[Big Guy and Rusty 99]

I have notches on my cubicle for dumb asses who don't take my help and later file for bankruptcy, which cost the taxpayers much. The people I call are hurting and will either get cash out or file for chapter 7 or 13. Which would you rather they do?

[GreenAccord]

Look, telemarketing, like SPAM, works because a fraction respond to the solicitation.

The mere fact that imbecile (I'm paraphrasing your assessment of your clientele) prospects agree to do business with an unsolicited offer to do business underscores that targeting imbeciles pays dividends. I suppose you shouldn't bite the hand that feeds you by pointing out what morons your customers are.

Frankly, I have a published number and am not on the DO NOT CALL registry.

I have adopted multiple strategies to unsolicited calls, the most common being the simple laying of the phone down during the sales "shpeel". I imagine that the caller on the other end gives it about 5 to 10 seconds of "are you there?"s before hanging up.

What needs to happen for telemarketing to fall out of favor is for the practice to become unprofitable. This means making calls last longer so that fewer calls can be made and less result in leads.

My new strategy is to ask the caller what their name is, then asking them, by name (they LOVE people who listen), to hang on a second while I get a pen and paper. Then I lay the phone down. This makes the call last a lot longer on their end with the same result as simply hanging up or laying the phone down immediately.

Hey, it's your industry, not mine.