Solicitors, religious, politics - they knock on my door and I go full rage mode.

[Neverthesame]

@LuckiLee I've known a couple of people who have worked as telemarketers, every one of said the thing that annoyed them the most was someone waiting for them to get through their whole spiel before hanging up on them. God I hope it's true.

 

[user27357]

when fealing really passive/aggressive I have been known to listen to the whole spiel. ask a few questions, sound interested, then tell them it sounds great and that I am going to go get my wallet and just set the phone down to see how long they will wait for me to get back before figuring out my game and hanging up.

it's not that entertaining really, but I know that phone solicitors make their money on commission and that time wasted waiting for me to "find my wallet" hurts their bottom line and somehow I get even just a little for the annoyance of all of the interruptions.

It doesn't really serve them right and i feel guilty about the lie and being passive aggressive like that, but just telling them to reconsider their employment choices and hanging up doesn't really get the point across- point being most of us have not and would not spend one dollar on a cold call sales offer, ever. They are fishing for rare fish and the sooner they all realize that a well run paper route can make more money the better.

 

[blackemerald1]

This is a great thread.. I fell asleep on one telemarketer once... I was on night shift, answered the phone at some point during my sleep. I remember him starting on his sales pitch and I assume bc I didn't say no straight up he went on..and on... Anyway I woke up with the phone in my bed beeping and remembered. I wonder if I snored.. lol

Use a voice to text or voice-mail for your phone. They never leave messages!

Use a small video feed so you can check out who is at the door before you answer. Then don't answer if it's someone you are not expecting.

Yeah and work on your rage... it's coming from somewhere and it's not the telemarketers or door salesmen really is it? :)

 

[mamachick]

blackemerald1-it is a great thread and I agree the rage is about something else.

Anymore, the phone calls are less about sales and more about scams. People claiming to have a warrant for you, or they are the IRS, or are your grandkid and are in jail. They all want to scam money.

My husband and I were sitting on the front porch last summer when 2 young men were doing a political survey about state bills/local politicians for the upcoming election. They said they just had 3 questions and would we be willing to answer with our opinion. We agreed. Then they twisted the words up a bit as they do on the ballot (hard to tell if you are voting for or against if you don't pay good attention). Now realize, we are in our sixties. With each question, my husband I gave opposite answers and proceeded to debate about the language of the question. It took them about 30 minutes and they were laughing and thought it was amazing that we live together.

I guess we are too easy going because usually an unexpected knock leaves us with a pizza discount card for 10 bucks that we never use or some boy scout popcorn or candy bars we don't need from kids selling stuff.

It kind of bothers me to just ignore the door. I guess I my curiosity rears its head.

 

[blackemerald1]

It took them about 30 minutes and they were laughing and thought it was amazing that we live together.

^ :hilarious: you probably got them talking about the ambiguous wording too. lol Maybe they took the survey back and said 'hey this doesn't add up..'

I know someone who gives telemarketers impromptu sermons on why they should convert to his religion... I feel sorry for the telemarketers who call him. lol.

Some scum phoned me a few weeks ago and told me they were from the taxation department and were filing a warrant against me, that morning at the Court, for taxation evasion unless I gave them some money via I-tune gift cards?? :hilarious: I told them to 'knock yourself out trying to do that you *&^%$#" .... and he got really angry with me. I kept laughing till he hung up in my ear! Rude pr*ck. :p Then I rang the fraud department within the taxation office and gave them his details.

I get angry if people try and scam vulnerable people... Once I answered my mums phone and it was a scammer. I gave him an earful about having no shame and I was recording him etc., he hung up too.. My mother was so embarrassed... she used to listen and then nicely tell them no. I've shown her how to do it a little differently. She too was getting around 10 calls a day... madness? She was unhooking the phone which was sending me into panic stations bc I could not reach her. So I called her provider and told them to get onto it bc it wasn't good enough. The calls stopped within 6 hours. Who knew... sigh..

 

[user27357]

i win cruises a lot. and the publishers clearing house. The ones that really bug me are the recorded messages that start with a pause and then "hello? hello? sorry, i was having a little trouble with my headset there....". I guess if you believe that one you are the one in 10K they are searching for. I am always afraid that just the act of answering a phone puts you on a list of some kind and you will get more robo calls.

