Do’s and Don’ts for Dealing with Telemarketing Calls

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Everyone has received telemarketing calls at one point or another. You’re sitting down to dinner, getting the kids to bed, or headed out to door, and someone calls trying to sell you magazines or aluminum siding or a balance transfer for your credit card.

No one likes telemarketing calls. We all have different ways of handling them.  Some methods work better than others, however. Here are some good and not so good ways to handle things the next time you receive one of ‘those’ calls.

Do be polite.  People often feel no need to be polite to a telemarketer. In their opinion, the person was rude first just by doing his or her job. Two wrongs don’t make a right, and being rude to them will get you nowhere. It’s easy to take a bad day out on the faceless voice on the other end of the line, but politeness benefits you as well as the caller.

Don’t just hang up, and don’t just tell them you aren’t interested.  This is ineffective, because most telemarketing firms will put your name and number back into the dialer to be called back a few weeks or months later. If you are genuinely not interested in whatever it is they are selling or offering, say something like, “I am not interested. Please remove me from your list.”  If you asked to be removed, they must comply with this. Bear in mind that it can take up to six weeks for your name and number to be fully purged from their calling lists.

Do understand that the Do Not Call list does not apply in all situations.  A company with which you have done business can call you for up to 18 months after your last purchase, payment, or delivery, unless you tell them to remove you from their list. Charities, politcal causes, and market survey companies are also exempt.  Also, the Do Not Call list only applies to residential lines, not business lines.  You can always request to be put on the company’s in-house DNC list, however.

Don’t ever be afraid to ask questions about the product or service being offered. Find out everything that you can. If you are interested, ask for time to think about it. The representative will try to convince you to buy it now. Don’t. Ask them to call you back. If they continue to push, politely tell them you are no longer interested and ask to be removed from the list.

Do check the company out.  Get all the information you can. Callers can say all they want about being with the Better Business Bureau, but you can easily find out for certain. If they’re a legitimate company, you’ll find out very quickly.

Even in the weakened economy, telemarketing calls are a fact of life. Following these tips will make your dealings go much more smoothly.