You should be able to find a website filled with Arnold Schwarzenegger soundboards, buttons with audio clips of his more famous movie dialogue, complete with humourous examples of them used to make prank calls, or respond to cold callers.
As a previous poster has said..
I have a sort of police whistle near my most used landline phone , and when these international calls come through.. ( I have caller ID and TPS ).
I say can you repeat that , and then blow the whistle down the phone . That mess's them right up . Almost look forward to them now..
I tell the caller the person they want is not in. Even if its me.
Quite often, they never call back.
All the nuisance calls we get are for someone who doesn't live here, we had dozens a day and they never took no for an answer. Finally we got a truecall device, it wasn't cheap but we haven't had a singe nuisance call since getting it.
This morning though, I got a call when I happened to be viewing a gentleman's leisure video on the laptop, so after going through my usual 'polite' routine, just for divillment I rested the receiver against the laptop speaker. After giving the caller ten minutes of the delightful young Californian lady yelping and whooping and generally expressing her appreciation of her gentleman friend's sexual prowess and unfeasibly large tool, I cut the call and hung up.
I had to read that a second time just to latch onto the porn reference there. Sounded rather innocent at first, with the way you so eloquently worded it!
Stops them cold dead when I say "I can appreciate your concern, but aren’t you calling me?" when they ask me why I'm asking them questions. I love the toothpaste one. I usually talk about the latest movie, soap to them.
You should be able to find a website filled with Arnold Schwarzenegger soundboards, buttons with audio clips of his more famous movie dialogue, complete with humourous examples of them used to make prank calls, or respond to cold callers.
That, and the Joe Pesci ones. There's a few from both I've singled out as legendary, but there's far too many crap ones to sift through as well...
Irate Black Man is a certified prank call legend though, albeit unwittingly so.
Caller ID here too. If we aren't expecting a call and don't recognise the number the answerphone (which has a message saying we will only return calls if we deem them worthy) deals with it
Switching homephone providers in a couple of weeks and getting number block and anonymous caller reject thrown in for 28p less line rental than what we pay now without those services so they should help deal with some of the more persistent callers
I'm registered with the Telephone Preference Service, so I rarely receive UK-based nuisance calls. However, that doesn't stop the overseas equivalent, and my usual way of dealing with them is to politely say: "Okay, just a moment please" and call out whichever peculiar bastardisation of my/our name they've just asked to speak to - then rest the receiver on the table until the caller has given up waiting and hung up, usual after just three or four minutes.
This morning though, I got a call when I happened to be viewing a gentleman's leisure video on the laptop, so after going through my usual 'polite' routine, just for divillment I rested the receiver against the laptop speaker. After giving the caller ten minutes of the delightful young Californian lady yelping and whooping and generally expressing her appreciation of her gentleman friend's sexual prowess and unfeasibly large tool, I cut the call and hung up.
Then - yep, you've guessed it - the bastard salesman immediately rang me back! Doh!!! :rolleyes::o:D
What strategy do you have for dealing with nuisance calls?
If they are calling from India and suchlike i tell them to call back and ask for Derek Trotter
I get them as well, and when it was my maiden name it was hilarious to try and hear them say it, so I replied, no-one with that name lives here - very true! and they would hang up.
got one the other day asking for the homeowner - we live in a private rent - so obviously he wasn't here, got told they'd phone back, never did.
hopefully i've got rid of them all now, phone hasn't rang for days!
I usually mess with their heads and self esteem re. their ability to communicate. I have a 'classical Greek' name (not "Peter Andre") of the kind that everyone in Europe knows how to pronounce it automatically but anyone else is clueless. So I will parody back at them the inevitable mispronunciation of my name several times, forcing them to keep repeating it - then after I've toyed with them a bit, say *There's no-one here of that name. There is [correct pronunciation]." Slam phone down. They never ring back.
If it's one of them robots then I leave the phone off the hook to expend the maximum amount of their money on a wasted call.
I cancelled Sky TV last year and told them to leave us alone. Sometimes we get a call a day from some abusive Scottish person or other working for Sky tele-sales. I have still not exhausted my stream of invective reserved specially for these latter day Rupert Murdoch hugging Bravehearts.
I was at my friend's house a week or two ago, when she answered the phone to a tele sales person. Quick as a flash she said ' Oh God. I hope you're not superstitious because all the people who have called this number at this time in the last month have died!'
Not sure if they heard me laughing before they hastily hung up.
We're also registered with the TPS but it doesn't seem to stop the calls we get. :rolleyes:
However I have found that as soon as we mention to the nuisance caller that we are registered with them, they invariably just hang up without even an apology for disturbing us.