 

[Lionheart]

I tend to just say, "I am not interested," and close the door in their face(s), or hang up the phone and be done with it. It used to make me angry when people would ignore my 'no soliciting' sign that I had posted at eye level on my outer door, but I learned to just shut the door, lock it back, and return to whatever it was that I was doing previously.

I would suggest exploring your anger, it may be that you feel disrespected or any number of other reasons, but exploring it may help you permanently resolve it or at least dial it down. Just my 2 cents.

 

[blackemerald1]

I am always afraid that just the act of answering a phone puts you on a list of some kind and you will get more robo calls.

I'm certain you are correct. The only way they know there is a real live human being is if you answer and they hear your voice. They seem to know if there is an answering machine or voice mail.. but Idk how... technology?? lol

Apparently they place several calls at the same time and it's a bit like fishing but with several lines in the water.. horrible analogy but you see how it works.

 

[Sideways]

Apparently they place several calls at the same time and it's a bit like fishing but with several lines in the water

Different techniques are used all over the world, but this is one that we get a lot of. 2 phone calls, and the call goes through to whoever answers first.

Thing is, if you get a dead line because you answered second? Your number will just get redialled again later in the day.

Googling the phone number will often take you to complaint websites that will confirm if the number is a call centre. In which case? Simply block it on your phone. No issue.

Local call centres can call from a whole range of different but similar numbers. But the big problem here in Australia (where paying call centre staff is relatively high on the global scale), the calls are coming from an overseas call centre (in countries where they don’t care too much about our local laws or Do Not Call registers).

Those call centres have an Australian based number that they route their calls through, so it looks like someone in Victoria is calling, when actually it’s someone in India/Phillipines/etc. So blocking one number? Can often have the effect of blocking that call centre. It won’t solve the problem in one call, but it will reduce the calls overall, over time.

It’s incredibly annoying. But to me, there’s simply no point getting aggressive or entertaining myself at a person who is probably in some 3rd world sweatshop company on the other side of the globe. That achieves absolutely nothing for me or them.

Depending on where in the world they’re calling from? It’s not always the case that they can simply “get another job”, and it may well be the case that their life is a helluva lot harder than mine is.

 

[mamachick]

The worst is now they have our cell phone numbers. Often my home will ring and then cell immediately after. They are fake numbers. The spoof and even my own home number will come up on my tv screen when they call on the home phone. Thats been happening for years now. I use to get collection calls for my daughters husbands parents. They were cross referencing on the internet and they would argue with me when I told them they had the wrong party. I even saw an attorney when I had 50 messages on my answering machine. He said once a letter was sent, I could be compensated 1000 per call. They quit calling. Sad you have to get an attorney. It did have me angry for awhile, then I decided to just have fun with any and all.

One call was for repayment of a student loan and I told the guy I didn't remember having a student loan. He said WHAT...you don't remember going to school at the Paul Mitchell Beauty school. I acted stupid and asked what year it was. I told him I forgot where I lived back then. I told him I suffer some confusion. He told me it was in the 80's, how much I owed, when I recently promised to pay and made one payment for 300. We conversed for about 15 minutes. I asked him his name again. I got more information than he did.
Then I asked him what he wanted again. He was getting upset. Finally I told him that I wasn't her and he was really pissed. He said I wasted his time....Imagine that....I thanked him for sharing this woman personal information....haha. He never called again.

 

[Sideways]

We conversed for about 15 minutes.

Cool, so rack that one up as a win. I have zero doubt in my mind that it felt good.

BUT...

This is a thread which has been really appropriately placed in the ‘Dysregulation’ forum, on a PTSD support site. Because that’s exactly what’s going on for us when crazy amounts of anger boil over at something that is part of life. If you have a phone? This is gonna happen to some degree.

So what do we do with that anger? That dysregulation? It may feel good in the moment, but running into dysregulation at full speed is often just going to add to our stress cup.

And spending 15 minutes dealing with an everyday issue that is setting off dysregulated emotions? When you could just hang up & move on? Probably isn’t going to be a practical coping strategy.

As a once off, “I’ve got the time and feel like engaging in some fairly meaningless passive aggression”? Go for it. Just remember to seperate it out from coping strategies when coming at this issue:)

 

[PointlessExistence]

Of course this can be wrong, but I assume the following: as a child you were forced, probably by your parents, to be polite to certain people who ended up not deserving it at all. Your parents effectively tied your hands, leaving you as a sort of sitting duck to people who treated you poorly. Now is your chance to hit back, and you're taking it.