling especially vindictive, I let the caller make his pitch, try and make inane small talk , make the caller think I'm THIS close to falling for whatever scam they are pitching, and then ...click.

[Keith in Iowa]

>>...do telemarketers abuse cell phone numbers too?

It has been my experience that they don't - but the only people who have my cell number are related to me, or my employer.

[Fledermaus]

On the one hand, access to my phone line by others is not protected free speech.

Yes it is. First, it's not YOUR phone line. You didn't dig the ground up and create a giant network to give billions the ability to connect via the telephone.

Second, read the agreement you signed when you got your phone connected. Most people don't. In it you'll find the owner of the connection and your unique number belongs to them and they can do anything they want with it including publishing your name, address and telephone number in a giant book called the White Pages unless you buy an unlisted number.

[Jeff Chandler]

Excellent points.

[Jeff Gordon]

Try instead the seven magic words "Please take my name off your list."

I have been doing that for over a year. They used be polite, say, of course, verify my number and give me a number to call if I wanted back on their list.

Now I get short, a snide "Okay" and even hang ups.

[Jeff Gordon]

I let the caller make his pitch, try and make inane small talk

I have done this a couple of times. Once, when I was home alone and feeling lonely, I negotiated with Dish Network sales guys for over an hour. They kept transferring me up the line trying to find someone or someway to meet my demands. I finally ended the conversation by asking for the number of Direct TV.

[Fledermaus]

What about our rights to privacy? WE pay for the phone. WE pay the bill each month. And we do so for friends and family and emergencies. I don't see how their lame "free speech" entitles them to cancel out my privacy.

Read the contract you signed to have the phone service turned on that you do not own. YOU pay for access to THEIR lines. Thirty years ago it was illegal to even own your own equipment and had to lease it from the phone company.

YOU also pay your cable bill each month but don't have a right to a "Do Not Advertise" list if you don't like to see "Girls Gone Wild" informercials at 2 am. Sure, you can just turn off the TV...so, just turn off the telephone.

Just because YOU decided you want a phone service for friends, family and emergencies doesn't take the rights of the phone company away. They own your number and can sell it to anyone they want. They usually give it away in White Pages that are even now on the internet. Give me your real name and city and I bet I can find your phone number online.

Am I violating your privacy or using my free speech rights if I decide to call and ask if you want to be my pen pal? You can block unwanted calls with a cheap device. You can get caller ID to identify when family calls. You can get a 2nd line that's unlisted and give it out to friends and family only. You can, and probably have, a cell phone that telemarketers don't call that your friends and family can use.

Do you use a dial up modem? Do you have two phone lines? If not, then do you demand the federal government force the phone companies to create a way your friends, relatives and emergency calls can get through while you are on the internet? The private sector has those solutions already.

If you think it's a privacy issue you have to recognize it's your private duty to stop the calls you don't like on your own.

[HitmanLV]

We don't answer the phone during meals or other busy times, but rather let our answering machine do the screening.

I never answer my phone unless I know who it is, and that I want to speak with them. Anyone else can leave a message.

[HAL9000]

Try instead the seven magic words "Please take my name off your list."

I've tried it. It doesn't work.

[Gracey]

I just say "No, thank you

Hey, make it more interesting. Try asking them if they're wearing boxers or jockeys? If it's female, ask her the color of her underwear.

[Fledermaus]

Hanging up has always been an option, of course, but that is not the point. The very act of a ringing phone intruding into my life while cooking, dining, or doing anything else normal in life makes me crazy. When it is a telemarketer, I am even more irritated! If I want to buy a product, I will either go to the store, or go online at my own leisure. Otherwise, leave me alone!

Your inability to not answer the phone while your are busy is not the fault of the caller. What if it's a wrong number? Do you then demand a "Wrong Number Do Not Call List"??

