Getting Even with Telemarketers & JUnk Mail

[NightOwl]

a friend sent this--it is amusing and  informative.  I thought some of you might find it interesting.  I certainly did!  :#:#:#**
*

Revenge!!*
*by A. Rooney
Andy Rooney's TIPS FOR  HANDLING TELEMARKETERS*

Three Little Words That Work !!**
*(1)The three little words are: "Hold on, Please..."**
*Saying this, while putting down your phone and walking off*
(instead of hanging-up immediately) would make each telemarketing call so
much more time-consuming that boiler room sales would grind to a halt.**

Then when you eventually hear the phone company's "beep-beep-beep" tone, you know it's time to go back and hang up your handset, which has efficiently
completed its task. These three little words will help eliminate telephone
soliciting.**

(2) Do you ever get those annoying phone calls with no one 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. Since doing this, my phone calls have
decreased dramatically.**
*

THIS IS THE BEST ONE**
*(3) Another Good Idea: 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.
*It costs them nothing if you throw them away! The postage was around*
50 cents before the last increase and it is according to the weight. In that
case, why not get rid of some of your other junk mail and put it in these
cool little, postage-paid return envelopes.

One of Andy Rooney's* (60 minutes) ideas.

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!**
*Eventually, the banks and credit card companies will begin getting their own
junk back in the mail.**

*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!**
*

[birol]

Sounds like a good idea ! All of them ! I will try the retirn the junk mail in pre-paid envelopes scheme

[angelsmom10]

....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.
*It costs them nothing if you throw them away! The postage was around*
50 cents before the last increase and it is according to the weight. In that
case, why not get rid of some of your other junk mail and put it in these
cool little, postage-paid return envelopes.
 
.....*

I've been doing this for years.

[abbear]

When my daughters were born we got a large amount of junk mail to do with baby stuff.  I also had some bricks lying around.  Got rid of all my bricks

[AustinBoston]

I once heard of someone who decided to try to heat his house with junk mail.

He started by obtaining a P.O. Box, amd making sure everyone important to him knew that he would only read mail from the P.O. Box.  He had the mailing addresses for legit bills cvhnged to the P.O. Box.

Then he started filling in those "product registration" cards, sending in the sweepstakes entries, and subscribing to every newsletter he could afford.

He always checked one of the higher income brackets, and always checked that he had purchased things through the mail.

It started as a trickle, but soon became a flood.  Eventually, the post office was sending his junk mail in it's own delivery truck.  Then it went to a larger truck.  Officials complained, but there wasn't anything they could do.

He was more successful than he'd hoped, and had way more junk mail than he could burn.  He tried to come up with ways to generate his own electricity, but I don't think that was successful.

I read about this many years ago (might have been in the 1970's).  I don't know what the new owners did (or will do) when he moves.

Austin

[NightOwl]

I once heard of someone who decided to try to heat his house with junk mail.

He started by obtaining a P.O. Box, amd making sure everyone important to him knew that he would only read mail from the P.O. Box.  He had the mailing addresses for legit bills cvhnged to the P.O. Box.


He was more successful than he'd hoped, and had way more junk mail than he could burn.  He tried to come up with ways to generate his own electricity, but I don't think that was successful.

I read about this many years ago (might have been in the 1970's).
Austin

AB, if this was way back in the seventies, by now with the volume of junk mail he'd be getting, this guy could generate enough juice for a whole city!:J

A big disadvantage of sticking varied trash in the envelopes and mailing them back, is that we get so much crap, I'd have to hire a secretary to handle the envelope stuffing and mailing!  

[vjm1639]

I've been doing this for years.

I knew I liked you!  ROTFL
 
    ---------  me too!  

[B-flat]

I hate those fragranced things they put in with my bill for a chain department store as some will trigger my allergies. :mad:   It makes we want to throw away the whole bill and tell them I sneezed it into oblivion and they will have to send me another without the stink in it.

As for telemarketers, I'm on the DNC list and I now rarely get any calls unless it's from some slick ones claiming I ordered from them in the past or that they are an affiliated partner of someone.  The latest local scam has to do with the Fire Department fundraisers.  They have had to stop using an independent company that was calling and calling people and have gone back to doing local fundraising.  Unfortunately another company picked up on this and claimed they were.....you guessed it......the new company raising funds for the firefighters.  By the time it was discovered, the thieves had skipped town with the money.  Be aware that on political and charities exempt from DNC rules, you can ask that you be removed from their list and if they call you again, they are subject to the fines and penalties.

[Acts 2:38 girl]

When you don't hear anything on the other line, that is a machine, but what it's doing is calling 10 people and basiclly, whoever picks up 1st gets the sales call.  Every other call is hung up on.  At least thats what the telephone service lady told me.  

[B-flat]

New rules in effect require that no more than 3% of calls that are answered by a person are abandoned like when no one is on there when you answer, phone must ring for at least 15 seconds or 4 rings before disconnecting,  must connect to a sales rep within 2 seconds of a consumer's greetings & if not must place a recorded message stating the name and phone number of the sales rep, recorded message can't include a sales pitch, and they must maintain records showing compliance with the requirements already listed.  The slick sales guys and charity groups all try to act like you have given money in the past, even though I know I have not, in most cases (because I support local things), and when they start that, I immediately get their name, company and telephone number.  I tell them right then and there to remove my name from their calling list and put me on their company specific do not call list.  I also say I am keepig a record of the call, their name, phone #, company  and that if they call again a complaint will be filed with the FTC and with the Attorney Gen of NC.  That stops it this kind of call right quick!

You can file a complaint with the FTC either online or by calling a toll-free number.  Violators could be fined up to $11,000 per incident, so it is important that you keep a log of the calls, person's name, company, and if possible their phone number.  Here's the website.  //www.ftc.gov/donotcall  

Another thing, telemarketers are required  (one year from implementation of the DNC rules) to transmit their phone number and if possible their name on your caller ID devices.  As always (like spam) telemarketers are slick and will use any and all ways to call you even if you are on  the DNC list.  The only way to make the rules work is to file complaints.  It must be that many of them think people won't take the time or make the time to do it.  On the other side of the coin, they know that many will not take the time to understand the rules.

[Acts 2:38 girl]

Boy, B-flat you must have really been bombarded with telemarketer calls!  That's some pretty fierce action!  

 

[B-flat]

I certainly have been called by a lot of people who are violating the DNC rules.  They are using any and all tactics to try to put one over me and I am getting tough.  I let 'em know right away that I know the rules.  Some will just hang up in my ear right away cause they know I can make real trouble.  What gets me is the ones who claim they are an affiliate partner of someone I have a business relationship with.....anything to try to sell their wares, of course.