What can I do about people calling my home phone and trying to get me to donate money to their organization? I tell them no all of the time which makes me feel bad but the money we have we need for ourselves. I have our phone number on the do not call lists and they have been there for a year now, so I don't know how I can get them to stop.
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GET THEIR NAME AND ANY OTHER INFO IF YOU CAN THEN REPORT THEM TO YOUR ATTORNEY GENERALS OFFICE. THEY CAN BE FINED FOR SOLICITING ON A DO NOT CALL LIST
Here's what the FCC has to say about it:
www.fcc.gov/
Here's what our neighbor does. They have a chihuahua who hates the phone. When they get one of those calls he politely says, "I'd better let you talk to Miguel, he's in charge of that".
Call 1-888-382-1222 or go on line www.donotcall.gov
If you don't answer the calls, they will call every day until someone does. Just answer it and say you are not interested and to take you off their list. Also tell if they call back you will report them. If they call back do what imaqt1962 says. Report them.
have your phone unlisted, that way it will not be in the phone book which they sell that list.
The calls for donations are not subject to the "Do Not Call" list - - only the ones that are trying to sell something. I always ask that the ones wanting a donation to sent me a copy of their last year's financial statement so that I can know the percentage that is used correctly.
Charities are exempt from the Do Not Call List, so are political organizations (conveniently the same guys that wrote the law!).
If a charity calls me, I tell them that I NEVER donate to charities that make phone solicitations because I despise being disturbed at home and to please remove my phone number from their call list. Once you've asked to be removed, by law they must remove your number from their call list. Usually, that's all that's needed.
get an air horn.
Ziggee
We have an unlisted number, and this does not help. I have found out that these people go down a list of numbers in numerical order till they get someone, ie 555-1111, 555-1112, etc.
we have Caller ID on our phone and several added features as well. One of them is Privacy Director and Call Block.
Privacy Director 'screens' calls made from numbers that can't be called back and I love this feature.
Of course you know how Caller ID works. Call Block works pretty well but won't block out of state numbers. That's where the Caller ID comes in and if all else fails, use the Jerry Sienfeld bit:
A funny thing my mom did. When I was visiting her one day the phone rang. She answered and listened to them a short time. Then said, "I'd love to hear more but, can you hang on a second?" She put the phone down then proceeded to carry on the conversation we were having. I asked her what she was doing? She replied, talking to you, oh, don't worry about them they'll get tired of waiting and hang up.
It's true that the donation people are not subject to the Do Not Call list. Get caller ID if you don't already have it. Never answer a call from a number you don't recognize. If it is a legitimate call, they'll leave a message & you can call them back right away. If you do happen to answer a pesky donation call, use my method. I just very quietly hang up without uttering a word. End of problem.
Make something up. OMG, my baby just took off her diaper and is doing her business on the floor. or the sob story I stayed up all night with a teething baby, we just got to sleep and YOU called. Pretend to lose it. Ask is this the Pizza delivery boy asking for directions. Pretend that your connection is faulty and tell them your life story (make it up a la soap opera) Tell them you are having a psychotic episode and you are on the other line with your shrink so you can stop hearing voices. Ask them if THEY are one of your voices. If you act just plain nuts, most will make notations and not call. Whistles work too. I used to be a telemarketer and so I can relate some stories from the funny to the weird to the scary. I also have been the one at home. The funniest one I ever told a solicitor was I was in premature labour and was waiting for a call from my doctor. Then I screamed like I was being split in two. I was partially telling the truth. I was two weeks overdue and was ready to have my baby, but it wasn't at that time. They hung up very quickly.
I want to stop all solicitors from calling me
#800 565 8280 has been calling numerous times between 6 to 8 pm. Cannot answer cuz we are hearing impaired....Thanks
As much as I hate to advocate this, do NOT give one red cent to ANY telephone cold-call charity. These "charities" raise funds by SELLING the phone numbers of contributors to other "charities", and you end up getting bombarded with requests for donations. Also, notice that all of the calls start off with, "Hello. I'm calling ON BEHALF OF (charity's name)...." There are COMPANIES out there working on a FOR-PROFIT basis that are basically charity call centers.
