I just say "I am not interested but thank you for calling." and slam the receiver down. Political calls I just say "I do not discuss politics over the phone" and hang up.

You think because you have an unlisted number you are exempt from these calls, or if you are on the no call list no one will call - au contraire!!!!! It is an automated dialing - they will call 000-000-0001 and then it goes on to 000-000-0002. They'll getcha!!!!!!!!! So I am just polite and then slam the phone down. I do have a whistle if that becomes necessary, but I just don't give them a chance to talk. Edie

if they happen to be calling from a number you can call back, you can just return the favor of irritating incessant calls Otherwise, depending on what they are trying to sell, listen, figure out a way to go along with it, and say you'll only buy or do whatever if you don't receive another call from their team. Then when they call again, you can tell them they broke your verbal contract and you'll file that with the BBB.

funny! our sheriff says to give them the phone number of the police station and let them handle it.

I wouldn't do the whistle, it would not only hurt their ears but they could call you back and do the same to you. Just hang up. You can all call the BBB, call the phone company and/or call a lawyer to find out what can be done.

I always tell them that they have reached the Green Pines nursing home and which room do they want me to connect them to.They quit calling.

All these are pretty funny.
we no longer have a land line so that stops those calls.
But years ago a sales rep called and when I told her I was in labor and could she please help me with my Lamaze she hung up. I really was in labor. lol
I also use to work a couple days a month in a friends office. Small family business. At the time there were only 3 employees. All family. The dad is a real character so he answered the phone one day when they called and wanted to sell them a postage machine. He went off on a tangent about how the only reason he had a phone was his kids made him get one. How he was an old hippy farmer and still used carrier pigeons and if he really wanted to mail something he didn't even have to buy a stamp he could just walk into town and deliver it himself. I was laughing so hard I couldn't talk . He stood there after all that with the phone in his hand looking at it Saying They hung up!! like it surprised him. I about fell out of my chair.

I made-up a language for this type of call.

Ischa, Ische, woosesa. and it goes on in the tone of voice as if I am getting answers like: Is that you? How are you?...etc.

It is all just silly sylables.

Works just fine.

re: cease and desists letters

And don't put a stamp on it and of course No return address. They will have to pay postage

The no call list doesn't work for businesses. If you have the phone number put it in the search in Google. A lot of times it will come up with who the number belongs to. You could then send them a letter, etc.

Even when we had our business I didn't answer 800, 866, etc. numbers. If it was a vendor calling they would leave a message. If it was a sales pitch I could just delete it.

My grandson got such a call...he asked the caller for their credit card number. When asked why , he said "someone has to pay for this call and as you made the call, then you can pay". He quickly got a hang up from the caller.