So now, I don't even bother telling them and I just hang up straight away. Don't see why I should give them the courtesy of a response if they're just going to make a career out of irritating other people.
I usually mess with their heads and self esteem re. their ability to communicate. I have a 'classical Greek' name (not "Peter Andre") of the kind that everyone in Europe knows how to pronounce it automatically but anyone else is clueless. So I will parody back at them the inevitable mispronunciation of my name several times, forcing them to keep repeating it - then after I've toyed with them a bit, say *There's no-one here of that name. There is [correct pronunciation]." Slam phone down. They never ring back.
If it's one of them robots then I leave the phone off the hook to expend the maximum amount of their money on a wasted call.
I cancelled Sky TV last year and told them to leave us alone. Sometimes we get a call a day from some abusive Scottish person or other working for Sky tele-sales. I have still not exhausted my stream of invective reserved specially for these latter day Rupert Murdoch hugging Bravehearts.
One of " them " robots ! !
LOL
Did you mean " one of those Robots " .......... ?
I`ll have some of your " invective " when you manage to get your grammar right .............................
I sometimes see how long they persist when I just reply "Hello" to everything they say.:D
If they are doing a "market survey" I'll ask how much I will be paid for my contribution - they never want to:(
As a previous poster has said..
I have a sort of police whistle near my most used landline phone , and when these international calls come through.. ( I have caller ID and TPS ).
I say can you repeat that , and then blow the whistle down the phone . That mess's them right up . Almost look forward to them now..
Do you think that's fair, potentially damaging the hearing of someone who's just trying to earn a living? Do you think it's their choice to call you?
Comments
A load of Arnold Schwarzenegger sound clips.
Google "Arnold Calls"
You should be able to find a website filled with Arnold Schwarzenegger soundboards, buttons with audio clips of his more famous movie dialogue, complete with humourous examples of them used to make prank calls, or respond to cold callers.
I have a sort of police whistle near my most used landline phone , and when these international calls come through.. ( I have caller ID and TPS ).
I say can you repeat that , and then blow the whistle down the phone . That mess's them right up . Almost look forward to them now..
Thats a very good idea , I wil try that, while walking around doing something else in the house at the same time..:D:D:cool:
He obviously wanted to hear some more, you should never have hung up on him before the video ended.
All the nuisance calls we get are for someone who doesn't live here, we had dozens a day and they never took no for an answer. Finally we got a truecall device, it wasn't cheap but we haven't had a singe nuisance call since getting it.
If they ring for me I just tell them that I'm dead . Have to admit I burst out laughing the first time, .
I had to read that a second time just to latch onto the porn reference there. Sounded rather innocent at first, with the way you so eloquently worded it!
Stops them cold dead when I say "I can appreciate your concern, but aren’t you calling me?" when they ask me why I'm asking them questions. I love the toothpaste one. I usually talk about the latest movie, soap to them.
http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&VideoID=16733006
That, and the Joe Pesci ones. There's a few from both I've singled out as legendary, but there's far too many crap ones to sift through as well...
Irate Black Man is a certified prank call legend though, albeit unwittingly so.
Switching homephone providers in a couple of weeks and getting number block and anonymous caller reject thrown in for 28p less line rental than what we pay now without those services so they should help deal with some of the more persistent callers
If they are calling from India and suchlike i tell them to call back and ask for Derek Trotter
R O F L .............. I`ll bet you do ya bampot ....................
got one the other day asking for the homeowner - we live in a private rent - so obviously he wasn't here, got told they'd phone back, never did.
hopefully i've got rid of them all now, phone hasn't rang for days!
If it's one of them robots then I leave the phone off the hook to expend the maximum amount of their money on a wasted call.
I cancelled Sky TV last year and told them to leave us alone. Sometimes we get a call a day from some abusive Scottish person or other working for Sky tele-sales. I have still not exhausted my stream of invective reserved specially for these latter day Rupert Murdoch hugging Bravehearts.
Not sure if they heard me laughing before they hastily hung up.
However I have found that as soon as we mention to the nuisance caller that we are registered with them, they invariably just hang up without even an apology for disturbing us.
So now, I don't even bother telling them and I just hang up straight away. Don't see why I should give them the courtesy of a response if they're just going to make a career out of irritating other people.
One of " them " robots ! !
LOL
Did you mean " one of those Robots " .......... ?
I`ll have some of your " invective " when you manage to get your grammar right .............................
If they are doing a "market survey" I'll ask how much I will be paid for my contribution - they never want to:(
Do you think that's fair, potentially damaging the hearing of someone who's just trying to earn a living? Do you think it's their choice to call you?
I suppose it is if they choose to work as a Telesales operator.