OK, I just had to take my phone off the hook.

[tjwash]

:mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad:

Four fucking calls. FOUR. All after 9pm, and all fucking telemarketers for republican fuckwads.:mad:

Fuck these fucks, and their 45 million dollar dumped into their fucking horseshit. What the fuck, were they under orders to start the blitz exactly at 12:01 am monday morning Eastern time?

God damn, do I have 2 more months of this horseshit to look forward to now?:argh::argh::argh::argh:

:mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad:



Thank you, carry on...

[file83]

1. Don't get mad....get even!

Tell them you are very interested in donating to the Republican Candidate, but that you'd like for them to tell you more about it.

So they start talking, and after 2 minutes...just hang up the phone.

If they call back, do it again, but hang up after 1 minute. Then 30 seconds, 10 seconds, ...they'll get the picture.

[tjwash]

2. I'll try to get their home phone number and blitzkrieg them with calls...

...early in the morning after they get home from work and are trying to get to sleep.

[renate]

8. no, don't hang up!

Ask a few more questions--silly things, like ask them to spell the candidate's name, what's his/her astrological sign, what's his/her position on grain subsidies or on some obscure subject like the Smoot-Hawley tariff... you could really have fun.

Also, if you just gently set the receiver down and walk away, they won't know for a while, so they'll keep talking, and then it takes a minute for them to disconnect from you in order to make more calls if you don't hang up also, so you could take up a few minutes of their time that way, too.

Or you could just pretend to be hard of hearing. A friend of mine had a great technique, back before caller ID, for dealing with obscene phone calls--when they've finished talking (or whatever noises they made), she pretended to be ninety years old and said "I'm sorry... I couldn't quite hear you... could you repeat that, please?" Sometimes they tried again once, never twice. Worked like a charm.

[Occulus]

11. Nooooo. Set it down, and leave it OFF the hook.

They'll talk and talk and talk until they figure it out.

[oldtime dfl_er]

3. Tell them you'll sue them

Isn't it fuckin illegal to make a call like that after 9pm????? Jezus

http://www.cafepress.com/scarebaby/1806045

[NanceGreggs]

4. Sound interested and excited!

"Really? That sounds GREAT! Tell me more!"

Then tell them you're going to put them on 'hold' while you get your checkbook.

Then go read 'War and Peace', watch that complete DVD set of Law & Order episodes, or set the alarm clock and go to bed.

[Blackthorn]

5. I don't know how these call centres work in your neck of the woods...

But I got this gem from one of my university lecturers.

Basically, in call centres everything is timed. Right down to the "average acceptable call length". They know how long it takes for people to say yes or say no. Her suggestion was, as every phone call is monitored for length, keep the person talking. Ask questions, the more inane the better. Ask follow up questions on anything they happen to say, regardless of what is was. Be sure to give them your opinions on anything they say as well. Hell, you don't even have to pay attention, ask a question then say you were distracted after they answer. Repeat.

Eventually, their manager will notice they have been on the same call for the past 10 minutes and will wander over and want to know why.

[calimary]

10. It's actually an intriguing idea to tie them up with a long phone call

that prevents them from quick-hitting many other prospects. Waste their time. Ask them lots of questions. Pretend you're interested. Do some role playing and polish your acting skills. Practice acting like a potential republi-CON voter. See, perhaps, if you can get anything interesting out of them. I might try this myself - pretend I'm in the enemy camp. It might be fun to see if there could be some sort of juicy, delicious, nasty little tidbit that gets leaked in a wink-wink, nudge-nudge type of thing, just between us two soldiers-in-arms, dontcha know? You never know if you might glean something useable that you could post here, and maybe spread to some other fellow Democrats, perhaps even the one being targeted. What if they tip their hand because they figure they're talking to one of their own? You may wind up with some intel you can use against them. If nothing else, you'll have tied one of them up for a long time, in effect, preventing them from making other contacts.

[badgerpup]

6. If it's computer-dialed...

...sometimes you won't get the message, either live or canned until the second time you say 'hello'.
I say hello ONCE...if no response, I hang up.
One of my friends answers her phone with "(name) here"...confuses the poor computerized phones no end.

[magellan]

7. Is THAT what's up with that?

Thank you, badgerpup, I've been wondering for ages why many recorded calls work that way!

[Cobalt-60]

9. You need a Telezapper

This neat gimmick was sold during the zenith of telemarketing.
I got one of the last ones at a dollar store last year ( They used to be 20 bucks!)
What it does is emit that three tone squeal that tells you " this line is disconnected" on connection.
You could improvise one by recording the tones onto your answering machine as the first part of the message.
It's worked well for me.