Those Annoying Phone Calls

I recently spent some time at home during the daytime to work on a manuscript, and was being repeatedly interrupted by telemarketers who were trying to send me credit cards, opportunities for prizes, etc., etc. The rate was about 4-6 per day, noth including those that always appeared at dinner-time. So I decided to invest a little time and effort to see what I could do about it.

I produced quickly a form on which I could save some information about each call, which would also serve as a record that I had informed each caller that I wanted to be put on their "don't call" list. As I got each call I picked up the pad of forms, interrupted the caller and said that before I could talk to them I needed some information for my files. This included:

Personal name of the caller
Name of the caller's employer
Address
Name of the company for whom the solicitation was being made
Telephone number of the caller

I then informed them of the time and date (which I also recorded) and that I was keeping a record of my request to have them put me on their "Do Not Call" list. I also told them (I had a script written at the bottom of the form) that any further use of my phone and time for commercial purposes within one year would result in my billing them for $100 to cover my costs of telephone use and personal time.

I got some interesting responses:

I don't have a phone number here, you are being called by a computer.
I don't have an employer.
I'm using my personal phone and wouldn't want you to have that number (I generally responded that they were calling my person phone and thus fair was fair!)
I don't have a "Don't call list".

I got hung up on a couple of times, and few more times I had to insist on talking to a supervisor.

It only took about a week (the first week in June 1997), and since then I have not had a phone call of this type (it is now the end of July). Although the calls generally seemed to be different, I get the impression that there were only a few Telemarketing companies involved and thus very quickly I was off several lists.

Try it, it is worth the effort!