Junk mail and telemarketers

Godfather.Godfather. Posts: 12,504
edited January 2012 in A Moving Train
my Mom sent this to me and I thought to myself...GREAT IDEA ! thanks Mom.

Three Little Words That Work!!

(1)The three little words are: '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 the phone company's 'beep-beep-beep' tone, you know it's time to go back and hang up your handset, which has efficiently completed its task.

These three little words will 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 used to determine the best time of day for a 'real' sales person 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 dialed 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) Junk Mail Help:

When you get 'ads' enclosed with your phone or utility bill, return these 'ads' with your payment. Let the sending companies throw their own junk mail away.

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

Most of these come with postage-paid return envelopes, right? It costs them more than the regular 44 cents postage, 'IF' and when they receive them back.

It costs them nothing if you throw them away! The postage was around 50 cents before the last increase and it is according to the weight. In that case, why not get rid of some of your other junk mail and put it in these cool little, postage-paid return envelopes.

One of Andy Rooney 's (60 minutes) ideas.

Send an ad for your local chimney cleaner to American Express. Send a pizza coupon to Citibank. If you didn't get anything else that day, then just send them their blank application back!
If you want to remain anonymous, just make sure your name isn't on anything you send them.

You can even send the envelope back empty if you want to just to keep them guessing! It still costs them 44 cents.

The banks and credit card companies are currently getting a lot of their own junk back in the mail, but folks, we need to OVERWHELM 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 our postal service busy since they are saying that e-mail is cutting into their business profits, and that's why they need to increase postage costs again. You get the idea!

If enough people follow these tips, it will work I have been doing this for years, and I get very little junk mail anymore.
Post edited by Unknown User on

Comments

  • FiveB247xFiveB247x Posts: 2,330
    They don't care.. it's advertising... you're not gonna teach anyone a lesson or change of habit with any of these tips. People do those jobs cause it's pays their bills, not cause they like it.
    CONservative governMENt

    Our government is the potent, the omnipresent teacher. For good or for ill, it teaches the whole people by its example. Crime is contagious. If the government becomes a law-breaker, it breeds contempt for law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy. - Louis Brandeis
  • brianluxbrianlux Moving through All Kinds of Terrain. Posts: 42,430
    I've done, both of these things, Godfather, with mixed results. Regarding the unsolicited calls, in most areas you call register with the "Do Not Call" list at:

    https://www.donotcall.gov/

    Here's a funny little story about "Hold on, please." My father called my sister's house one day. My brother-in-law answered the phone, said, "Hello", and my father said, in his usual humorous way, "Is the lady of the house in?" Brother-in-law didn't recognize my father's voice and assumed it it be an unsolicited call and said, "Yes, hold on please," and went about his business. A half hour later, brother-in-law went to hang up the phone, realized someone was still waiting and said, "Who is this?"

    "Your father--in-law," my father answered. The call was long distance. :o:lol:
    "Pretty cookies, heart squares all around, yeah!"
    -Eddie Vedder, "Smile"

    "Try to not spook the horse."
    -Neil Young













  • JeanwahJeanwah Posts: 6,363
    I like these ideas, I'll definitely try them. I already do the business reply envelopes, why not? They can afford to send me junk mail, they can afford me sending them junk mail!
  • brianlux wrote:
    Regarding the unsolicited calls, in most areas you call register with the "Do Not Call" list at:

    https://www.donotcall.gov/
    Simple really. Register and problem solved. Assuming your phone number doesn't change, your registration for the "do not call" list is good for five years. Then it has to be renewed.
  • gimmesometruth27gimmesometruth27 St. Fuckin Louis Posts: 23,303
    MookiesLaw wrote:
    brianlux wrote:
    Regarding the unsolicited calls, in most areas you call register with the "Do Not Call" list at:

    https://www.donotcall.gov/
    Simple really. Register and problem solved. Assuming your phone number doesn't change, your registration for the "do not call" list is good for five years. Then it has to be renewed.
    hmmm that explains why i am suddenly getting calls again...thanks for the info. funny thing is the missouri state attorney general's office phone number is in my cell....guess i'll call tomorrow and sign up again...
    "You can tell the greatness of a man by what makes him angry."  - Lincoln

    "Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
  • brianluxbrianlux Moving through All Kinds of Terrain. Posts: 42,430
    MookiesLaw wrote:
    brianlux wrote:
    Regarding the unsolicited calls, in most areas you call register with the "Do Not Call" list at:

    https://www.donotcall.gov/
    Simple really. Register and problem solved. Assuming your phone number doesn't change, your registration for the "do not call" list is good for five years. Then it has to be renewed.
    hmmm that explains why i am suddenly getting calls again...thanks for the info. funny thing is the missouri state attorney general's office phone number is in my cell....guess i'll call tomorrow and sign up again...
    The other thing is, non-profits are usually allowed to bypass the no-call list. I find that irritating! (And I'm a big supporter of several non-profit organizations.)
    "Pretty cookies, heart squares all around, yeah!"
    -Eddie Vedder, "Smile"

    "Try to not spook the horse."
    -Neil Young













  • gimmesometruth27gimmesometruth27 St. Fuckin Louis Posts: 23,303
    brianlux wrote:
    The other thing is, non-profits are usually allowed to bypass the no-call list. I find that irritating! (And I'm a big supporter of several non-profit organizations.)
    i don't mind getting calls from non-profits.

    i hate getting calls from candidates wanting donations and i hate the damn robocalls too..

    for some reason credit card companies get a pass on it too.
    "You can tell the greatness of a man by what makes him angry."  - Lincoln

    "Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
  • pandorapandora Posts: 21,855
    I don't answer the phone but I'm all for the junk mail ...
    somebody's got to print it ;):D
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