Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: notesfiles Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxl!ihnp4!zehntel!hplabs!hp-pcd!hp-dcd!hpcnoe!barrett From: barrett@hpcnoe.UUCP (barrett) Newsgroups: net.consumers Subject: Re: Re: Junk Calls Message-ID: <8100001@hpcnoe.UUCP> Date: Sun, 19-Aug-84 23:00:00 EDT Article-I.D.: hpcnoe.8100001 Posted: Sun Aug 19 23:00:00 1984 Date-Received: Tue, 14-Aug-84 01:26:04 EDT References: <2891@utah-cs.UUCP> Organization: Hewlett-Packard - Fort Collins, CO Lines: 75 Nf-ID: #R:utah-cs:-289100:hpcnoe:8100001:000:3253 Nf-From: hpcnoe!barrett Aug 11 19:00:00 1984 About how to handle receipt of obnoxious junk telephone calls, there are several strategies. The one that I tend to use is: 1) Excuse me, I have to check on something for a moment, can you hold a second? I then go back to bed and leave the phone off the hook until I hear the click. These calls typically come on Saturday or sunday morning. If the person on the other end is talking a mile a minute after I say hello, then I just don't say anything and go back to bed and wait until they hangup. It is amazing how long they will talk sometimes before realizing that there is no-one listening. If they call at a particularly bad time (before 8 am on sunday), then they get the all out polite treatment as follows: Hello? Hi, I am calling for obnoxious widgets incorporated and am glad to inform you that you have just won a prize; all you have to do is buy the wonderful-widget. This little gem....Well, Mr. Barrett, how many should I sign you up for? Well, I am really kind of undecided at this point, is there anything else I should know about your product? Does that help? Yes. It does indeed. Can you think of ANYTHING at all else that I should know about this product, or ANY OTHER product that you are selling? Thank you, you have done an excellent job in informing me about your product (line). I now know that I will never need it and can tell everyone I know all about it. Bye. The last strategy was used after a good friend of mine, who worked as a telephone solicitor informed me of how they are evaluated: by the number of calls that they make. He said that being hung up on was just fine since he could go on with the next person very quickly. The strategy of hanging on as long as possible has the side effect of saving some other poor person from being awakend with this crap, and reducing the effectivness of phone soliciting in general. In that way, it may eventually be eliminated as a means of trying to sell products. Before I get tons of hate mail from people: It is unfortunate that the poor telephone solicitor on the other end of the phone line is caught in the middle here. One strategy may be to try and climb the buerocratic ladder to get to a responsible person by asking to speak with the solicitor's boss. I used to try to be polite to them, but too many calls waking me up that didn't even give me a chance to get ONE single word in for 5 minutes became too annoying. It would be nice if I could have a way to prevent soliciting occuring to my home at all by informing the phone company, and whoever gives out the phone numbers could delete mine from their lists. Solicitors then would be warned and would get whatever treatment a trespassor would get. Does anyone know of a way to prevent soliciting in advance? Dave Barrett hplabs!hp-dcd!barrett