Tuesday

rooney tips ~

I received this in an email and just had to share... it just might be worth trying!   It's an old email ~ as you'll see when it starts talking about the price of postage; but none the less ... I still think it has some pretty good ideas in it.
~~~

Andy Rooney
Tips for Handling Telemarketers

Three Little Words That Work !!

(1)The three little words are: "Hold On, Please..."

Saying this, while putting down your phone and walking off (instead of hanging-up immediately) would make each telemarketing call so much more time-consuming that boiler room sales would grind to a halt.

Then when you eventually hear the phone company's "beep-beep-beep" tone, you know it's time to go back and hang up your handset, which has efficiently completed its task.

These three little words will help eliminate telephone soliciting.


(2) Do you ever get those annoying phone calls with no one on the other end?

This is a telemarketing technique where a machine makes phone calls and records the time of day when a person answers the phone.


This technique is used to determine the best time of day for a "real" sales person to call back and get someone at home.

What you can do after answering, if you notice there is no one there, is to immediately start hitting your # button on the phone, 6 or 7 times, as quickly as possible. This confuses the machine that dialed the call and it kicks your number out of their system. Gosh, what a shame not to have your name in their system any longer !!!

(3) Junk Mail Help:
When you get "ads" enclosed with your phone or utility bill, return these "ads" with your payment. Let the sending companies throw their own junk mail away.

When you get those "pre-approved" letters in the mail for everything from credit cards to 2nd mortgages and similar type junk, do not throw away the return envelope.

Most of these come with postage-paid return envelopes, right? It costs them more than the regular 37 cents postage "IF" and when they receive them back.

It costs them nothing if you throw them away! The postage was around 50 cents before the last increase and it is according to the weight. In that case, why not get rid of some of your other junk mail and put it in these cool little, postage-paid return envelopes.

One of Andy Rooney's (60 minutes) ideas.
Send an ad for your local chimney cleaner to American Express. Send a pizza coupon to Citibank. If you didn't get anything else that day, then just send them their blank application back!
If you want to remain anonymous, just make sure your name isn't on anything you send them.

You can even send the envelope back empty if you want to just to keep them guessing! It still costs them 39 cents.

The banks and credit card companies are currently getting a lot of their own junk back in the mail, but folks, we need to OVERWHELM them. Let's let them know what it's like to get lots of junk mail, and best of all they're paying for it...Twice!

Let's help keep our postal service busy since they are saying that e-mail is cutting into their business profits, and that's why they need to increase postage costs again. You get the idea!

If enough people follow these tips, it will work ---- I have been doing this for years, and I get very little junk mail anymore.

Andy Rooney's Tips for Handling Telemarketers
 ~~~~~~~~~

Until next time...
So it goes in my neck of the woods.
~mel

8 comments:

  1. These are so funny Mel and I am going to start with the credit card companies and of course, the clinic.
    Have a great day.........thanks for the smile.......gotta remember the 'just a minute' when the telemarketers call....too funny~you make my day Sis

    ReplyDelete
  2. Good pointers! I've learned to tell telemarketers to take my name off their list. (and I use my real stern voice ~lol) I hate junk mail and file it straight into the burnables.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I am soooooo going to start doing this...great idea!

    ReplyDelete
  4. I knew a lady who would start talking chech as soon as she determined it was a telemarketer. My son-in-law has his own spiel to try to sell them something as fast as they try to sell to him. At one time I sent papers back. I'm going to have to start again. Thanks for the reminders.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Thanks for the e-mail. Good advice and worth doing.
    I always liked to hear Andy when we watched TV. He most of hte time had some good common sense advice.
    Hugs from Way down South in North CArolina!!!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Just sign up for the "do not call" list. This stops these kinds of calls if you put your name on this list with your phone number. It really works.

    ReplyDelete
  7. These are great, Mel.... Even though we are on the NO-CALL lists, we still get those crappy phone calls. Makes me so mad!!!!! Think I'll follow Andy Rooney's advice...

    Have a great evening.
    Hugs,
    Betsy

    ReplyDelete
  8. lol I agree with every one of these and think they still hold true today.
    Thanks for sharing. Good info never goes out of style! :)

    Wishing you a wonderful Friday!

    ReplyDelete