"Courtesy Calls"

[Dyno]

While some noisy construction in my office building gets done, I've been working from home. I've been shocked at the number of "courtesy calls" I get from my credit card companies, the cable company and magazines I subscribe to or used to subscribe to. The calls are to give me some great offer, to check on whether the magazine is arriving, whether I want to renew my subscription, etc. In the latt 24 hours, I've gotten calls from 3 magazines, the newspaper, and one card company, plus 2 hangups that were probably from one of the above. I'm on the do not call list, but these are all companies I do business with, so I believe they're allowed to call me. Almost all the time, I pretend I'm not me and tell them I'm not home, but I figured that would keep them calling back so I started taking the calls. Anyone else get a lot of these or do I just read too many magazines and have too many credit cards?

 

[terrier]

Pick up the red courtesy phone and blow a whistle into the receiver. That telemarketer will never mess with you again, and think twice before messing with anybody else.

 

[Flash]

Courtesy call = courtesy flush

 

[OTD]

I used to get those "This is a courtesy call from your Universal MasterCard . . . " I'd point out that it's not a courtesy call, it's a "****-me-off" call. They never ended until I moved and "forgot" to change my phone number on the credit card bills.
Postscript: A year or two later, I got a postcard in the mail from Universal Card, which had been the worst offender. It said something like: "We've been trying to contact you with some exciting offers. Please give us your phone number so we can call you!"

Yeah, right.

 

[shockey]

caller i.d. is the best solution. 'cause there's nothin more discourteous than a "courtesy call." :o :o :o >:( >:( >:( ::) ::) ::)

 

[TheSportsPredictor]

Do you have a white phone?

 

[Dyno]

I guess my question is if there's a way to stop them. Even if I ignore the call (thank you, caller ID), they still just keep calling. I mean, I want the credit card companies to call if there's a problem with my card, but I don't want their stupid ****ing offers. >:( >:(

 

[Jack_Kerouac]

Sign up for the no calls list. I haven't got a junk phone call in four years.

 

[Sam Mills 51]

Try moving to a new place ... the number of callers offering security systems, extermination, and cable/satellite systems will drive the most patient person nuts.

 

[Moderator1]

"Then do me the courtesy of not calling again."
Click.


If that doesn't work, go the "you naked?" with heavy breathing route.

 

[JR]

Never answer your phone unless you have caller ID.

Anyone you know will leave a message.

 

[hockeybeat]

Male announcer: The white zone is for immediate loading and unloading of passengers only. There is no stopping in a red zone.
Female announcer: The white zone is for immediate loading and unloading of passengers only. There is no stopping in a red zone.
Male announcer: The red zone is for immediate loading and unloading of passengers only. There is no stopping in a white zone.
Female announcer: No, the white zone is for loading. Now, there is no stopping in a RED zone.
Male announcer: The red zone has always been for loading.
Female announcer: Don't you tell me which zone is for loading, and which zone is for unloading.
Male announcer: Look Betty, don't start up with your white zone **** again. There's just no stopping in a white zone.
Female announcer: Oh really, Vernon? Why pretend, we both know perfectly well what this is about. You want me to have an abortion.
Male announcer: It's really the only sensible thing to do, if its done safely. Therapeutically there's no danger involved.

 

[Huggy]

Male announcer: The white zone is for immediate loading and unloading of passengers only. There is no stopping in a red zone.
Female announcer: The white zone is for immediate loading and unloading of passengers only. There is no stopping in a red zone.
Male announcer: The red zone is for immediate loading and unloading of passengers only. There is no stopping in a white zone.
Female announcer: No, the white zone is for loading. Now, there is no stopping in a RED zone.
Male announcer: The red zone has always been for loading.
Female announcer: Don't you tell me which zone is for loading, and which zone is for unloading.
Male announcer: Look Betty, don't start up with your white zone **** again. There's just no stopping in a white zone.
Female announcer: Oh really, Vernon? Why pretend, we both know perfectly well what this is about. You want me to have an abortion.
Male announcer: It's really the only sensible thing to do, if its done safely. Therapeutically there's no danger involved.

****ing brilliant.

 

[deskslave]

You can tell even companies that you already do business with to stop calling. I think they're even required to listen to you. But if they're not, then they can become companies you don't do business with.

 

[novelist_wannabe]

I've got a buddy who has started programming his phone to forward these calls back to the place where they originated. He never hears them any more.

 

[Lone_Star_Speed]

I'm a fan of asking the caller questions like "Does it bother you that your parents wished for a boy/girl and got you instead?" or "Why do your parents love your brother more than they love you?"

 

[HejiraHenry]

I never let an overseas call-center-type call without asking, "Say, have you seen Osama Bin Laden? You can't miss him – he's the tallest guy over there, I'd bet."

 

[joe]

Unless you really need a place to call you, give a number that's one digit off your real number, and make it the same every time so that if you have to call someplace and they ask for your number as a way of identifying you, you'll know it. I get no telemaketing calls whatsoever.

 

[Lone_Star_Speed]

Or go this route...add your area code to the beginning of 382-5633 [FUC-KOFF] or 382-5968 [FUC-KYOU]. I'm all about the subliminal message.

 

[ArnoldBabar]

I've got a buddy who has started programming his phone to forward these calls back to the place where they originated. He never hears them any more.

I'd love to find a way to forward them to pay phone sex lines. I bet that would do it.

When I'd just moved in with my wife, we were at a grocery store or something and she gave them our real home phone number. I was dumbfounded. "Promise me you will never, ever do that again." We agreed on a fake number we can consistently recall. It's funny, I rarely use the home phone, but when I need to give someone the real number I have to think about it, because I automatically want to say the fake one out of habit.