reporting telemarketing-? (how much, furnace, phones, code)

[twinmma]

not sure where to put this thread...
I keep getting calls from some Apex Services asking when my furnace was last repaired...I tell them I am on the Do Not Call list and they hang up and call back the next day. Today, before they even finished asking, I asked to speak to their manager and they hung up. I tried to reverse look up them with the phone number on my ID and nothing...When I call back the number on the ID-no answer. Probably an overseas operation. Is there a place to report this? They sound foreign.

[Ultrarunner]

Thank You for posting... it is very annoying and shouldn't be happening... ideas anyone?

[twinmma]

Originally Posted by Ultrarunner

Thank You for posting... it is very annoying and shouldn't be happening... ideas anyone?

is it happening to you too? same company?

[Ultrarunner]

Not the same company... but I get at least one cold-call soliciting home improvement type work every week. When I complain... they hang-up.

I checked with my local phone company and was told there is little they can do since the majority of calls originate overseas

[doggiebus]

If you go to the DO Not Call website there is a place to file a complaint.
https://www.donotcall.gov/complaint/complaintcheck.aspx

I had to file a complaint a few times on a company, but after 3 or 4 times of filing a complaint the calls have stopped. Hope it helps you.

Originally Posted by twinmma

not sure where to put this thread...
I keep getting calls from some Apex Services asking when my furnace was last repaired...I tell them I am on the Do Not Call list and they hang up and call back the next day. Today, before they even finished asking, I asked to speak to their manager and they hung up. I tried to reverse look up them with the phone number on my ID and nothing...When I call back the number on the ID-no answer. Probably an overseas operation. Is there a place to report this? They sound foreign.

[ESFP]

Here's what you can do, as nobody will ever stop them. Have some fun. Realize that a good telemarketer is expected to make 50 calls per hour, or get fired. They expect 70% immediate hang-ups. So... act interested, delay them, ask for all details, have them repeat parts, ask "how much am I allowed to spend?", whatever it takes to keep them on. See who in your family can keep them on the longest, take turns. I think their caller-ID area code is 913, but I don't get many calls anymore. I think they put me on their "do not call" list.

[LadyRobyn]

Originally Posted by Ultrarunner

Not the same company... but I get at least one cold-call soliciting home improvement type work every week. When I complain... they hang-up.

I checked with my local phone company and was told there is little they can do since the majority of calls originate overseas

One per week?? Can we trade numbers?

I average 2-3 per day and I too am on the Do Not Call List. I even double check periodically to be sure my number is still listed with them.

When I get a call, I always type the number into my favorite search function to see *who* is really calling and how many other poor saps have to deal with them.

I've learned that the 'complaint' section of the DNC website is ONLY for telemarketers and does not apply to any company you have ever actually done business with, or people doing 'surveys' of any kind.

My annoying callers seem to change every month or so... right now my two "busiest" callers show up on the Caller ID as Southnet (once per day) and Bowtie Inc. (1-2 times a day)

One is apparently a 'survey' company and the other is hawking Magazines. From what I have read the Southnet one is causing an amazing amount of backlash and grief for a similarly named (innocent) small business.

I don't answer and they don't leave messages...

[Baltic_Celt]

I swear I was just coming to this site to post about the same evil demon telemarketing beastlike creatures. Well, that's what I call them on a good day.

Originally Posted by LadyRobyn

I average 2-3 per day and I too am on the Do Not Call List. I even double check periodically to be sure my number is still listed with them.

Same here, Robyn. Two each day. Occasionally, they'll skip a day or call in the morning rather than evening, honestly, I think to catch us off-guard so we'll answer. Problem is they call sometimes at 9:30pm... of course always on a day when I have a migraine & went to bed early, forgetting to set ALL the phones' ringers to "off". I'm not one of those lucky people who can just pop back into bed & fall asleep after being woken, so meanspirited thoughts come through my mind about these folks as I sit up all night with said headache, a bag of pretzles, a bottle of aspirin, the inability to sleep & only the strength to plot their demise. Am I being too harsh?

Do witches' spells work on these folks? Voudoo dolls? I'm gonna research & get back to ya on these...

I've learned that the 'complaint' section of the DNC website is ONLY for telemarketers and does not apply to any company you have ever actually done business with, or people doing 'surveys' of any kind.

Yes, this is really unfortunate, as now everyone claims to be a research company. We are inundated with political calls during voting times - 3-4 each day. These are the only folks I temporarily found a way to deal with... tell them "I was going to vote for xxx. Take me off your call list or I won't vote for xxx"... Problem is after that, we still get inundated with calls... only now they're recordings. Everytime I think I outsmart someone... ah, gee...

