So, have you ever...?

[TheGoofster]

It's 7:00 at night, and you just sit down to eat with your family and the phone rings, you pick it up and hear: "When's the last time you checked your gutters? Are you REALLY prepared for another season of leaves and snow..."

Now it's 8:00 and you are watching your favorite TV show when again the phone rings, you pick it up again, and this time you hear: "How would you like to win a free trip to the Bahamas? That's right, if you join our club today, you could very well win a trip to the Bahamas..."

It's 9:30, and the kids are in bed, and you are snuggled up on the sofa reading a good book, when once again the phone rings. Should you even bother to answer it? You do, and this time you hear: "Have you ever tasted Smokey Mountain Jellies? Nothing else in the world is as good as Smokey Mountain Jellies, and for the low price of..."

So, my question is this... Have you ever actually purchased something on the telephone via a telemarketer? I have to imagine that people do purchase things or else they wouldn't bother trying to sell them in the first place. Yet, nobody I know ever has purchased anything. What about you?

 

[hackorydackorydac]

Never ever have. Never ever will.

 

[mill4023]

When we had a landline, no, I never purchased anything from a telemarketer.
But we've been cell phone only for the past 5 years. I think in that time, we had 1 call from a telemarketer.

 

[emily1982]

Everyday this week someone has phoned at the same time every day to speak to my mom, i have this week off work, so everyday ive asked who they are and to ring back in the 'EVENING'. Well today, just, someone has just phoned and i said 'Are you Ace Europe by any chance? he said yes, i said well everyday ive told you shes at work and to ring back in the evening, he said 'yes after 8? i said 'yeah but if you are trying to sell her something or ask her something don't bother calling back at all'!

 

[freckles and boo]

That is why Caller ID is my friend.

I have very strong intuition and for some reason if the Caller ID lists PRIVATE or UNKNOWN I can feel if it is someone I want to talk to. We are also on the Do Not Call list, so usually it is charities calling - charities don't have to follow the Do Not Call rules. It is hard to tell a charity that you can't help, but you can't give to everyone.

But now that I think of it, I actually did spend over $10,000 on windows to a company that cold-called me, but we were in the market for windows and made them send out a representative and worked up the contract in person.

 

[Jennifer S]

I thought you were going to say "Have you ever hung up on or been rude to a TM" - my answer was all set to be yes. Now that I read it I say flat out NO WAY! I get more annoyed and would boycott instead,

 

[TheGoofster]

charities don't have to follow the Do Not Call rules. It is hard to tell a charity that you can't help, but you can't give to everyone.

It is definately a lot harder saying no to a charity, but when enough of them start calling in a row, it gets a bit easier.

 

[JR6ooo4]

Never bought anything, but I do like to tease them.
Once I let the lady go through the whole pitch, then said "Oh, my wife makes the decisions concerning that type of product, hold please..."
Wife lets them do the whole pitch again (while she is playing a computer game) then she hands them back to me saying "I'm not interested but my husband may be...., hold please"

then they start up again with the pitch... heheheheheee

Mikeeee

 

[NCDisneyMom]

No, I have never bought anything from over the phone. And, I've learned to very easily say "no" to the charities, as well. Quite frankly, I don't know if they are legit or not. If it sounds like something I would be remotely interested in giving to, I ask for something to be mailed to me in writing. 9 times out of 10, they say they can't do that, and I refuse to give my credit card over the phone. I have charities that I give to, and those are the ones that I will continue to give to.

The best telemarketing call I got was when I lived at home with my parents, in the house I grew up in. This, of course, was pre-caller ID, and pre-do not call lists. So, I answer the phone, and the guy starts his spiel. I try to interrupt him to tell him we are not interested, but he just railroads me, so I let him finish telling me why I should purchase new vinyl siding from him. He finally finishes, and I say "Gee, that sounds great. But I have a question. Can you put vinyl siding on a log cabin???". He was speechless, and hung up on me. And yes, we really did live in a real log cabin...no vinyl siding needed!!!

 

[lynxstch]

but how do you get rid of a caller who shows as unknown name, but lists the phone #...you pick up the phone and there's a recording saying "this is not a sales cal'l...and then goes on to tell about some terrific deals for stock traders and such?..we aren't stock traders, we are on the do not call list, we have an unlisted , unpublished phone #..and I have tried calling the # back to complain, but it's one of those 'only can call outside' things?
any ideas?

