Swearing at a Phone Solicitor

[Cheburashka]

DH's bro gets a fiendish delight in telling them to "get cancer and die" or other cheerful(?) comebacks. He brags when he makes a telemarketer cry.

It's fine to silently hang up on a telemarketer because they are not making a social call (they only want money) and they never stop to let you get a word in, anyway. There is never an excuse for being verbally abusive, though. That is terrible. Just hang up without a word like a civilized human being.

 

[Kathryn Merteuil]

Several years ago, I had a back and forth with a collector for a while. It as towards the end of having a landline because they were calling on that shortly before we got rid of it. He called asking for somebody (I seriously had never heard of her), I told him no such person lived here, and he accused me of being that person and lying about it and actually being her. It escalated to me saying something that was insulting, he said something back and it kind of went from there. We hurled some pretty bad things at each other that's for sure. He would call back regularly, and I would just start out by insulting him. Then we got rid of the landline and never heard from him again.

 

[tex1989]

Depends on the call and my mood. Once it was a robo call and said they could lower my CC interest rate and push 1 to talk to them. I reminded the person answering the transfer that I was on the do not call list and they proceeded to say something really bad, you called me. Did not end well. Other times I will ask the warrenty renewal caller, which vehicle are you calling about and they say, "your vehicle" to which I say I own three, which one? It goes downhill from there.

When I get the call that says your computer has been affected (from call centers in India) I say OMG no what do I have to do? When they say go to your computer I say, but I don't have one. They hang up.

Just depends on my mood but I usually don't swear at them I just run them around a little.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

If the company you work for is cold calling people who are on the Do Not Call Registry, you should realize that what they are doing is illegal.

People tend to assume that the Do Not Call list protects against all (likely) unwanted phone calls.

If you look it up it covers the following:

• The do not call provisions of the TSR cover any plan, program or campaign to sell goods or services through interstate phone calls. This includes calls by telemarketers who solicit consumers, often on behalf of third party sellers. It also includes sellers who provide, offer to provide, or arrange to provide goods or services to consumers in return for some type of payment as part of a telemarketing transaction.
• The National Do Not Call Registry covers intrastate telemarketing calls under the FCC’s rules.

It does not cover the following:

• The do not call provisions do not cover calls from political organizations, charities, telephone surveyors, or companies with which a consumer has an existing business relationship.

Spoofing (which is what I usually get) is def. a problem but is different than just saying cold calling people on the list because there are things that are not covered under that.

 

[KingAugie]

I wouldn't at a telemarketer but if you are calling me trying to scam me then all bets are off on what I say to you.

 

[dez1978]

I wouldn't at a telemarketer but if you are calling me trying to scam me then all bets are off on what I say to you.

Thats how I feel too. If you are trying to scam me out of my money, then I care nothing about your feelings. These scammers are horrible.

 

[FlightlessDuck]

• The National Do Not Call Registry covers intrastate telemarketing calls under the FCC’s rules.

Holy crap, Ihad no idea this didn't tell to within your current state!