This is a CLEAR abuse of the government's DO NOT CALL provisions. Simply hanging up on them or not answering won't do any good - your phone number will remain in their computer's system, and it's the computer that's dialing out. US consumers need Congress to ACT to close the provision in the DO NOT CALL legislation that allows this. Charities should have to make their OWN calls, and all calls should have to be manually dialed, and the charities must be LEGALLY compelled to remove a number from their call list at the owner's request, and charities should be BARRED from sharing or selling their lists of numbers of persons who made donations.
I hate being so cold to charities, but I give through payroll deduction at work to the United Way and the Combined Federal Campaign. QUIT BUGGING ME AT HOME!
Just say "tell me more" and lay the phone down. I've had some go on for 10 minutes, before I hear the wah, wah, that they have hung up. You waste their time not yours.
I'm getting calls from a "credit card services company regarding my credit card interest rates" about every week now...sometimes 3-4 times a week. I always ask for a supervisor or to be removed from the list, where I am hung up on...every single time. I think I'm going to ask for a way to contact them or the name of the company next time so that I can report them. I'll try to be sneaky about it next time.
I get callers speaking Chinese. Since I only speak English and Polish they hang up on me. One of them even called me three times in a 10 min. period to find someone he could talk to. I could not trace the number displayed. How do I get rid of them?
Editor's Note: In this case I think it is probably someone with the wrong number trying to reach someone.
Re the Chinese phone calls. When my husband answers they ask him if he would like to save money on long distance. The phone displays a 1-866 number or a 1-00001 number. The caller takes a while to answer and at times gets rude if I don't answer in the "correct" language. I have already call Our old phone company to stop calling and the manager's response was "Yes I speak English but what is your problem? You work for us?"
Help there are times the phone won't stop ringing.
888 887 5430 i posted the above but had the number incorrect.
These people are calling everyday sometimes twice a day. I finally answered the phone and they were rude, tried to get personal information verification. When I refused to give them information they said I was breaking up and they could not hear me- which was false- The man "Mr. Searl" as he identified himself then raised his voice said if I did not give him information he could not tell me why he was calling- the then hung up.
With the pre-recorded solicitations, you can never get any information.
Is there any way to push for some kind of law that prevents solicitation of any kind? Including: sales, charities, research of any kind including political? I don't pay for my phone just to have someone else use it for their business! I have an unlisted #, caller id, privacy director and I'm listed on the DNC registry. I continue to get calls even on Sundays and the evenings. Now it's some research company saying they're from a bank.
I told one woman, you have called a secure military base and i want to know why?
We use a 'phone zapper' which apparently sends a signal to the computer auto dialter used by the 'offender'that suggests the number they have dialed is out of service. The number dialed is then supposedly removed from the directory. This works for both answered and messaged calls. I noticed a bit of a decrease after initially using this about 4 years ago but lately more calls are getting through.
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We own a condo on Maui. We have it in a rental pool so must have a land line. We get solicitation call constantly. When I ask them to remove the number from their list, they hang up before I can finish the sentence. How do I get to someone who can stop this madness. The company that is the most frequent caller is something called Card Services. Toni R.
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I keep getting soliciting calls on my cell phone from phone number 847-211-3451. It is an automated machine and when I call back it says phone number is not recognized, try again and so on. This is ridiculous and I really hope it stops.
Biljana D.
Customize your phone system. Create a preset list of contact. Numbers not included in the list will be blocked or directed to your voicemail.This can then limit incoming calls.
One day I realized that I was able to get the telemarketers to stop calling me by just making a new greeting on my answering machine that has a long pause after I say Hello".
What you have to do is say, Hello and then wait 2 seconds.
Then I say I am sorry but we are unable to come to the phone right now, so after the tone would you please leave a message ".
The "Hello" with the long pause will cause their computer to think there is a live person on the phone and then it connects you to a real person - A phone solicitor.
Then after they hang up on you by pressing "Release" on their phones 2 or 3 times, their computer system will sometimes take your number off of their auto dial list.
" Hello " ------ I am sorry but we are unable to come to the phone right now , so after the tone would you please leave a message ".
Also if everyone would do this the telemarketers will go out of business in a few weeks. The reason this will happen is because their computers dial hundreds of numbers at a time looking for someone to say Hello and now hundreds of answering machines will say Hello. :)
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