[4rcane]

would just hanging up be considered rude?

[fatnotlazy]

“would just hanging up be considered rude?”

***

I think that is what telemarketers bank on. My late mother was old school...taught to be unfailingly polite and that included not hanging up on anyone. She would patiently and politely listen to the spiel and otherwise engage the telemarketer in conversation. There were more than a few times when I had to grab the receiver from her hand and hang it up.

Now a lot of these calls are automated. You can’t talk to a real person. Even worse, when you hang up, the automated spiel still goes on. If you need to make an emergency call, you have to wait till the sales pitch ends. That I think should be illegal.

[green pastures]

Our family has a special talent that has actually resulted in telemarketers hanging up with us!

[ctdonath2]

No. Just hang up. No comments, no polite listening that wastes both your time, no goofy mind games. Just hang up and go on with your life.

[behzinlea]

I noticed a long time ago that there is a delay between the time you say "hello" and the moment the telemarketer starts his pitch. From this I deduced that a machine places the call but doesn't route it to an actual telemarketer until my voice triggers the system. Essentially, the system is set up so that I end up placing the call to the telemarketer.

Because I have no desire to call a telemarketer I always pause and say nothing after answering the phone if I don't recognize the caller ID number or it is blocked. If an actual person is calling, they'll invariably break the silence after a second or two and say, "Hello, is there someone there?" or something similar. If it's a telemarketer calling machine, the line remains silent. I simply hang up after three or four seconds of silence.

In sum, I don't hang up on telemarketers. I simply don't complete the calls they initiate.