How to Handle Political Telemarketing?

TheOtherChimeraTwin writes "Slashdot has touched on telemarketing in the past. The No Call lists work pretty well for me except for a flood of political calls. They guys use automated dialers with recorded messages and use bogus caller id information, calling back multiple times. Political surveys are done by real people, but they hang up on me if I stray from answering their questions. Does anyone have a solution better than just hanging up on these slime? I'd just vote for their opponent, but sometimes I'm getting called by both sides. The distraction of these calls is annoying and the problem is only going to get worse."

Get a cell phone, ditch the landline

[Anonymous Coward]

I took the plunge a couple of months ago, and I have yet to get one spam phone call since. Cell phone prices are comparable to landline phone prices and come with lots of nifty features (like free long-distance calling).

An answering maching is your friend.

[Maclir]

If we get a call from a number we don't recognise, or is blocked from giving the caller id, we let the answering machine take it. If the person starts to leave a message, and we want to talk to them, we pick up. But telemarketers hang up as soon as the hear a machine.

Tips

[tonyr1988]

Unfortunately, political groups are exempt from the "Do Not Call" lists. I don't have a home phone, so I have the joy of not having to worry about any telemarketers. From various web sources, it looks like there's no real action you can take (legally) to proactively defend yourself. However, I've found two possible solutions:

• When you do get a telephone solicitation, find out on whose behalf they are calling, ask that you be permanently removed from their calling list, and tell them that you are writing this information down. If they call back, demand to talk to a manager and complain and/or call the Consumer Protection Division of your local State Attorney General's office.
• Consider products such as the Telezapper [telezapper.com] and these [slashdot.org].

Get a cell phone

[c0d3h4x0r]

What the hell are you doing still using a land line, anyway?

Cancel your land line and get a cell phone (and remember to put a text-messaging block on it). You won't receive ANY telemarketing calls.

Re:Hang up

[deadhammer]

Won't work. Had to work telemarketing about five years ago (not the high point of my life), and they DO distinguish between "no thanks" and "do not call". "No thanks" simply means you're getting recycled back into the "2nd run" call list. "Do not call" means just that, if they violate it it's a $500.00 fine. So here's what you say:

"Let me interrupt you. I do not appreciate these calls, period. I'm not interested in your (service/product/political pitch). Put me on your Do Not Call list, and I forbid you from sharing my phone information with affiliates or third parties. This WILL take effect immediately, I will take action if I get another call. Thank you. *click*"

If they try to sell you that "Our systems process do not call requests within thirty days, you may get another phone call" bullshit, inform them that do not call requests are immediate. If you get another call, you will take legal action and report it to the authorities. They DO have to record their calls, so they will have a backlog including the DNC request. Just be firm, tell them to put you on the do not call list, reassure them that you expect it to be immediate, and hang up. Don't take any shit from them, and you'll be fine.

Re:Do what I did

[nutrock69]

> The downside to doing something like this is that you can get someone fired...

These are Telemarketers who consider themselves exceptions to the various "Do-Not-Call" laws. Where's the downside?

Re:Do what I did

[Anonymous Coward]

There is one independent congressman, Bernie Sanders of Vermont, and he is running for Senate this year. The race to succeed him, at present time, is more or less a dead heat between the Democrat, Peter Welch, and the Republican, Martha Rainville.

There is also, at present time, one independent senator, Jim Jeffords of Vermont. Jeffords was a member of the Republican Party, but he switched to become an independent very early in the George W. Bush presidency. He caucuses with the Democrats now, and has done so since he became an independent, which made the Democrats the majority party in the Senate until the Class of 2002 was inaugurated, at which time the Republicans took back over.

Jeffords will be replaced by another independent this year in Bernie Sanders. Sanders, like his predecessor, will caucus with the Democrats. Sanders is a self-identified socialist, but Jeffords was always just a little too "what can you do for me?" for the Republicans. A lot of times Jeffords' leaving the GOP is attributed to his being too liberal for the party. That's not so; he was not that much more liberal than his northeastern colleagues Olympia Snowe, Susan Collins, or Lincoln Chafee. At the time that the Democrats were looking for someone to flip sides so that the Democrats could achieve a majority, they targeted two senators most heavily: Jeffords and John McCain of Arizona. The Republicans targeted two Democrats for the same purpose: Ben Nelson of Nebraska and Joe Lieberman of Connecticut.

If Lieberman should lose his primary against Ned Lamont, and if Lieberman should subsequently run in the general election and win under the "Connecticut for Lieberman" ticket, he presumably would serve as an independent in the 110th Congress. He would, like Sanders and Jeffords before him, caucus with the Democrats. In that, the best case scenario as of January 2007, here's your percentage of independents in the U.S. Congress:

House of Representatives: 0%
U.S. Senate: 2%

Sorry, but there are not several independent congressmen. Any potentially successful third party in the United States, with the sole exception of the American Independent Party (the anti-illegal immigration party whose figurehead is Jim Gilchrist of California), has not yet been founded.