When hanging up is the best revenge

Boston Herald ^ | 10/01/03 | A Boston Herald editorial

[kattracks]

Fifty million Americans can't be wrong.
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The appeal of a do-not-call list aimed at commercial telemarketers is obviously enormous nationwide, just as it was when it went into effect here in Massachusetts. (Those who signed up for the Massachusetts list were automatically entered into the federal data base.)

It's hardly surprising that the industry is challenging the new law at every opportunity and using every legal remedy at its disposal.

Congress moved quickly in the the wake of one federal court decision, clarifying that yes indeed, the Federal Trade Commission has the authority to set up the list that could lead to fines for telemarketers.

President Bush signed that bill into law Monday saying, ``The public is understandably losing patience with these unwanted phone calls, unwanted intrusions. Given a choice, Americans prefer not to receive random sales pitches at all hours of the day. The American people should be free to restrict these calls.''

It does seem a fairly basic right - to be free from such intrusions. Ah, but one man's intrusion is obviously another's free speech. And so yet another federal court case looms over the broader issue of whether by choosing up sides - by exempting charities and political calls - the government has put its heavy thumb on the supposedly well-balanced scales of justice. That one could take some time to sort out.

But Yale Law School professor Ian Ayres, writing in yesterday's New York Times, proposed an intriguing market-based solution, allowing the government to use an intermediary - such as phone companies - to offer families the telephone ``filter'' of their choice. Some could opt to allow charity calls through, others pollsters, and still others could make commercial telemarketers pay for their time with a kind of reverse 900-number.

Clearly consumers are mostly just furious at these intrusions and at the telemarketing industry for defending them. If the law is not allowed to stand, hanging up may prove to be the best revenge.

[Fledermaus]

Hanging up has always been an option, of course, but that is not the point. The very act of a ringing phone intruding into my life while cooking, dining, or doing anything else normal in life makes me crazy. When it is a telemarketer, I am even more irritated! If I want to buy a product, I will either go to the store, or go online at my own leisure. Otherwise, leave me alone!

Your inability to not answer the phone while your are busy is not the fault of the caller. What if it's a wrong number? Do you then demand a "Wrong Number Do Not Call List"??

I'm happy you like to purchase products in stores and on the internet. Have you ever considered that someone likes to buy over the phone? If telemarketing was so annoying to everyone, as this ridiculous argument implies, then wouldn't they all just stop because it obviously wouldn't be working?

This sounds like Yogi Berra saying "no one goes there anymore because it's too busy". Someone is buying or they'd stop calling. I've bought products after being pitched on the phone. Subtract the charities and political calls (which gets into the idea you can constitutionally ban only one form of calls and not others) most calls are from companies you do business with already like credit cards trying to get you to buy into credit insurance, the auto club, the vacation point club, etc.

I've hung up on many, I've listened and said no to more, but I've also listened and actually bought the product. I'm not so hateful for a certain form of advertising because I'm a phone addict since advertising is everywhere.

[Jeff Chandler]

If it's female, ask her the color of her underwear.

That's funny, but I don't spend that much time on their calls, just "No thank you" and click. That way I don't waste their time or mine. Besides, my wife might overhear, and then I'd have plenty of 'splainin' to do.

[BlackbirdSST]

How many telemarketer's are employed in the US? I'm sure this will be a boon to the economy, IDIOTS! Blackbird.

[BikerTrash]

...ask the perky little sales girl what she's wearing...

That's good. Try this one. With your most psychotic voice yell, "I can't freakin' talk now, there's blood all over the place!" Then hold the phone at arms length, turn your head and scream a bunch of cuss words, drop the phone on the counter and silently listen to the fruits of your effort.

[nycgal]

Try instead the seven magic words "Please take my name off your list."

And just how does that stop the taped sales pitches?

[Conservative4Ever]

Wish I had that kind of nerve to do just that. However at the office it might be distruptive to my staff. They will definately think I have gone around the bend. My best solution is after I have said hello..if there is silence on the line...the computer kicking in...I just hang up. Not nearly as dramatic as your way...probably not as much fun...but it is effective and professional. :)

Red

[blondee123]

Most times I let my machine answer, my family & friends know I do it & know if it's important to leave a message, but one time, after they asked for my husband or me, I said No they weren't home but that this was Elvis. In my deepest voice & southern drawl, the telemarketer was silent, I said "what's the matter, you don't want to talk to Elvis?" Still silence, then finally SHE hung up. My 5 yr old grandson was rolling on the floor laughing!
A friend of ours says he asks them for their home phone number, saying that if they can call him at home, he should be able to call them at home when it's more convenient for him!!

[Right_in_Virginia]

Ah, but one man's intrusion is obviously another's free speech.

If I started getting crank phone calls...say from someone whose number was blocked, who called me any hour day or night, and called back after I said "no" and hung up the phone...would I have the right to report this harassment and insist it be stopped; or would I be told to live with it because it's the caller's exercise of free and protected speech?

[mathluv]

You are doing some awesome posting this am!

I have caller ID on my phone. If I do not recognize the name/number, or if one is not given, I don't answer. It is irritating when they leave LONG recorded messages on my answering machine.

[cuz_it_aint_their_money]

and still others could make commercial telemarketers pay for their time with a kind of reverse 900-number.

Best idea I've heard yet! If they insist on bothering me at dinner time then they can pay me to listed to their B.S.!

[beachn4fun]

The telemarketer is just some schmuck trying to earn a living. Try instead the seven magic words "Please take my name off your list." AGREED!!!

[meowmeow]

The telemarketer is just some schmuck trying to earn a living. Try instead the seven magic words "Please take my name off your list."

Schmuck being the key word. There are other ways to make a living other than professionally annoying people in their homes. Maybe if everyone went to war - took a few moments out of their day to verbally abuse every telemarketer who calls them, then eventually no one would apply for the job any more.

We ditched our land line a couple years ago so it is not a problem at our house.

[Vinnie]

The problem is that if the telemarketer hears an answer machine he/she hangs up and your number is recycled. You will get another call, and another until he/she actually speaks to someone.

Hearing the hangups on your machine is a sure way to determine it was a tele.

[csvset]

I told a telemarketer that I, Mr. B----, had died during Hurricane Isabel. They apologized and hung up. I figure that ploy should work for awhile.

[metesky]

It's hard to believe that some people are so defenceless, so stupid that they can't "protect" themselves from a damn phone call.

This country is essentially over.

[Salo]

There is no right to commercial free speech. The thing to do with this list is make it opt-in: unless you specificallly sign up to accept calls, telemarketers can't call you. IMO, doing an opt-in list would make it easier for these annoying sleazeballs to do business: it would be a list of people who actually want the services/products and who do not consider this type of sales method an intrusion.

[Rainmist]

ROFLMAF !! I usually say that I'm not home right now and can I take a message. Or if I'm in a foul mood I'll just hang up. Remember what Seinfeld did ? LOL.

[Rainmist]

ROFLMAF !! I usually say that I'm not home right now and can I take a message. Or if I'm in a foul mood I'll just hang up. Remember what Seinfeld did ? LOL.

[Cronos]

Much more effective method than this. It is called an air horn. A couple of good blasts in the mouth piece and mysteriously the telemarketer is no longer on the line.

THAT'S CRUEL!!! INHUMANE!!! DASTARDLY!!! .....where can I get my hands on a high decibel version ;-P </sarcasm

[Cronos]

I like the option that telemarketers can pay for calling people up. I remember reading about some option where the telemarketers would pay your phone bills as long as they could call you selling products, kind of like TV programs.