janjj

My husband would engage them in a conversation. He said they were spending their money on calls so he would make the call last a looooooong time. They finally quit calling.

vickimc

yes it is. I bet my phone rang 10 times yesterday. all that junk

lalaland

Seems like no matter what you do, someone always gets your number. I have caller ID too, and it pops up on my TV screen which is the best thing EVER! We probably answer 1 call in 10 because the rest are callers we don't know. Pretty sad commentary.

Alondra

First, are you sure you want to donate to PBS? It's virtually controlled by George Soros now. It is no longer a truly public television, but a very liberal political mouthpiece, where only one side of the story is told. How discouraging is that? Yes, the charities DO sell your name and address, even if you ask them not to. I have a new policy... if an unsolicited solicitation comes, I feed it to my shredder (and it is very well fed these days).

MOD is fairly high on the list of charities that spend more on fundraising than they do on actual charity. There are sources on the internet where you can go and check them out. Salvation Army is good - very high ratio of service to expenses.

Alondra

Several years ago, I decided to see how everybody was getting my name, so when I'd make a donation, I'd do it in one name, say A. Smith; to another Ann Smith; to another A.B. Smith; Ann B. Smith; A. Betty Smith; and all the variations in spellings I could think of. That way I could keep a paper trail of who used which name, and most likely who was sellling my name to whom. It got so bad, I started refusing them all, and in the case of the more aggressive ones - especially those who used MY phone for THEIR purposes - I'd use their postage-paid envelopes to send them a nasty note telling them why I wasn't donating. Didn't take long to stop the nonsense. Now the problem is telephone calls. I'm on both the Texas No-Call and the National No-Call lists, and it makes precious little difference. They call anyway, because many use rotary dialers that call the next number, whatever it is, regardless of whether it's on the No-Call lists. And I've started not answering calls that aren't fully identified, number and name, and if I don't recognize them, I also don't answer. This could cause some confusion, but that's ok - if they really need me, they'll call back. I'm getting mean in my old age. <G>

Try these to check out charities before you donate, to be sure your money is going where it is most helpful:
http://www.charityfacts.org/fundrais...charities.html
http://www.charitywatch.org/articles/cancer.html
http://www.charitychoices.com/checkout.asp
Lots more like this on the internet!

Carron

We used to get a lot of "survey" people calling...when we would tell them we don't want to be involved they say, 'oh please this will only take a few minutes!"

I don't know what world they are from but their 'few minutes' are different than mine.

What we started doing is to say "just a moment please' and they say 'sure'...then we would put the receiver down and walk away and go watch tv or what ever.

Eventually they get tired of waiting and hang up. If they call again I do the same thing and finally they stopped calling completely.

Some just do not understand the meaning of "no" but waiting on a lifeless phone call seems to strick a cord.

cyd

A local policeman told me directly that our state and federal governments sell our personal information because it is a matter of public record. All you can do is mark the envelopes return to sender even if already opened. Another help he told me was to return anything you get using their postage paid envelope. Either suggestion is not a quick fix. Good luck. Cyd

IrishNY

First, are you sure you want to donate to PBS? It's virtually controlled by George Soros now. It is no longer a truly public television, but a very liberal political mouthpiece, where only one side of the story is told. How discouraging is that? Yes, the charities DO sell your name and address, even if you ask them not to. I have a new policy... if an unsolicited solicitation comes, I feed it to my shredder (and it is very well fed these days).

MOD is fairly high on the list of charities that spend more on fundraising than they do on actual charity. There are sources on the internet where you can go and check them out. Salvation Army is good - very high ratio of service to expenses.[/quote]


You can't be sure that Salvation Army has a high ratio of service to expenses. They are a church and so they don't make their financial records public as other non-profits have to. They may have a good ratio, but you can't know for certain.

one-and-only

I donate a monthly fee to the phone company to have an unlisted number. It really cuts down on those calls. If I do get a call I have a little speech that usually ends with the caller hanging up on me. I also have caller ID.

Janet Espeleta

After reading more responses I have decided that from now on these solicitations are going to be thrown right in the waste basket before I even leave the PO! Fortunately they are being sent to my PO box and not to my home address! I'll just drop some dollar bills in to the Salvation Army bucket during the holidays as I don't need a tax deduction anyway. I was wanting to support my local PBS station because they still continue to offer a good selection of needlecraft shows, but if I do that I will do it anonymously. My dh & I used to like to watch the concerts that would be on PBS occasionally, but it was so annoying to have to spend half the time either listening to the begging for money or having to mute the sound so we don't do that much any more. As to any sort of political agenda affiliated w/PBS, I don't watch any of those types of shows on there so that wouldn't influence me one way or the other.