Tuesday, 11 November 2008

Sweet revenge!

As one who has had so much hassle with 'spam calls', we are talking 20 or more calls a day with no one on the other end here, despite registering with the appropriate authorities to have it stopped, I found this little missive that arrived in my inbox more than a little amusing!

I think we should all make a concerted effort!
;o)

GETTING OUR REVENGE ON THE TELESALES PESTS.

Three Little Words That Work!!

1. The three little words:

'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 BT's 'beep-beep-beep' tone,
you know it's time to go back and hang up your handset .... You have efficiently completed your task.

These three little words could 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 then used to determine the best time of day for a 'real' salesperson 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 dialled the call and it kicks your number out of their system. Gosh, what a shame not to have your name in their system any longer!!!

3. When you get those 'pre-approved' letters in the mailfor everything from credit cards to 2nd mortgages and similar type junk, do not throw away the return envelope.

Most of these come with postage-prepaid return envelopes, right?

It costs them more than the regular postage 'IF' and when they are returned.

It costs them nothing if you throw them away! In that case, why not get rid of some of your other junk mail and put it in these cool little, postage-prepaid return envelopes .

Send an advert for your local chimney sweeper to American Express. They might need one!

Send a pizza coupon to HSBC ... in case their canteen packs up. You get the idea.

If you didn't get anything else that day, then just send them back their blank application form ... After all, it is their form!

If you want to remain anonymous, just make sure your name isn't on anything you return.

You can even send the envelope back empty if you want to just to keep them guessing! It still costs them, and it is their envelope after all . You are just returning it!!!

The banks and credit card companies are currently getting a lot of their own junk back in the post, but folks ..... We need to OVERWHELM them, in order to stop them.

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 Royal Mail busy. Since the Royal Mail are saying that e-mail is cutting into their business profits, let's help them so they will not need to increase postage costs again. You get the idea!

If enough people follow these tips, it will work....maybe you'll get very little junk mail anymore.

7 Comments:

Jennytc said...

Excellent idea, Gemmak. Those silent calls really annoy me - I'll definitely be pressing the hash key next time!

Ndinombethe said...

Brilliant~!

Gina said...

I shall definitely try these....

Jack said...

Usually, I enclose everything they sent me, along with a note saying that I will return everything on their dime unless they remove my name from their list.

I once wrapped a brick, attached an envelope to it and dropped it in the mail. I received no more offers from them.

I understand that the post office will no longer accept that ploy.

Anonymous said...

Some real good ideas Gemmy, I once got so peeved with persistant mailings the company got a doggy do's back in a jiffy bag, at their own expense obviously!
I shall implement your suggestions forthwith don'tcha know...
(Ok, thats enough of the ultra polite c**p)
I agree Gal, stuff it back to them, make 'em pay twice...LOL

Anonymous said...

Chippy's idea might seem very attractive, but sadly I'm pretty sure it's illegal to send dog poop through the post and you'd be open to prosecution!

I always just put the phone down quietly (off the stand) with those nuisance cold-calls. I can only hope it costs them a lot of money.

riskybiz said...

They have this program in Canada where you can phone this number and you request to get off the telemarketer lists.
First day running, the government sets up two telephone lines and hundreds of thousands phone and the lines crash for several days.