Crowd sourced strategies for dealing with telemarketers
After wasting five minutes of my life that Iâll never get back again trying to politely get rid of the slick-talking dude whoâd phoned, intent upon selling me seasons tickets to the opera, I asked my Facebook pals, âWhatâs the best way to deal with telemarketers?â
Many had ideas for dispatching them swiftly:
Hand a 3-year old the phone and tell them itâs Santa
Just tell them you donât speak English. In English.
I like to belt out a show tune. âIf I Were a Rich Manâ is nicely ironic.
This is why the Tuba is the best instrument EVER.
Heavy breathing works for me.
Say that youâre broke, unemployed and being evicted. Then try to sell them your car.
I ask them to describe what theyâre wearing. That usually shuts them down.
I say, âHeâs here, and I know heâll be very interested in your offer. Iâll get him.â Then I put the phone in a drawer.
Nuke âem from orbit. Itâs the only way to be sure.
Some folks take the opportunity to have a little fun:
A family hobby is telling whoppers to telemarketers. My son once told a telemarketer that his mother was having a baby and the house was flooded. He said he was talking to her from the roof, and that he needed to get off the phone to call 911.
I put my toddler on the phone. She loves to chat and is obsessed with the phone. âHi! Hi! Hi! Whatâs your name? Hi! Hi! Hi! Did you see Frozen?â
Say âCongratulations! Youâre caller number seven and youâve won a free trip to the Bahamas. Just give me your credit card information and Iâll make all of the necessary arrangements for my vacation⊠Sorry, I meant YOUR vacation.â
An anthropologist friend turns the tables on them by conducting an ethnographic interview. âThatâs an interesting accent,â sheâll ask. âWhere are you from? And how old are you?â She does whatever she can to draw them out and learn as much as she can about their worldview. She kept one guy on the phone for 45 minutes.
Whenever someone from the Philadelphia Inquirer phones to try to sell me a subscription, I respond with: âMy attorney has advised me not to speak to the press. And sheâs also told me I can beat this rap!â
I like to say, in a hushed voice âWhatâs the best way to bury a body in a crawl space?â
Occasionally more than one person gets into the call-deflecting act:
When telemarketers call my workplace, we put them on hold, then transfer them around the office until they give up.
One company wouldnât stop calling my cell over and over and over, until my husband took the call and began talking to them in fake German gibberish. I remember one phrase was âup-n-chuck-in and flinger-grabbin.â I never heard from them again.
Some folks keep the encounter short and sweet:
Just say no.
Use these magic words: âTake me off your call list.â
Say âNo thanks.â Then hang up and block their number.
Another Surprisingly Popular Response? Empathy.
âThanks for the call, but Iâm all set. Have a nice day.â
If you donât want what theyâre selling, make it short. Donât waste their time or yours. Someone else might earn them a commission.
As somebody who did a lot of phone banking when I worked for a state senatorial campaign, I can tell you that these people have the shittiest jobs in the world. The best thing you can do? Just be polite to them.
I was a telemarketer. I am also a human being who was just trying to pay my rent. The best way to be a mensch is to say hello and wish them the best of luck. We telemarketers hate what we do too. Please donât humiliate us.
So what do I plan to do going forward? While itâs tempting to come up with a sassy putdown or pull out all the stops with a big fat lie, I am, by nature, a nice, well-mannered person. So hereâs my script for future encounters:
âThanks for the call, but Iâm not interested. Have a nice day. And please take me off the call list.â
But if they refuse to take no for an answer, Iâm picking up my tuba.
(Roz Warren is the author of OUR BODIES, OUR SHELVES: A COLLECTION OF LIBRARY HUMOR.)
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