The Magic Words
Hey flist! I know you get lots of political calls begging for cash these days -- I know it because I'm one of the callers.
However, because I LURVES Y'ALL, I'm going to betray my profession and give you the secret of how to stop political calls.
I hear you say, "But Spider! I'm on the federal no-call list, but I keep getting calls!" That's because the no-call list only covers commercial calls. It doesn't cover political, charitable or non-profit calls.
If you don't pick up, or let it go to voice mail, or pick up the phone and immediately hang up, or hang up the moment someone asks for you, or even just say, "Don't call me anymore" the moment you hear someone's voice we will still call you back, again and again and again.
Here's the secret: you have to wait until the caller identifies hirself and then identifies the organization ze's calling from, and then say the magic words: "Take me off this list." If you do that, we're required by law to do so. You can also say, "Don't call this number anymore" or something similarly definitive. Do not say anything ambiguous and don't be afraid of being rude or hurting the caller's feelings. After spending several hours every day being yelled at by 90-year-old women, told to suck ass by frat boys, or worse having to deal with delusional Ron Paul people, trust me, we don't take it personally.
The thing is, you have to do this for every single organization that calls you. There's no way to remove yourself from every organization at the same time.
So there you go. You're welcome.
This entry was originally posted at http://spiderine.dreamwidth.org/530063.html. There are
comments over there. I've disabled LJ's Facebook and Twitter cross-posting idiocy as much as I can, but if you're especially concerned, feel free to comment there.
However, because I LURVES Y'ALL, I'm going to betray my profession and give you the secret of how to stop political calls.
I hear you say, "But Spider! I'm on the federal no-call list, but I keep getting calls!" That's because the no-call list only covers commercial calls. It doesn't cover political, charitable or non-profit calls.
If you don't pick up, or let it go to voice mail, or pick up the phone and immediately hang up, or hang up the moment someone asks for you, or even just say, "Don't call me anymore" the moment you hear someone's voice we will still call you back, again and again and again.
Here's the secret: you have to wait until the caller identifies hirself and then identifies the organization ze's calling from, and then say the magic words: "Take me off this list." If you do that, we're required by law to do so. You can also say, "Don't call this number anymore" or something similarly definitive. Do not say anything ambiguous and don't be afraid of being rude or hurting the caller's feelings. After spending several hours every day being yelled at by 90-year-old women, told to suck ass by frat boys, or worse having to deal with delusional Ron Paul people, trust me, we don't take it personally.
The thing is, you have to do this for every single organization that calls you. There's no way to remove yourself from every organization at the same time.
So there you go. You're welcome.
This entry was originally posted at http://spiderine.dreamwidth.org/530063.html. There are
comments over there. I've disabled LJ's Facebook and Twitter cross-posting idiocy as much as I can, but if you're especially concerned, feel free to comment there.