We followed through on our threat to help Ian Urbina of the New York Times document the myriad means of retaliating against life’s little annoyances. Today’s open phones ended up being more about anti-telemarketing tactics, but we got some ideas nonetheless. Here's a sampling of the email below, but based on this morning's call-in, our listeners certainly demonstrated their darker, more sadistic side.

Meanwhile, today’s New York 51 guest, Councilmember Tony Avella, claimed to be one of the coiners of the word "McMansion." We thought it worth pointing to the word’s true etymology.

When mailing back the blank blow-in cards from the magazine, remember
to tape each to a brick. They pay the postage.-JL

I initiated the phone company option of not accepting calls from blocked numbers - you have to unblock it before the call will get through to me. That was three years ago, yes, my friends still do call me, but I can't remember the last telemarketer call I got. Seems they're only happy if they're anonymous. Telling, eh?-DD

Whenever my four year old is around during such a call and the telemarketer asks to speak to the head of the household, or the person in charge I put my daughter on because she really is in charge around here…-A

I just heard your anticipated discussion on telemarketers and pulling pranks and what not, and I think I can give some interesting insight from the other end of the phone line- the telemarketers'. One of my first jobs was with a mortgage broker, telemarketing for "free credit based mortgage quotes." Let me first describe the sort of people who constitute the telemarketing work force. Basically there are two categories: anyone who doesn't fit the majority, 17 year-old kids working their first job before college is an uneducated prospective salesperson; neither of which having any sort of allegiance to the company. It is an incredibly tedious job, and 17 year old kids with nothing really to lose, besides their meager paychecks, are always looking for ways to entertain themselves.
The point is, when I telemarketed, my cohorts and I would make sure to keep track of the numbers of any and all individual who were particularly rude and obnoxious to us. We would completely ignore their requests to be put on the do not call list, and completely disregard their threats to contact the better business bureau (no allegiance to the company). We would call them again and again, just to rub them the wrong way and entertain ourselves. I know what we were doing was wrong, juvenile, insensitive, and flat-out annoying, but hey – if you want to get rid of telemarketers, I would suggest passive aggression. Maybe I have a soft spot in my heart for telemarketers, but now I feel I know how to handle it.
-DM

When I buy a magazine, the first thing I do is tear out all the adds that are both sided. I know it is foolish, but I feel a sense of empowerment.
-LG

I picked up the Times the day of the article and, guess what, a whole bunch of advertisements fell out of the paper! -TC

I probably shouldn't admit to having been harrassed by credit card people during a year when times were hard, but as I was paying interest on all that debt (which I paid back in full a few years later), I felt I had a right not to be harrassed by these people! So what I'd do was change my phone number associated with each card to the phone number of the credit card customer service. They delete your old number irrevocably and are stuck with theirs. They never bother you again, except through a collection service my snail mail. At least you don't have to listen to them!
-CJ

1. I'm on the fed and state do not call lists, but still get some calls I shouldn't. I usually engage the telemarketers and coax out them enough info to report them and then inform them that that's what I'm about to do. I sort of enjoy nailing telemarketers calling under false pretenses, such as sales pitches disguised as polls, etc.

Finally in desperation, we started accepting reservations. When folks started showing up at the motel expecting to have reservations but discovering they didn't, the motel folks suddenly got very cooperative and wee were able to work out a solution.
-EF

Having been acquainted with a couple of telemarketers, I know their lives can be difficult.
often they are struggling folks with few opportunities for better employment.
it is one thing to hang up on an unwanted call, or even to object politely, but to taunt and humiliate telemarketers as some of your callers seem to enjoy doing, strikes me as unkind at best.
not so nice for the fortunate to humiliate the less so.
-fb

Posted by leboheme at 03:40 PM