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ORIGINAL: MistressDarkArt

I pay for my land line telephone service so I consider it there for MY convenience. Ditto my cell phone service (I have minimal-cost plans for both because it's actually the least expensive way for me to have adequate phone access.) I'm on every do not call list known to man, and they still call, as do all the 'exempt' folks like political campaigners and 'fundraisers' for the police and fire departments. Caller ID screens some and others appear as 'blocked' numbers which helps me avoid them...but Caller ID costs ME extra, not them. When telemarketers start paying for my phone service, they can go ahead and call. It is NOT COOL to invade the privacy of my home to advertise on MY dime.

I've had the same number for 22 years. For 22 years I've been getting threatening phone calls from creditors looking for someone in my town with the same last name and first initial. She was totally easy to find both online and in the phone book. If it's so easy for me to find out her number and street address (and btw, she's the only Abc Wxyz listed), why the foogly can't these companies track her down? When I asked them this, they told me they just go down a list of everybody with the same initials and name in this town until they hit the right person. How lame and time-consuming is that when you can just use google like I did?

And...don't even get me started on advertising texts. I pay by the minute for cell phone service, and can't see who texted until it downloads the message and eaten the equivalent time unit never to be gotten back. To text back to get them to take me off their 'list' costs me again, so I don't bother.

Ya know, there was something to using smoke signals. And it was a fook of a lot quieter.

Do I need to be rude or polite to telemarketers? I don't need to be anything to telemarketers. I didn't ask them to call, so I just hang up. Time is money to them, and bullshitters on the 'invaded' end of the line aren't going to make them any money so I'm actually doing them a favor.

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ORIGINAL: mummyman321

Sorry....that does not fly with me. They call me, they are going to get abused. I have taken every step that I can to stop the calls short of shooting them. Your action steps do not work on the companies that do not have to abide by the DNC laws.

Political organizations, charities, and telephone surveyors are still permitted, and calls from companies with which you have an existing business relationship are allowed to call you. There is no way for you to prevent them from calling. They are immune to the DNC laws by law. In particular the newspaper company constantly calling wanting me to go from the Sunday paper to getting it 7 days a week. The high school I attended asking for donations. The college I attended asking for donations. They keep calling along with the politicans (elections are coming up again). Anytime you fill out a request for information (IE vacation information) opens the door legally for companies to call you.

So if they call me, especially while sleeping, they are going to get the severe abuse line.

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ORIGINAL: mummyman321

The high school I attended asking for donations. The college I attended asking for donations. They keep calling along with the politicans (elections are coming up

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I am not sure how not wanting to be wokening up by a pestering telemarketer while your sleeping after working 16 hours translates to moral cowardice?

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ORIGINAL: HeatherMcLeather

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I am not sure how not wanting to be wokening up by a pestering telemarketer while your sleeping after working 16 hours translates to moral cowardice?

Using that as a reason to abuse the caller is the moral cowardice. It isn't being an asshole, it's when you try justify it, that's where the moral cowardice comes in.

How on earth is the guy calling supposed to know you are sleeping? Take responsibility for your own life, turn off your damned phone when you sleep. If you won't do that, then just be honest about it, there is no legitimate reason to do it, you're just being a jerk, you're being an asshole because you want to and you can do so without repercussions.

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ORIGINAL: HeatherMcLeather

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I am not sure how not wanting to be wokening up by a pestering telemarketer while your sleeping after working 16 hours translates to moral cowardice?

Using that as a reason to abuse the caller is the moral cowardice. It isn't being an asshole, it's when you try justify it, that's where the moral cowardice comes in.

How on earth is the guy calling supposed to know you are sleeping? Take responsibility for your own life, turn off your damned phone when you sleep. If you won't do that, then just be honest about it, there is no legitimate reason to do it, you're just being a jerk, you're being an asshole because you want to and you can do so without repercussions.

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ORIGINAL: zephyroftheNorth

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People who do this sort of thing are selfish and ignorant.

Telemarketers who call knowing it's suppertime get what they deserve.

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ORIGINAL: HeatherMcLeather

How on earth is the guy calling supposed to know you are sleeping? Take responsibility for your own life, turn off your damned phone when you sleep.

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ORIGINAL: littlewonder

I guess that means I have no morals then since like I said, I used to be a telemarketer. Yup...no morals because I needed a job to help pay our bills because we were literally hunting for change in between seat cushions and carseats to have enough gas to put in our car to get him to the military base everyday and make money to feed our newborn.

Ya know telemarketers are doing a job. They are given a computer with phone numbers. They many times get paid for how many numbers a day they get through therefore they are going to call you back to eventually get through their quota for the day and most telemarketers are paid minimum wage if they aren't paid by commission.

And this idea of waking you up...if you don't recognize the number..if it's not your family, if it's not your work, ignore the call and go back to sleep. If you can, program your phone to only ring for certain numbers. No one is forcing you to pick up the phone.

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To telemarketers who call during sleeping hours, I tell them they fucking woke me up, and I hang up on them.  Maybe that's being an asshole, too

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What if someone's on-call for their job and CAN'T turn off the ringer?

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ORIGINAL: farglebargle

I'm in the on-call rotation. A SMS message is sent to my Droid, and SMS Popup sees it, and plays the flood siren at full volume. Yes, it does wake me up...

http://www.archive.org/details/CanveyIslandSirenTest