I'm happy you like to purchase products in stores and on the internet. Have you ever considered that someone likes to buy over the phone? If telemarketing was so annoying to everyone, as this ridiculous argument implies, then wouldn't they all just stop because it obviously wouldn't be working?

This sounds like Yogi Berra saying "no one goes there anymore because it's too busy". Someone is buying or they'd stop calling. I've bought products after being pitched on the phone. Subtract the charities and political calls (which gets into the idea you can constitutionally ban only one form of calls and not others) most calls are from companies you do business with already like credit cards trying to get you to buy into credit insurance, the auto club, the vacation point club, etc.

I've hung up on many, I've listened and said no to more, but I've also listened and actually bought the product. I'm not so hateful for a certain form of advertising because I'm a phone addict since advertising is everywhere.

[Jeff Chandler]

If it's female, ask her the color of her underwear.

That's funny, but I don't spend that much time on their calls, just "No thank you" and click. That way I don't waste their time or mine. Besides, my wife might overhear, and then I'd have plenty of 'splainin' to do.

[BlackbirdSST]

How many telemarketer's are employed in the US? I'm sure this will be a boon to the economy, IDIOTS! Blackbird.

[BikerTrash]

...ask the perky little sales girl what she's wearing...

That's good. Try this one. With your most psychotic voice yell, "I can't freakin' talk now, there's blood all over the place!" Then hold the phone at arms length, turn your head and scream a bunch of cuss words, drop the phone on the counter and silently listen to the fruits of your effort.

[nycgal]

Try instead the seven magic words "Please take my name off your list."

And just how does that stop the taped sales pitches?

[Conservative4Ever]

Wish I had that kind of nerve to do just that. However at the office it might be distruptive to my staff. They will definately think I have gone around the bend. My best solution is after I have said hello..if there is silence on the line...the computer kicking in...I just hang up. Not nearly as dramatic as your way...probably not as much fun...but it is effective and professional. :)

Red

[blondee123]

Most times I let my machine answer, my family & friends know I do it & know if it's important to leave a message, but one time, after they asked for my husband or me, I said No they weren't home but that this was Elvis. In my deepest voice & southern drawl, the telemarketer was silent, I said "what's the matter, you don't want to talk to Elvis?" Still silence, then finally SHE hung up. My 5 yr old grandson was rolling on the floor laughing!
A friend of ours says he asks them for their home phone number, saying that if they can call him at home, he should be able to call them at home when it's more convenient for him!!

[Right_in_Virginia]

Ah, but one man's intrusion is obviously another's free speech.

If I started getting crank phone calls...say from someone whose number was blocked, who called me any hour day or night, and called back after I said "no" and hung up the phone...would I have the right to report this harassment and insist it be stopped; or would I be told to live with it because it's the caller's exercise of free and protected speech?

[mathluv]

You are doing some awesome posting this am!

I have caller ID on my phone. If I do not recognize the name/number, or if one is not given, I don't answer. It is irritating when they leave LONG recorded messages on my answering machine.

[cuz_it_aint_their_money]

and still others could make commercial telemarketers pay for their time with a kind of reverse 900-number.

Best idea I've heard yet! If they insist on bothering me at dinner time then they can pay me to listed to their B.S.!

[beachn4fun]

The telemarketer is just some schmuck trying to earn a living. Try instead the seven magic words "Please take my name off your list." AGREED!!!

[meowmeow]

The telemarketer is just some schmuck trying to earn a living. Try instead the seven magic words "Please take my name off your list."

Schmuck being the key word. There are other ways to make a living other than professionally annoying people in their homes. Maybe if everyone went to war - took a few moments out of their day to verbally abuse every telemarketer who calls them, then eventually no one would apply for the job any more.

We ditched our land line a couple years ago so it is not a problem at our house.

[Vinnie]

The problem is that if the telemarketer hears an answer machine he/she hangs up and your number is recycled. You will get another call, and another until he/she actually speaks to someone.

Hearing the hangups on your machine is a sure way to determine it was a tele.

