How to Avoid Telemarketers and Junk Mail

Have you been at home about to enjoy a good home cooked meal, or a movie when the telephone rang? Who was calling you not your Mother, family or friends...It was the dreaded Telemarketer.

Not only did this person call at a bad time but when you told them you were not interested they continued to read their script. This article will help you get rid of telemarkers once and for all. Get ready to breathe.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

1. 
   DO NOT CALL LIST LOGO

   You can go to https://www.donotcall.gov/default.aspx to register for the National DO NOT CALL LIST. You can register up to three numbers and they will appear the next day. The Telemarketers have 31 days to stop calling you or you can file a complaint. (It is important that you verify your registration by checking email within 72 hours and clicking on the verification link. If you do not click the link within 72 hours you will not be added to the list.

2. 
   Please Hold

   For all the other calls when you get on the phone and hear that it's a telemarker. While they are reading their script. Ask them to Hold on for a minute and place the phone down. Go to other part of the house and stay for a period of time. Once you return to the phone the telemarker will have disconnected the call. (They are all about selling to as many people as they can). So waiting for you to return is not an option for them. After a few attempts they will take you off their list.

3. When you get phone calls with no human on the other end, this is a telemarketing technique where a machine makes phone calls and records the time of day when a person answers the phone. This technique is used to determine the best time of day for a "real" sales person to call back and get someone at home. What you can do after answering, if you notice there is no one there, is to immediately start hitting your button on the phone, 6 or 7 times, as quickly as possible. This confuses the machine that dialed the call and it kicks your number out of their system. Gosh, what a shame not to have your name in their system any longer!

4. When you get "ads" enclosed with your phone or utility bill, return these "ads" with your payment. Let the sending companies throw their own junk mail away. When you get those "pre-approved" letters in the mail for everything from credit cards to 2nd mortgages and similar type junk, do not throw away the return envelope. Most of these come with postage-paid return envelopes, right? It costs them more than the regular 37 cents postage "IF" and when they receive them back.

5. Send an ad for your local chimney cleaner to American Express. Send a pizza coupon to Citibank. If you didn't get anything else that day, then just send them their blank application back! If you want to remain anonymous, just make sure your name isn't on anything you send them. You can even send the envelope back empty if you want to just to keep them guessing! It still costs them 37 cents. The banks and credit card companies are currently getting a lot of their own junk back in the mail, but folks, we need to OVERWHELM them. Let's let them know what it's like to get lots of junk mail, and best of all they're paying for it...Twice! Let's help keep our postal service busy since they are saying that e-mail is cutting into their business profits, and that's why they need to increase postage costs again. You get the idea ! If enough people follow these tips, it will work ---- I have been doing this for years, and I get very little junk mail anymore.

Tips & Warnings

• Register online for the National DO NOT CALL list
• You can register up to three numbers at one time
• If you continue to receive calls, go to the website and file a complaint
• Know about the laws for DO NOT CALL list in your state.
• Political, charities and survey telemarkers are not covered on this list.
• Remember to check email within 72 hours and click on the confirm link to finish the process. Otherwise your number(s) will not be added.
• Every Five Years you will have to re-register your number(s).
• Not all telemarketers are covered by the National DO NOT CALL list.
• IF your phone becomes disconnected or the service plan changes or any other changes in service and or billing name can undo your registration to the list.

[coachmac4]

on 11/10/2007 I especially like #2 and #3. I hadn't thought about either of those. Way to go!

[Lindah]

on 9/14/2007 that is good. what I would do is start having your wife say please hold and see if that will get them to stop calling all together.

[SpeedRacer]

on 9/10/2007 I like to yell "Dinner's Ready!" across the room when my wife picks up the phone with a telemarketer. It gives her an easy out to hang up the phone.