Algorhythm points out the irony that he's paying $3 per month to SBC/Ameritech for their "Privacy Manager" to block telemarketers, knowing full well that the company most responsible for his junk telephone calls is SBC Ameritech! He asks for suggestions...
Well, as I've discussed before on DT, I used to get 5-10 junk phone calls per day at home. I used the script from Junkbusters that he said he's too busy to try. And I can say that it worked wonders. I can't remember the last time I got a junk cold call. And with a bit of modification, it can be done rather quickly.
I embellished the script a little, especially when it was clear the cold caller didn't know the law...
The most important thing to keep in mind during a phone call from one of these guys is that the person making the call is trained to overcome your objections and can be rather resistent to your script. If you don't get joy out of tormenting the cold caller and having them call you a freak, as I managed to get one really smooth cold caller to "lose it" and do, then in my experience you can speed up the process considerably with the following:
"Hello, I'm calling for MCI/Sprint (whoever) and this is a courtesy call."
(The FOR is a dead giveaway that he works for a telemarketing company and NOT MCI/Sprint/whoever. Courtesy call = junk phone call)
May I speak to your supervisor?
(I never heard a "no" to this one).
"Yes".
Do you maintain a do not call list?
(If they say no, I always say, "Do you realize that you are personally liable in court to pay me $5,000 for calling me when you do not maintain a Do Not Call List". That always gets their attention. I think the law is the company is liable, but by making it personal and scaring them, you usually get them to pay attention)
"Yes".
Please put me on it!
That's all it takes, but to be more effective, I would definitely add the following lines:
Do you work FOR MCI/Sprint (whoever) or do you work for a telemarketing company making calls ON BEHALF of MCI/Sprint AND other companies?
(Sometimes they will resist telling the truth on this one, but the supervisor generally knows the law and knows that you are a PITA who will never give up and will generally cooperate with a little prodding)
"A telemarketing company".
Can you please put me on the Do Not Call List for both MCI/Sprint (whoever)
AS WELL AS ALL OTHER COMPANIES YOU CALL FOR?
"Yes".
You're done. It takes about 2-3 months of this before you stop receiving calls. Although the concept was from JunkBusters, the fact is that it works and I'm telling you real-life experience.
Additionally, by the time this problem was going down, my brother bought me the TeleZapper for my birthday so I can't say how much it helped, but it's only on one line. And the calls stopped coming from both lines...
The only junk phone calls I have to deal with is Junk Faxes. And they sure seem to defeat the telezapper. I also have to think with the frequency of their use, that they have found a way to defeat paying any charges on their phone bill as well.
As far as Junk Faxes go, it is clearly violative of the law. And there are often urls mentioned in the fax "newsletter" and phone numbers, so I'm a bit puzzled as to why they haven't been shut down...