 

[DISNEYMOM23SONS]

Another best friend of the Caller ID here.

I have never purchased something from a telelmarketer and I never will!

 

[SC Minnie]

No I haven't. I don't even give to charities that use paid solicitors.

Our local rescue squad and vfd calls and asks for donations and we always donate but they are local people.

 

[Tazicket]

Nope- We're on the Do Not Call list.

 

[WhatATreat]

Nope, never bought anything over the phone. We are on the do not call list and have caller id and an answering machine so I can be darn sure I want to talk to someone before answering the phone.

 

[Eeyore'sthebest]

No, never purchased anything!! But I do enjoy annoying them in return.

Once, many years ago I had a telemarketer actually hang up on me. This was about 20 yrs ago and I received a person-to-person phone call. I was just out of college and lived with my parents. This person went on to tell me I had won one of 5 great prizes (cadillac, cash, fur coat, etc.) guaranteed. All they needed was my credit card number so I could get $400 worth of vitamins and the prize verification information would be mailed to me. I kept him on the phone for 25 minutes, he got his manager, etc. Finally they got so annoyed with me that they hung up.
The whole time I kept asking him to explain why I had to buy something to win a prize for a contest I never entered.

Recently had some guy do this to me and my DH. He supposedly entered a raffle at a bike show and he won this great disney vacation. He said "Wouldn't it be wonderful for you to take your kids to Disney?" Yeah sure, we're going in May and October this year. I kept asking how much it was going to cost me - $500!! He couldn't explain why I had to pay him money to win a prize. Finally, I just got so annoyed and told him that I owned a DVC time share and was an AP holder. It didn't cost me anything but gas money to get to Disney, why in heaven's name would I pay him $500 for 4 nights in a hotel in Orlando??!!

 

[juligrl]

My first cell phone is the one and only thing I have ever purchased from a telemarketer.
I guess I was the one in 1,000,000 calls that they make that are productive. Sorry all!

 

[TheGoofster]

My first cell phone is the one and only thing I have ever purchased from a telemarketer.
I guess I was the one in 1,000,000 calls that they make that are productive. Sorry all!

AHA, so it's your fault that these people keep continue to call. You're the one that gave them the hope to go on!!! That's 10 shame on you's.

 

[DaBoo]

I hate the fact they can use the phone service I pay for to bug me. Maybe we could get the TM company to pay our phone bills and then they could write it off their taxes as a business exp.

 

[mking624]

I've never purchased anything from telemarketing calls...not likely to ever do so either.

We have caller ID so I ignore private or unknown callers...and honestly I don't even pick up the phone for numbers I don't recognize because some teleelmarketers are starting to use local numbers. So unless it's a name/number I know, I screen my calls.

This also makes it easier for me to say no to charities, since I don't even pick up the phone to have to say the word "no." But in all honestly, I'm so tired of hearing about people scamming others by claiming they work for a charity. When I have talked to people regarding donating money to charity over the phone, I specifically ask them for an address I can mail a payment to...and I don't accept PO boxes. I also want a phone number I can call back. Using the information they provide me, I do my homework on it to see if it's legit. During the times I actually picked up the phone (pre-caller ID days), I've only had a couple of charities willing to provide me with that information without hesitation (and they wound up being legit). I've also had people very quickly end the conversation when I asked about that info. Interesting....

What I've been finding happening more often over here, though, is the number of collection agency calls we've been getting for people we've never even heard of. I've had to call several different agencies telling them that we don't know who these people are. Fortunately, they've always been decent about it and haven't called us back...but that doesn't stop the next agency from calling for new person. One of them we do know what happened...this local car dealer kept calling us looking for someone. I called them and spoke to them at least 3 times telling them we don't know who that person is and to STOP calling us. Every time they said "ok." And wouldn't you know it, they used our phone number when they turned that person's account to the collection agency...we found out when I asked the agency who gave them our number. Needless to say, I contacted the car dealer and had a lovely few words with them. I haven't had a problem with the dealer or that collections since.