National Do-Not-Call List

I've been on the National Do-Not-Call List for several years. It's worked very well.

I understand that charities can still call you. Fine.

But lately, I have been hit with a wave of 'surveys'. They are obviously for-profit business, even if they aren't trying to sell anything... right now.

Is this survey s**t legit?

Sue

The only two exemptions that I'm aware of are political and charity. However, I too get those sort of calls and I'm on the call list too. There must be some way for them to work around it as I get some we will be in your neighborhood and would like to give you a free estimate for whatever.

We gat some odd calls too even though we're signed up. I did see more comming through to my cell phone than I used to get. I also think you've done businees with company they can still call you(not really sure thought I heard that once).

File a complaint. Even if your complaint is not sustained it will cost them money to respond to the FTC. If your complaint is sustained, it will cost them big money. Eventually you will train them to leave you alone.

What they do is contract a company that a registered charity or political to do the survey. The other way to get in it for a company that you have done business with to sub contract to another company so you have legally done business with them.
Several years ago, before the do not call list, The small mortgage company we were with was bought by Wells Fargo. After a few months the sales calls started coming and I'd tell them to put me on the do not market list. Then in a few months they would start again and I'd repeat put me on the do not call list. In a few months the calls would start again. I finally worked my way up the manager chain from the caller and found out that if you tell a subcontractor such as "ABC marketing" to not call you that only applies to "ABC Marketing" and not to Wells Fargo even though they were calling on bahalf of wells fargo. So wells would change the subcontractor ever 6 months so you had to get on a different sub contrator's do not call list. So I then called up wells and told them I wanted to be on their list which stopped it for a while until they started calling from their collections department which was legal then since it was initated as a collections call and not a marketing call but since we have you on the line would you liek to buy x. Now before you tell me I shouldn't have let me account go to collectios, I didn't, their system could call me and when I finally got a person the person would see my payment posted days before, what they would do is recive the paymentm, then sit on it for several days and then finally apply it. Back in the days of checks its reasonable to accept a check and hold it for a couple days to make sure it clears then post to your account but I paid electronically and thay delay started stretching pact 10 days from the tme they recieved my payment to the time they paid it. So i could make a payment on the 20th that was due on the 1st and by the 30th their collections department would be calling me. Making a payment ahead didn't help anything either because they would just apply it to excrow and balance instead of counting it as an extra payment.
It was satisfying though when we sold the house and moved to be able to call them up as if I was going to apply for a mortgage on my new house and instead tell them I would never do any busines with them again due to the way they treated me.

Yes, if you've "done business" with a company, they or their "authorized representative" can call you. And the definition of "doing business" can be pretty lenient. But if you tell them not to call you, that negates the "permission".

So when you get one of these that you don't want, tell them specifically not to call you again. If they do, you have grounds for a complaint.

Bear in mind that if you do business with the originating company again, you renew the "permission", and will have to withdraw it again.

Be polite, but be firm. "No thank you" isn't good enough. "Do not call me again" is.

I work in financial services, so I've done my share of cold calling. I try to be polite to cold callers. 'cause I've been in their shoes, but I still put myself on the Do Not Call List.

From what I understand, the original Do Not Call Registry expired. This means you need to sign up again.

Not sure if this is true or not, but it can't hurt to sign up again, in case it's right!

Ok, my favorite thing to do is mess with solicition calls.

"Hold on a sec, gotta put my hearing aid in" I don't have a hearing aid "OK... (let him/her start spiel, wait 15 secs) "Oh hell, I gotta turn it on, wait a minute (mumble to self while doing nothing). "Ok, start over please" wait 20 secs "Dammit, hold on again, I'm sorry, I guess the battery died...can you speak up??"

Guaranteed the person on the other end either A) hangs up in frustration B) makes a butthead of himself by screaming into the phone.

If they do continue, doesn't matter what they are selling, keep asking silly questions to the caller - What time is it there? Was it hot there today? Do you guys get chairs or are you the operators standing by? Eventually they will hang up on you.

I cut down on about 90% of the calls I get by doing this.

I worked with a person who received a call for mother. She said she was deaf(she was) the person said they'd call back later.
Yes you can have fun with them sometimes. It might help break up there day.

Sometimes I answer the phone and hand it to my 15mo old daughter. She babbles and jabbers into the handset and it makes her (and me) happy.

That's funny.

My grandmother kept getting calls from sears for replacement windows, finally one day my grandfather was in the house so he told them to go ahead and come out and quote them. They didn't realize they lived about 1.5 hours from the closest sears so they drove all the way out, spent a couple hours measuring their old farm house, gave him the quote and he handed it back and told them it was too expensive so they drive the 1.5 hours back. Pretty much wasted their whole day so they never called again.

Yep. Did they ask you anything remotely "political"? Then it's a POLITICAL survey - oh and what kind of cereal do you like.

Loophole.

I'm current and signed up on the National Do Not Call list - you can definitely expire, so if you think its been a couple years do a search and sign up again. We still get a few calls - my automatic response to the caller is, why would I do business with someone who doesn't respect the Do Not Call List?

For a while I messed with the callers - I remember one firm I put on hold for about 15 minutes, then came back and they were still there, waiting for me to come back. Nowadays I just hang up on them. No sympathy for cold callers here.

