Telemarketing is only done because it is profitable for those doing it. Remove the profit and it will go away. Unfortunately, today people in Government think they can and should control everything--except themselves and the money they take from Lobbyists. But that is another story. The government's ineffective "Do Not Call List" has too many exceptions, and it is expensive and nearly impossible to police and enforce.
I was told a way to get on a company's don't call list is: Play the menu games until you get to a live person. Then: Give them hell using the most obscene language you know, until they hang up. I wonder about the legal ramifications of using bad language is in response to a harassing phone call?
A better way would be to allow (or make) the telephone companies provide a service somewhat like the *69 Call Return they now have. For those unfamiliar with: *69 Call Return, I copied the following from my June 2008 San Jose AT&T White Pages phone book, page A8:
*69 Call Return -- Dials back your last caller automatically when you can't get to the phone in time. Or when you didn't click over for your Call Waiting beep, use *69 to return the call. Its already on your phone. You pay only when you use it, pay $1.99 per use up to $15.92 monthly maximum or enjoy unlimited use for a low monthly subscription fee. Call Return is $6.00 a month with a one-time installation fee of $7.50.
I quoted the above to show: Phone companies now have equipment to know from where a call was placed. Furthermore, for years they have had 900 and 976 Area Codes where they charge, for the owner of the service, whoever calls the 900 or 976 number. Thus, we know they have the technology to implement what I am proposing.
For this write up, I will assume *99 is how you use the service. When I call *99 the last caller would be charge a fee, say $1.00, part or all of which would be credited to my phone bill. Thus, when I received a telemarketing call I could talk or just hang up, and then dial *99. Believe me, this would get me on that telemarketer's do not call list! Further, *99 could be used to stop other harassing calls such as from an ex-lover, a bill collector or anybody else I don't want calling me.
We pay for our telephones, and give it a high priority in our lives; not for an advertising media, a contact for a charity, or as a substitute for a letter written by a lawyer. We pay for our telephone service voluntarily. It should only be for our convenience.
Try to get a toll-free number for the telemarketer's company. Often this can be done by sounding interested but having to delay signing up for their "service" right now, hence needing a number to call them. Or simply getting the name of the company and then getting a number from the yellow pages or any of the phone number look-up services on the internet.
When you get their toll-free number, call it. Most phones today have a Re-Dial feature, so it is little effort to call the same number many times. When you have nothing to do, repeatedly call the toll-free number and just hang up after it is answered. Each time you call a toll-free number it costs the called party something like a dime. (There are many different arrangements the owner of a toll-free number can have, but they do have to pay for its' use.) If everybody would start doing this it would eventually have an effect. Further a good computer programmer could create a program that would do the repeated calling all night long when you are not using your phone line. When the telemarketing firm gets their phone bill and sees they have been called hundreds of times from your number, you will probably get a final call from them to find out what in hell is going on. If we could get thousands of people to do this they eventually would have to have their number changed. They won't like this and will probably put you on their "don't call list". Or maybe they would decide TeleMarketing is not the best way to advertise.
But, if you don't want to find yourself on a "sucker list", it is most important that you never make any telemarketing call profitable. Even if it is a charity for your favorite relative.
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