Counter-Script

[LoudMusic]

Hate telemarketers?

http://www.xs4all.nl/~egbg/counterscript.html

Enjoy! Distribute!

 

[Sage]

Heh heh, some people have way too much time on their hands...

I hear that most states are going to adopt the "No telemarketers" phone list... and California is next up for approval. Rejoice!

 

[LoudMusic]

I'd like to create, manufacture, and distribute a black box that caller-IDs incoming calls and checks them against a list for you. If it's on the bad list, it answers and gives them a message to remove you from their list. Otherwise it lets it ring in the house. On a schedule it will call in to a central service and download a new list. The list is also updated by the users such that if a call is passed through, and the user presses a button sequence, a vote is cast to add that number to the database. If a certain number of unique votes are cast, it's added to the database and distributed on the next update session.

Fees could be nominal - just enough to get the hardware payed for and installed.

 

[GilesGuthrie]

I always answer the phone in our house. Before we were married, the phone was registered in my partner's name, so it was a clear giveaway, because the telemarketer would say "Mr Thompson?" and I'd say "No, what are you selling?"

Now we're ex-directory, so it's not a problem. Occasionally we get a call from our cable company, but I tend not to worry about them. They're usually trying to sell us TV channels that we don't want, or phone call packages that we don't want. I'm sarcastic to them (moi? sarcastic? surely some mistake!!!), but I'm always polite. The only trouble is when they phone me and I've been on an all-afternoon drinking session, two such calls go thus:

Them: Would you like to subscribe to FilmFour? It's a great channel full of films you know and films you don't.
Me: No thanks, I had it before on trial, and never watched it.
Them: But it's only £1 for the first month, and then £6 per month.
Me: Yeah, I know. But the point is that I had it before and never watched it. All the films on it I've either seen before and don't want to watch, or are rubbish, and I don't want to watch. Oh, and when are you going to start carrying F1 Digital [this is my pet issue with the TV company].
Them: I don't know, but I was talking about FilmFour.
Me: Yes, but we've already established that FilmFour is rubbish and I don't want it, and I want to know when you're going to start carrying F1 Digital which I do actually want, so this call would be more use to me if we talked about a channel that I do want rather than a channel that I don't.
Them: I'm sorry, I can't help you.
Me: OK, not to worry, thanks for your time.

And then there was the phone package:

Them: Would you like TalkUnlimited. It's only £25 per month for unlimited calls!
Me: No thanks, I don't really use the phone.
Them: But you could START using it. The talking's unlimited, you know.
Me: Can you see my phone bill from there?
Them: Yes.
Me: And have I ever spent more than £5 in any given month on phone calls?
Them: Err...
Me: Don't bother looking, because I haven't. I don't use the phone, and when I do, I use the free minutes on my mobile. In fact I only really receive calls on the land line. I don't spend anything like £25 on calls in a month ever, even when my wife is really going for it. So no, thanks. Thanks for your time.

It would be nice if they showed some intelligence in their calls.

And we have a "No cold calling: children sleeping" sign by the front door to the house as well. We don't have any children, sleeping or otherwise, but it seems to work! 😈

 

[Duke]

What truly amazes me are the number of calls I get from companies who don't know I'm already a client. Surely one easy way for them to avoid wasting time would be to eliminate their current customers from the call list. I'm not talking about upgrades to my existing services, I mean NEW calls.

"Hi, this is MCI. We'll pay you $10 to switch to our service." Ummm, MCI is already my long distance carrier. Can I have ten bucks anyway?

"Hi, this is FirstBank with good news! You're preapproved for a new credit card." I already have a FirstBank platinum card with a hefty credit limit, thank you. Didn't you know that?

The other thing I get, probably 3 times a week, are lengthy messages from credit card debt-reduction 'services' urging me to contact them immediately to help solve my credit card problems. These are especially funny since we haven't carried a balance in more than 10 years, and we always pay on time. I usually ask the 'counselors' if they are planning to help me pay my bill by sending me free money, since that's the only kind of help I need on that issue.

 

[Pako]

I used to be polite to "them". I used to care about "them". So what happened? What turned me into a raging maniac that slams phones down on tele-marketers? In the few years, it appears that our company that I work for has been exposed to EVERY list that's out there.. We have a bank of 100, outside phone numbers, than when a marketer hits our lines, it's usally one after another.

No with modern phone technology, these marketing companies have implimented computer driven, database dialing applications. The beuity of this is that the telephone company can detect when a "computer" generates the call. Being able to detect this type of call, the telephone company can also filter these calls. As a result of this service, we've managed to cut our telemarketing calls by 95%.

LoudMusic,

Love your "Black Box" idea! :thumbsup: