Taking Advantage of “Do Not Call”

I've discussed the usually unpleasant experience of having to call customer service before. But what about when they call you, then what?

I may get in trouble for calling my mother out here, but a sure way to get her blood pressure to rise is to have a phone call come through when the caller ID says "Unavailable", "Blocked", or worse yet, "Call Center". A lot of the time it's a charity asking for donations, a survey company, or a political call. Normally my mom ignores the call. Honestly, that's not the best solution.

When I was in college, I worked for an institute that did political polling. I can make you one guarantee, if you ignore the call they will try to call you back. When I worked for the polling place, there was a button we would hit for a no-answer that would put the phone number right back into the queue. It may not be today, it may not be tomorrow, but they will try calling you back.

There a few ways you can cut down on, and possibly even completely stop the calls that you find annoying. The first thing you want to do is register for the National Do Not Call List. This covers telemarketers and the like. However what this does not cover is companies that you have voluntarily done business with. For example a charity you may have given money to in the past or another nonprofit group that you have chosen to be affiliated with.

However, every group has to keep a do not call list that they must honor. When it comes to charities I'll usually say, "I prefer to do my charitable giving through the mail. I'd appreciate it if you would put this number on your do not call list". Sure, sometimes they might get a little pushy and try to keep pitching their spiel, but I'll interrupt with a firm, "I won't be making a donation today. Please add me to your do not call list. Thank you" and hang up. As I mentioned before when dealing with customer service, a friendly but firm tone is always better than getting unpleasant or yelling. If you still receive calls after asking to be put on the do not call list, you can always file a complaint.

So how do you deal with unwanted phone calls and solicitors? Leave a comment below and let us know!