How do I stop a telemarketer?

There is a website called National DO NOT CALL Registry (donotcall gov). If you register your phone number there, you will stop receiving calls from most telemarketers. I used to be bothered by many telemarketers calling me, but after registering my home and cell phone numbers, I no longer receive any calls from telemarketers. Hope this helps.

How about something like this:

Pranked Telemarketer

I like BurgerBoy's suggestion.. lol

Honestly, I can't say that the do not call list always works, but it can be helpful. I remember at one point I was getting calls from Dish Network almost daily and I had ignored them for months. One time I actually answered the phone and let the telemarketer get about 10 seconds into his sales pitch, then I stopped him and said "Before you say anything else, are you aware that this number is on the do not call list and I've never done business with Dish Network in my life?" He didn't say another word, hung up immediately and I never got another call from Dish Network.

On the other hand I've had a few telemarketers who I used the same tactic with and they ended up calling back even more frequently.. and reporting them (even if you are on the do not call list) usually doesn't do much good. They get put into a database for "investigation by local law enforcement" and generally local law enforcement has better things to do than hunt down a telemarketer.

Start recording the time of the call and the name of the person who called. Tell them each time, please take my name off your call list. Send a Cease and Desist notice to the bank If the calls continue, take your list to a lawyer and sue them - might as well make a few bucks from the annoyance. Even a collection agency is not allowed to call you after they are told to stop.

One more thing to keep in mind, when you ask them not to call you and they continue to call, it's often not the person calling you who is actually at fault (unless they personally have direct knowledge that you asked the company not to call you anymore). I have a friend who used to work in telemarketing and I know of several times when someone asked her not to call them, she marked their number as "do not call" and she found the same people on the list a week later because her employer went behind her back and removed the "do not call" note. The ones that she knew she had marked as "do not call" she didn't even bother calling, just marked them again, only to find them back on the list again a week later.

Some of the companies involved in telemarketing have no respect for the law or the wishes of the people they're calling with their sales pitches because they know that it's difficult to enforce and there usually won't be any consequences for their actions.. like I said above, when you report them they get put into a database for "investigation by local law enforcement" and usually nothing comes of it. If we did that with our email marketing we'd be shut down in a heartbeat and probably hit with all kinds of fines, but in telemarketing they keep doing it because they get away with it.

@BurgerBoy ROFL that was too damn funny. Best prank call I've ever heard in aeons!

Tom Mabe... Oldie but goodie!!!!!

Anyway maybe there's someone or some institution you can talk about this.

Good luck.

Even better than a whistle..

The telemarketers are like any other call center, they have metrics to meet. If you want to get a reputation in their cube farm as the person nobody wants to call, you have to jack up their metrics.

Every call center watches a metric called 'aht' (average handle time). This is how long a call takes and it is what most contracts between the primary and the call center are based upon. Usually, its the shorter the better and no phone agent wants a long call because it messes up their metrics, makes them look bad, they start losing stuff like priority picks for shift bids (that every call center goes through).

find ways to keep them on the phone. My grandma used to be infamous for telling them she had to go get a pencil to write somethign down and putting the phone between the couch cushions and go off and start doing something else. You have to come back about every 3-4 minutes or so though, because most agents are told that after like 3-4 minutes to let the call go

she also used to be pretty viscious with a referee's whistle too

You need to get on the do not call list and if you don't like the calls you should ask for a supervisor when they call you.

That should get you off the list.

I agree, the do not call list does not work. It didn't work with the numbers I used to have in California and it doesn't work since I moved to Texas either. I've spoken to supervisors, put the phone down and walked away, used a police whistle ... none of it works.
My problem here in Texas is collection calls for someone who used to have the number 2+ years ago!!!

Have you any idea where these calls are coming from?

Bank of America out sources much of its' telemarketing to outside the USA, as do many other major companies, in which case the do not call list does not work because it does not apply.

You are probably getting the brush off at B of A because they haven't got a clue what it is that you are complaing about and because if they supplied an out-sourced marketing deck with a prospect list so that it could do their telemarketing, they have also given the deck carte blanche to use that list in whatever way it feels will eventually produce a result.