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Where has decency gone?You may not have it in you to harass telemarketers simply for calling your house. While this has never stopped me, I do understand that they are just doing their job and that the job probably sucks in general. So having me call them a home-wrecker may not light up their day.
Still, you probably agree on my second point: if you call me then you’re rude to me, all bets are off. I faced this one just last week. I was mad at myself for answering the phone in the first place, but the woman verbally backed me into a corner. I really didn’t want to tell her that I’ve fallen prey to $80 annual charges before because I forgot to do the oh-so-easy call-back in 30 days to cancel. I wound up just being short with her, when I could have done so much more. *sigh* Opportunity lost is so sad.
While I admit that I can border on being mean, I do try very hard not to be more rude to the telemarketer than she is to me first. So, one morning at eight, when I was told that I must not be able to read clocks because it was actually nine a.m. I offered a very condescending (and satisfying) lecture on time zones. I don’t think the telemarketers are allowed to hang up on you. *smile*
But the one that takes the cake is a number that called the house for weeks. I didn’t answer, but they clogged my machine with ‘a very important message regarding your AT&T wireless service.’ I didn’t call back. After all, I don’t have AT&T wireless. I don’t have AT&T anything, and I don’t want it. But they escalated. They called three times in one day! So I called the number on my caller ID and waited.

“AT&T”
“Yes, you all have been calling me about my wireless service–”
“What’s your wireless number?”
“That’s just it. I don’t have AT&T Wireless.”
“Then why did you call?”
I held it together! Barely, but I did!
“I’d like to be removed from your call list. You’ve been calling me about an account that
I don’t have.”
“Then how did you get this number?”
Deep sigh! Remain in control!
“I just called back what was on my caller ID. From when you called me.” I rattled off the number.
“Oh, that’s not us. That’s Sprint.”

Yes, she swore until I got her manager on the phone that Sprint had been calling us from a line designated as AT&T and leaving us messages about our AT&T account. She also swore that the number I called wasn’t them – even though she acknowledged that she had picked up the phone and answered ‘AT&T’ when I dialed that number.
AT&T did remove me from their call list – which was a bit difficult since I wasn’t even on it to begin with. It worked – it was a whole two months before they left me another important message about my AT&T wireless service. I haven’t worked up the nerve to call them about it yet.