I use my answering machine to screen 800 calls. Never answer them !IF I answer and it is a tm I ask for an address to tell their co .......they hang up FAST!!! Hugs

next time they call say sargent ubanks speaking. may i help you

I keep telling myself that when I get a telemarketing call I am going to pretend to be a recording and see what happens when I tell them to go thru all these steps. I usually just ignore them and not answer the phone but I have been tempted to try this. I also get so frustrated and I do many times keep pressing the "O" button. This is one of the reasons I prefer to send an email when possible plus I have my answer in writing and not a he said she said .

I put my phone on speaker then I can do other things and move around in other rooms if I have to. Doesn't make the wait seem so long and I can still accomplish something instead of sitting and waiting for them to get to me.

When I receive a telemarketing call on my cell phone, I save the number under "Do not answer." They only get me once! CardServices has been the greatest illegal offender, and totally disregard the Do Not Call lists. Can't figure out how they get away with it. Seems to be one of those situations where the government acts like they're doing something for the consumer, but doesn't follow through on the penalties.

Every since we did the Do Not call listing our "unwanted calls" have stopped. Except for the person who had this number before us; the police were looking for him. I finally was so fed up I called the DA who had left a number on my answering machine and told this person that the previous person has not had this number for years .. She listened and made sure there were no more phone calls to our number from any police enforcement agency for the previous person.
A friend holds on the line till the call is either picked up by a human or the call ends, if its a recording (at the end of the call with an answering machine) she tells them she has their number and will report them if she has anymore -she told me that usually works for her when the telemarketers call. If its a human she tells them to take her off their listing of calls and has their number to report it.

Like "dd" I press "0". if there is a local office, I call them and tell them I don't have time to punch buttons for 30 minutes only to be told to do it again and then talk to someone, (I've press "1" for English) and can't understand them because they're half way around the world. Get's my dander up and panties in a knot!

they say if you press #0 you will get a live person. I know everytime I do it I do get sent to a live person.

I don't know if that will work here in Australia but I'm going to give it a go. Thanks for the info.
Last night I had an incoming call and when I answered it was a machine talking to me and it wanted me to do a survey about the upcoming federal election. Needless to say I hung up. That has happened once before and I consider it rude beyond belief.

I know a couple who moved into a new area maybe thirty years ago, got a new phone number for their small in-home business, and it had been a reservations number for a hotel and was still listed in the phone book and with information as a hotel number. If the regular reservations number was busy, the call would go to their number, which was one digit higher. They got dozens of phone calls each day and sometimes in the middle of the night and the phone company wasn't helpful, stating that the hotel would have to initiate action and pay a rather large fee to change the number. The hotel couldn't care less and didn't want to be bothered. The couple already had business cards and stationery printed and didn't want to change it. Finally, in frustration, they started agreeing to whatever reservations were wanted, quoting very low room rates, but took no credit card, deposit, or financial information. Before long, the hotel figured it out, paid the phone company's fee to break the contract for the block of numbers, and gave this couple an apology.