Tips for Dealing with Solicitors

Doesn't it really frustrate you when you are sound asleep on your day off, and your phone rings at sometime around 8:15 a.m.? Isn't it even worse when it is an unwanted sales call? For months my family was annoyed with calls about charitable donations, septic products, and magazine subscriptions. We also were receiving calls daily for people who didn't live at our residence, people we didn't know. We tried politely explaining we were not interested, or that they had the wrong number. The calls continued. We registered with the ' Do Not Call' list. The calls continued still. I got creative, and it is a rare occasion when a telemarketer calls now.

First, I answer and if it is a sales person, I start pressing buttons on the phone. Then I say " Who the hell is this?" I will always say "Oh yeah, hang on." I then turn my tv or stereo up really loud, and lay the phone by the speakers. I leave the telemarketer waiting. Time is money to telephone sales people, and after wasting five minutes, they are not likely to bother you again. This doesn't always work. The wrong numbers are coming from a collection agency, who continues to call for someone named American Ribbon, which just sounds weird to begin with for a name, but they don't give up so easily. I continue to call the number back, and explain who I am, they can't find me, or my address in their system... So they just keep calling my house for American Ribbon. When they call now I answer as if they are 'live on the air'. This confuses anyone, and it is comical for my family. We pretend they have called a radio talk show. Sometimes we pretend that the unwanted caller has reached a local pizza shop, they usually hang up pretty fast!