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Originally Posted by Martian
Funnily enough, being on the receiving end I've always found the most effective way to deal with telemarketers is to listen to what they say and then tell them I'm not interested. That's always stopped the calls and has the added advantage that if I ever do get solicited for something I'm interested in having I'll get a chance to hear about it and make a decision.
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Absolutely. There was a few different buttons I had on the keyboard to match the outcome of the call. If it dialed and got an answering machine, I'd hit F5 ("Answering Machine"). If it was a fax line, I'd hit F6. If I called and started my speel and they said "NOT INTERESTED!", were rude or simply hung up, I'd hit F10. F10 was "Call Back Scheduled 24 Hours" which meant that someone would call them back in 24+ hours. If they shouted "PUT ME ON THE DO NOT CALL LIST!!!" and hung up before I could verify they were 18 and the decision maker for the phone (legal requirement) I'd again hit F10. There were all sorts of coded acronyms used by staff to identify customers, so I might add a few choice acronyms to describe just how friendly they were.
On the other hand, if they were reasonable, listened to my schpeel and then politely said they were busy, or not interested, or that they didn't think they'd save money, then I'd hit F11. F11 brought up the Callback screen, and I could set a Callback interval. The polite ones got "Call Back 6 Months", our longest interval. I'd also put in the comments things like "Nice, polite, DNB"