When we were in university my friends and I used to have a running contest to see how many different telemarketing sales pitches we could shut down with one sentence. Let me give you an example.
A telemarketeer calls to offer you carpet cleaning. You tell them you have hardwood floors. They tell you they also clean drapes. You tell them you have venetian blinds. Others we had cold were newspaper subscriptions ('I'm blind,' or, 'I can't read.') and surveys ('My dad works for your company.') Through trial and error and too much discussion between classes in the library with neglected text books open in front of us, we thought we were pretty smart with our stone-cold stoppers.
But we never took it as far as the Dutchman martijn engelbregt who has fought back by turning the tools of telemarketing against the industry and inventing the EGBG Counterscript. With some simple questions you can turn the tables on the marketeer and stick it back to them, if you want to do that.
The current strategy for avoiding direct marketing in all its incarnations (mail, phone, email) here at Up in Ontario central is to be very careful with giving out personal information in the first place, and then, if contacted by anyone we don't want to be contacted by, we ask how they got our information. Once they answer us (if they can, often then don't even know and they're caught off-guard by the question) we ask to be deleted, not just removed, from their database. Then we decide if we want to do business with the company who shared our information.
Does anyone else have any tips on avoiding / dealing with direct marketing?
Posted by James Sherrett at January 16, 2006 06:05 PMThe one line that I always use, regardless of why they're asking for your time is "Actually, I'm in the middle of having sex."
90 percent of the time they simply hang up.
It's not in the same vain, but a fun one too is "You know what, can I call you right back?"
Oh, and if someone's trying to sell you something, tell them you will buy anything they're offering as long as they swear on the line.
Posted by: Josh Skye at January 20, 2006 11:18 AMI have heard that being a complete nutter works. Like barking, for instance. Just start howling and barking. I can imagine that would be quite effective...
Posted by: Tamara at January 26, 2006 11:54 AMOMG I love the counterscript!! I am soooo going to use it tonight. ( seem to be on everyon's list for some reason) I always say that whomever they ask for (ie male over 18, lady of the house, etc) is dead and no, you can't call back later.
Posted by: Anthony at January 26, 2006 12:30 PM