Regarding your service expiring, from the official government site:

"Your registration will not expire. Telephone numbers placed on the National Do Not Call Registry will remain on it permanently due to the Do-Not-Call Improvement Act of 2007, which became law in February 2008. Read more about it at http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2008/04/dncfyi.shtm."

Sue

The funniest way of dealing with obnoxious callers brings to mind the Jackass Joke. An oldie, but still a goodie. Just in case someone who was living in a cave didn't get it...


For all of you who occasionally have a really bad day when you just need to take it out on someone!!! Don’t take that bad day out on someone you know, take it out on someone you DON’T KNOW!!

I was sitting at my desk, when I remembered a phone call I had to make. I found the number and dialed it. A man answered nicely saying, “Hello?” I politely said, “This is Patrick Hanifin and could I please speak to Robin Carter?”

Suddenly the phone was slammed down on me! I couldn’t believe that anyone could be that rude. I tracked down Robin’s correct number and called her. She had transposed the last two digits incorrectly.

After I hung up with Robin, I spotted the wrong number still lying there on my desk. I decided to call it again. When the same person once more answered, I yelled “You’re a jackass!” and hung up.

Next to his phone number I wrote the word “jackass,” and put it in my desk drawer. Every couple of weeks, when I was paying bills, or had a really bad day, I’d call him up. He’d answer, and I’d yell, “You’re a jackass!”

It would always cheer me up.

Later in the year the phone company introduced caller ID. This was a real disappointment for me, I would have to stop calling the jackass.

Then one day I had an idea. I dialed his number, then heard his voice say, “Hello.” I made up a name. “Hi. This is the sales office of the telephone company and I’m just calling to see if you’re familiar with our caller ID program?”

He went, “No!” and slammed the phone down. I quickly called him back and said, “That’s because you’re a jackass!”

The reason I took the time to tell you this story, is to show you how if there’s ever anything really bothering you, you can do something about it.

The old lady at the mall really took her time pulling out of the parking place. I didn’t think she was ever going to leave. Finally, her car began to move and she started to very slowly back out of the slot. I backed up a little more to give her plenty of room to pull out.

Great, I thought, she’s finally leaving. All of a sudden this black Camaro comes flying up the parking isle in the wrong direction and pulls into her space. I started honking my horn and yelling, “You can’t just do that, Buddy. I was here first!”

The guy climbed out of his Camaro completely ignoring me. He walked toward the mall as if he didn’t even hear me. I thought to myself, this guy’s a jackass. There sure a lot of jackasses in this world. I had noticed he had a “For Sale” sign in the back window of his car. I wrote down the number. Then I hunted for another place to park.

A couple of days later, I’m at home sitting at my desk. I had just gotten off the phone after calling the first guy and yelling, “You’re jackass!” (It’s really easy to call him now since I have his number on speed dial.)

I noticed the phone number of the guy with the black Camaro lying on my desk and thought I’d better call this guy, too. After a couple rings someone answered the phone and said, “Hello.” I said, “Is this the man with the black Camaro for sale?”

“Yes, it is.”

“Can you tell me where I can see it?”

“Yes, I live at 1802 West 34th street. It’s a yellow house and the car’s parked right out front.”

I said, “What’s your name?”

“My name is Don Hansen.”

“When’s a good time to catch you, Don?”

“I’m home in the evenings.”

“Listen Don, can I tell you something?”

“Yes,”

“Don, you’re a jackass!” And I slammed the phone down.

After I hung up I added Don Hansen’s number to my speed dialer. For a while things seemed to be going better for me. Now when I had a problem I had two jackasses to call. Then, after several months of calling the jackasses and hanging up on them, it just wasn’t as enjoyable as it used to be. I gave the problem some serious thought and came up with a solution:

First, I had my phone dial Jackass #1. A man answered nicely saying, “Hello.”

I yelled “You’re a jackass!”, but I didn’t hang up.

The jackass said, “Are you still there?”

I said, “Yeah.”

He said, “Stop calling me.”

I said, “No.”

He said, “What’s your name, Pal?”

I said, “Don Hansen.”

He said “Where do you live?”

“1802 West 34th Street. It’s a yellow house and my black Camaro’s
parked out front.”

“I’m coming over right now, Don. You’d better start saying your
prayers.”

“Yeah, like I’m really scared, Jackass!” and I hung up. Then I called Jackass #2.

He answered, “Hello.”

I said, “Hello, Jackass!”

He said, “If I ever find out who you are…”

“You’ll what?”

“I’ll kick your butt.”

“Well, here’s your chance. I’m coming over right now Jackass!” And I hung up.

Then I picked up the phone and called the police. I told them I was at 1802 West 34th Street and that I was going to kill my gay lover as soon as he got home. Another quick call to Channel 13 about the gang war going on down W. 34th Street. After that I climbed into my car and headed over to 34th Street to watch the whole thing. Glorious watching two Jackasses kicking the crap out of each other in front of 6 squad cars and a police
helicopter was one of the greatest experiences of my life!


Of course, if the word JA isn't allowed, this post isn't going to make any sense at all.

Sue