Telemarket revenge: Man calls back 100 times

WorldNetDaily.com ^ | Thursday, July 3, 2003

[JohnHuang2]

The owner of a Dairy Queen got so fed up with repeated calls from a telemarketer last week that he decided to fire back with a phone blizzard of his own to the telemarketer.

Marc Plaisted had previously registered his number on Minnesota's "do-not-call" list months ago, but says he got repeated calls at dinner time from Minnesota Auto Glass in spite of his request for the company to stop.

"I'm following the law and asking them to be taken off the list and they ignore me and then, on top of it, start swearing at me," he told the Duluth News Tribune. "That was where they flipped the switch with me and I said, 'Enough is enough. I'm going after you guys now. I'm tired of being the victim here.'"

Plaisted was so annoyed, he phoned the company's Duluth office more than 100 times over the course of two days.

"I just called them every five minutes and let them know that, no I don't have a crack in my windshield, because this seems to be something they are very concerned about," Plaisted told the paper.

A spokesman for the company has since told a reporter for KDLH-TV that Plaisted's phone number has been removed from its marketing list.

The News Tribune says Minnesota's Commerce Department has more than 100 open investigations of companies that may be violating the state's do-not-call list, though it would not confirm if Minnesota Auto Glass was among those being probed.

Just last week, the federal government launched the National Do Not Call Registry, with some 10 million people already signing up.

People continuing to receive unwanted sales calls three months after signing up may then file complaints.

Plaisted says he's still getting calls from at least two other companies, but he hasn't found their numbers yet to call them back.

"I just want to be taken off the list," he told the News Tribune. "I'm not seeking anything other than peace – that's really all I'm looking for."

[JohnHuang2]

Thursday, July 3, 2003

Quote of the Day by fightinJAG

[TheAngryClam]

I open all my junk mail, hoping for getting a "no postage necessary" envelope, which I promptly send back, empty.

Costing those companies another 20 cents or so for each piece of junk mail they send gives me a bit of satisfaction.

[RonHolzwarth]

Used to be you could paste one of the "postage paid" envelopes to a brick and send that! And they would have to pay to have the brick mailed!

Alas, no more. It was in Abby Hoffman's "Steal This Book", and to many people were doing it!

[Tall_Texan]

Now he's done it. Since he's called Minnesota Auto Glass, they now have a record of him initiating a call with them and can LEGALLY pester him for the next 18 months under the new federal law.

What he needs to do is document, document, document then file a claim. Almost all these laws have penalties for violating the do-not-call rules. Make them bleed money, and they'll stop calling.

Of course, if I ever get fed up, I plan on waiting for the live person to get on the line and then release an air horn next to the mouthpiece. That might get somebody's attention!

[Dick Steele]

Any PROGRAMMERS out there fed up as I am?
What we need is a simple auto-dial program that lets our machines spend ALL their free time calling these bastards back five or ten times a SECOND...Sweet, poetic revenge...

Hey, I can dream, can't I?

[wasp69]

Of course, if I ever get fed up, I plan on waiting for the live person to get on the line and then release an air horn next to the mouthpiece. That might get somebody's attention!

All I do is tell them to hang on a minute and call for my 3 year old very chatty son and tell him that gramma is on the phone and wants to talk to him.

The telemarketers don't stay on for very long after that and I truly have yet to figure out why. However, he does get very mad at gramma sometimes for hanging up on him ;P

[eno_]

Very very very easy.

Just enter their phone number into some fax software, send a fax, and configure the software to retry every 5 minutes until the fax (which it never will) goes through. Or use a fax machine that can be configured to try forever.

And if they complain, you have plausible denial: it was a mistake.

[joesbucks]

Want the best revenge with a fax. Find their fax number and then fax a black sheet of paper over and over. It'll eat up their toner cartridge. No fun replacing one of those babies.

[ET(end tyranny)]

Want the best revenge with a fax. Find their fax number and then fax a black sheet of paper over and over. It'll eat up their toner cartridge. No fun replacing one of those babies.

LOL I have never sent a fax, but your idea sounds like a winner!

[ricpic]

"I'm not seeking anything other than peace - that's all I'm really looking for."


Dream on.

[Fred Hayek]

One month after the Minnesota "Do not call" list went into effect I got a call from a telemarketer for the Minneapolis Star Tribune. I asked if she knew what the "Minnesota Do Not Call" list was, and added that the Red Star was in violation. Her response was that she was at a call center in Ohio.

[Mason]

My wife listens patiently to the spiel and then says, "Hang on, let me get my credit card." Then she cleans the house.

[ET(end tyranny)]

I signed the do not call list, but doubt it will do any good. It doesn't cover political groups, charities, surveys...

It might knock off a call here and there, but not much more than that.

[ET(end tyranny)]

I'd like to see something done about the junk email that people get, too.

[LizardQueen]

LOL.... I was thinking of something similiar - was going to configure one of my Unix system modems to repeatedly try to dial them. The fax solution is way easier.....

LQ

[NMFXSTC]

I do similar, but I take one company's junk mail, put it in another company's postage paid envelope and send it!

[ET(end tyranny)]

I do similar, but I take one company's junk mail, put it in another company's postage paid envelope and send it!

Oh hey! I like that idea, too!

[SauronOfMordor]

I do similar, but I take one company's junk mail, put it in another company's postage paid envelope and send it!

Eventually, somebody's going to just pour in a couple of ounces of flour and send it back, and have the mail room freak out

[Maria S]

As a couple of other posters have already suggested, stuff the postage-paid envelope full of advertisements, other junk mail, etc. This was the technique I used to FINALLY get Larry Klayman to stop asking for more donations!(probably a spoonful of flour is NOT a good idea...could get YOU arrested).

[CalvaryJohn]

Do it with rubber gloves and drop it in a Blue Box.