[csvset]

I told a telemarketer that I, Mr. B----, had died during Hurricane Isabel. They apologized and hung up. I figure that ploy should work for awhile.

[metesky]

It's hard to believe that some people are so defenceless, so stupid that they can't "protect" themselves from a damn phone call.

This country is essentially over.

[Salo]

There is no right to commercial free speech. The thing to do with this list is make it opt-in: unless you specificallly sign up to accept calls, telemarketers can't call you. IMO, doing an opt-in list would make it easier for these annoying sleazeballs to do business: it would be a list of people who actually want the services/products and who do not consider this type of sales method an intrusion.

[Rainmist]

ROFLMAF !! I usually say that I'm not home right now and can I take a message. Or if I'm in a foul mood I'll just hang up. Remember what Seinfeld did ? LOL.

[Rainmist]

ROFLMAF !! I usually say that I'm not home right now and can I take a message. Or if I'm in a foul mood I'll just hang up. Remember what Seinfeld did ? LOL.

[Cronos]

Much more effective method than this. It is called an air horn. A couple of good blasts in the mouth piece and mysteriously the telemarketer is no longer on the line.

THAT'S CRUEL!!! INHUMANE!!! DASTARDLY!!! .....where can I get my hands on a high decibel version ;-P </sarcasm

[Cronos]

I like the option that telemarketers can pay for calling people up. I remember reading about some option where the telemarketers would pay your phone bills as long as they could call you selling products, kind of like TV programs.

[carton253]

No, I don't... what did Seinfeld do?

[DH]

"But Yale Law School professor Ian Ayres, writing in yesterday's New York Times, proposed an intriguing market-based solution, allowing the government to use an intermediary - such as phone companies - to offer families the telephone ``filter'' of their choice."

Yeah, leave it up to someone in the legal business to encourage some type of law that will enhance the coffers of business; namely the phone company. Gee! I wonder if there would be a charge for their "screening" services or would they do it just because they like you and want to serve their community?

[TontoKowalski]

Ah, but one man's intrusion is obviously another's free speech.

This has always been one of my favorite telemarketing industry arguments. I don't think the first amendment guarantees an audience to anyone.

[TontoKowalski]

The telemarketer is just some schmuck trying to earn a living.

So are crack dealers. People who do telemarketing for a living are demon spawn, belched up from the bowels of hell. They are the enemy.

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

Ah, but one man's intrusion is obviously another's free speech.

No it isn't. You may not claim free speech on private property. You have no right to go on private land land and abuse it. You may not deliberately trespass on my posted property.

My phone is my property. The "do not call list" gives me a way to post it and provides me with a means of redress if you choose to ignore the postings.

[Publius6961]

We don't answer the phone during meals or other busy times, but rather let our answering machine do the screening.

The ultimate and permanent fix, with one proviso: I need to go get a cordless phone that has an OFF switch for the ringer!
I can't believe that they make phones without a ringer "off" switch!

[putupon]

What about our rights to privacy?

What's to say putting your name on a brand new Federal database won't do more damage to your privacy than being annoyed by telemarketers.

My answering machine and caller ID do a fine job of screening calls without involving the government.

[putupon]

What about our rights to privacy?

What's to say putting your name on a brand new Federal database won't do more damage to your privacy than being annoyed by telemarketers.

My answering machine and caller ID do a fine job of screening calls without involving the government.

[edchambers]

How many telemarketer's are employed in the US? I'm sure this will be a boon to the economy, IDIOTS! Blackbird.

This has occured to me as well and of course Bush will get the blame.Odly enough I get almost no telemarketing calls since I've cancelled all my credit cards.I do however get the occaisional fundraising pitch from the Republican Party.

[varon]

Much more effective method than this. It is called an air horn. A couple of good blasts in the mouth piece and mysteriously the telemarketer is no longer on the line.

Hanging up accomplishes the same thing and saves on having to buy an air horn ;-)