My annoying callers seem to change every month or so... right now my two "busiest" callers show up on the Caller ID as Southnet (once per day) and Bowtie Inc. (1-2 times a day)

Mine don't change. It's the same demon beasts. My Caller-ID just lists state names - FL & I'm now so mad, I forget the other. CT, I think?

I don't answer and they don't leave messages...

Ah, gee, unfortunately, if I'm on the phone, these calls are routed to VM, so I keep getting messages. The FL calls are recordings beginning with "This is not a sales call so please don't hang up. It is a call to give you the opportunity to save $", which instructs to call back with a reference # that is about 10 letters & digits long. I haven't called back, as I feel that will incite them to keep calling... because they got me to respond to their VMs.

If it's a live person, in the beginning I answered & politely asked to be taken off their list as I'm on the DNC list. I never wait for an answer, just hang up because I find they still try to engage me or ask to speak to someone else in the household. (I've been told by friends, this may be as I have a very childlike voice & perhaps they think I'm a kid? But... who knows.) When it didn't work, I asked them not to call so late as I have an elderly mom who is sleeping at that time & they're disturbing her. A man actually screamed "Excuse me! I'm so F'n sorry!" into the phone & continued to call back multiple times throughout that evening & the next few days. Each time I answered, he would scream the same thing at me. Gosh, I was shaking by the end of the night. That # was one I tried to call back to speak to someone about his abusiveness, but a recording tells me "This # cannot receive 'in' calls." Great. I'm sure this is why he was so abusive, as he knew I couldn't trace him.

As a last resort, I tried to outsmart them by answering & speaking Spanish. They kept asking "You don't speak English? At all?" over & over... I kept asking questions in Spanish over & over & eventually hung up. I thought that would be the end of it, but they continue to call back.

What I have found is that not answering & letting VM pick up doesn't stop them. I assumed if no one ever answered, they'd surely remove us. This really isn't fair. I don't like to turn my ringer off as I'm one of those who forgets to turn it back on for days. And, I actually do have an elderly mom who lives downstairs from me & a tenant on the 1st floor... either may call in an emergency, so I feel stuck & annoyed & you guessed it... the several times I forgot to turn the ringer back, I had emergency calls from both.

There must be some recourse for us to have them remove us from their lists? This is pure harrassment. If we can use pop-up/spam blockers on our email accounts (the 'net being a public domain) why can't I block them from my telephone, which is a private/unpublished #, for which I pay extra each month? Verizon isn't making my # private, which is what I'm paying them to do, right?

Okay, how 'bout burning black candles & sage? Sticking pins in a drawing of a telemarketer...? Anyone?

[Dave1215]

Originally Posted by doggiebus

If you go to the DO Not Call website there is a place to file a complaint.
https://www.donotcall.gov/complaint/complaintcheck.aspx

I had to file a complaint a few times on a company, but after 3 or 4 times of filing a complaint the calls have stopped. Hope it helps you.

I received 2-3 calls a day for several weeks from Gevalia. I finally used the complaint that the above poster referenced and those calls stopped as well.

[kdog]

The easy way to eliminate the vast majority of telemarketing calls is to record a SIT (special information tone) at the beginning of your voicemail outgoing message. This fools the telemarketing firms predictive dialers into thinking that the number it called it out of order. The dialers remove your number from the list so they don't waste time calling them again.

In case you're not aware, telemarketing firms use predictive dialers to dial phone numbers, because it's far more efficient than paying their operators to dial your number and wait for somebody to answer. The dialer dials your number from its list. When you answer, it routes your call to a free operator who then starts talking. If there's no operator free, you'll get silence on the line when you answer. I think we're all familiar with that annoying experience.

The SIT tone is those three tonal beeps you hear on recordings from the phone company that tell you that a number is out of order. The dialers use that tone as well to detect dead lines. So start the process of recording your outgoing message, put your phone up to your computer speaker, and click on this link to play the tone.

http://privatecitizen.com/sit-tone.wav

Immediately after you've recorded the tone, you can add your usual "Hi, this is Bob. Please leave a message", or whatever.

Of course, the other thing you need to do is use caller ID to make sure you never answer the telemarketers call so that they all get to your outgoing message with the tone. Otherwise, you've defeated the purpose. After a week or so, most of the telemarketing calls should stop as you get taken off their lists.