New Telephone Greetings

[koØm]

Caller I.D. is standard on all phones so, I check the number before I pick up; if I do not recognize the number, it goes to voice mail. I was watching You-Toob and ran across this crazy video about handling nuisance telemarketers, collection agencies and fund raising callers.

First off, I don't owe anyone any money to have them calling collection agencies on me; it's too bad that I cannot say the same for some unscrupulous souls (bless their hearts) that share the same last name as me and, just happen to know my phone number. In the past, I have assisted them in finding the person(s) that they were looking for but, I'm tired of helping out on both ends.

So, this morning the phone rings from an "800 - Service" phone number and, I answer, "911, what is the nature of your emergency?" There is a pause and the called is disconnected. I smile. A little later, a "Spoofed" phone number with an out-of-state area code calls, I answer saying, "911, what is the nature of your emergency?" The person gulps and then asks to speak to the person who pays the utility bill in the household. I say again, "This is 911, what is the nature of your emergency?" The frustrated telemarketer (knowing that her calls were being monitored on her end) said, "I don't have time, have a nice day" and hung up the phone.

I LOL'ed.

Try it next time, see if it works for you.

.

[N8XE]

Great idea!!

Jason N8XE

[N8XE]

I will add:

A friend of mine works at a call center helping out customers. He trains the folks on the phone. So when he gets one of those calls, he plays around with them.

One example is a window company that called him. The guy asked for "the man of the house" (how quaint) and he mentioned that he was the one on the phone. So the salesperson went into his spiel. My buddy answered all the questions, said how interested he was in getting the windows replaced, and when the salesperson asked when to set up an appointment, my friend mentioned that he would need to contact the rental office to make that arrangement.

Needless to say, the salesperson never asked if he owned his home. Totally wasted his time.

My friend got a chuckle out of it.

Jason N8XE

[KG4NEL]

I don't know if it's Sprint or what, but for all the places I've used my cell number, I can't remember the last time I've gotten a telemarketer.

[KG4NEL]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sW-PHukzdgM

[kb2vxa]

Cell numbers are property of the provider, unlike telco numbers telemarketers being the general public do not have access to them. What I call bill collector robots are computers with fill in the blanks software (you can hear the pause before the name of the target) that calls the number or in the case of an apartment complex the numbers of the last known address. I get a chuckle out of one calling for a woman who moved out 4 years ago and has been dead for 2 of them. I sit here listening to my answering machine next to the computer getting chuckle after chuckle as alpha hotels call one after the other all day long, I can tell the telemarketers because they disconnect when they hear "Hello, please leave a message after the tone." <beep> <click>

[W5BRM]

I dont know if this is still applicable but i used to have the three tone "im sorry but the number you have called has been disconnected" sound effect as the 1st thing on my voice mail and answering machines. The old automated telebots would call and when they heard the 3 tones, they would remove my number from their DB. I would get maybe 2 calls a year sitting on VM from live telemarketers. Its been a decade since ive had a landline though so i dont know if that still works or not.

[n6hcm]

i've considered adding one of these to my phone setup ... this gets the robocallers out of the way by asking for an interaction. also, these can dump previously-known bogus callers (it can hold something like a thousand numbers).

i'll do this before election season when all the robocallers happen ...

[K0RGR]

I'm getting to the point where I answer the phone and don't say anything. If I hear the boileroom in the background, I hang up.

[suddenseer]

I like to mess with the callers. I will ask them what they are wearing, and their physical description(s). I will then tell them that I am changing hands, and start to talk really slow, and sexy. It usually takes less than a minute for them to hang up on me.