After answering phone: Please wait for the next available representative.

[Mr Hero]

Picture this scenario if you will. You get a call and pick it up and you get an automated recording to wait for the next available representative. FUCK THAT!!

I got a call like that yesterday. As soon as I got that recording I hung up. I don't care who it is. If I'm going to be placed on hold using up my minutes, it's going to be on my own terms, not theirs.

[bara]

What Mr. Hero said.

[Racket_Man]

gotta love robo-dialers and predictive dialers.

I LOVE my caller ID. I DO NOT care who you are or what you are calling about-- IF you do not ID yourself, talk to MY robot machine (voice mail)

[Duelist925]

My rule: If you dont have a person ready to talk to me I officially don't give even half a rats ass about the shit you want to sell. I won't even pretend. Click.

[Greenday]

The greatest part about these calls is sometimes they give you an option to press a button if you don't want any more calls. Yet the next day and the day after that, they keep calling.

[TheHuckster]

Every month or so I get a variation of this kind of call where I will pick up, and it will be silent for about two seconds, just enough for me to wonder if it's a pocket call or whatever, and all of a sudden, there's this blaring sound of a ship horn followed by an announcer telling me about some great deal on a cruise ship that I can get if I just stay on the line.

I'm used to it now, but the first time it happened it was so startling I screamed, "What the FUCK" in the middle of an airport food court where parents stared back at my red face.

[SongsOfDragons]

It's got to the stage where I'm not even answering my landline if the area code's not local or already recorded in our phone. I got a call from my own phone this week O.o as in, our number called its own phone somehow... yeah I'm not picking that up.

At least on my mobile I have a nice solid call blocking feature. Sadly I have none of the sort for my landline.

[Andara Bledin]

That X-second delay with silence before the ad/representative comes on the line is the automated dialing system switching over to the "I got a live one" option as opposed to what they play for voice mail/answering machines.

Stagecoach bank has a rather badly-designed one that takes around 4 or 5 seconds before you actually get to a rep. >_<

^-.-^

[Hyena Dandy]

Every month or so I get a variation of this kind of call where I will pick up, and it will be silent for about two seconds, just enough for me to wonder if it's a pocket call or whatever, and all of a sudden, there's this blaring sound of a ship horn followed by an announcer telling me about some great deal on a cruise ship that I can get if I just stay on the line.

I'm used to it now, but the first time it happened it was so startling I screamed, "What the FUCK" in the middle of an airport food court where parents stared back at my red face.

I GET THAT ONE TOO. All. The. Time.

[Mytical]

I get them from the F.B.I, the C.I.A, the president, some local politician..about a credit card I don't have...my number is very popular with the robo dialers. I just hang up.

[MadMike]

That X-second delay with silence before the ad/representative comes on the line is the automated dialing system switching over to the "I got a live one" option as opposed to what they play for voice mail/answering machines.

Apparently a short answering machine greeting, such as mine that simply says, "Leave a message", fools a lot of these systems into thinking that I've actually answered the phone. I've got quite a few strange Caller ID numbers, usually belonging to some telemarketing company, with a corresponding answering machine message with someone saying, "Hello?" in a really confused tone. The one time they got really frustrated, and they said something like, "Why they gotta play me like that?"

I see no reason to change it. If they're going to be harrassing people at home, maybe even scamming them, fuck 'em. They deserve to have their time wasted.

[mikoyan29]

I keep getting these calls stating that I've won a cruise. When I press 1 to tell them to stop calling me, they hang up immediately. So what's the point of having my number on the "Do Not Call" list if these assholes can keep calling me?

[protege]

I see no reason to change it. If they're going to be harrassing people at home, maybe even scamming them, fuck 'em. They deserve to have their time wasted.

We sometimes get those calls at work...and yes, I go out of my way to fuck with them I consider it a sport. I figure, that if I'm tying them up by making them *think* I'll buy whatever they're selling, then I've done my job. If the boss isn't in and it's a slow day, I try to keep them on the phone as long as possible. They're getting time wasted so they're not scamming someone else.

[Andara Bledin]

I keep getting these calls stating that I've won a cruise. When I press 1 to tell them to stop calling me, they hang up immediately. So what's the point of having my number on the "Do Not Call" list if these assholes can keep calling me?

The point of having your number on the DNC list is to keep legitimate companies from calling you.

Scammers, who are, by their very nature scum, aren't going to obey that law any more than whatever other laws they're breaking to run their scam.

By the way, I've taken to pressing 9. I've gotten one call in the last several months. I have no idea if pressing 9 is why I haven't gotten them or something else, but as there seems to be a correlation, I'm going to continue to do it. However, it's worth noting that we have an answering machine at home, and we don't get any extra messages there, either, so who knows.

^-.-^

[Dreamstalker]

Apparently a short answering machine greeting, such as mine that simply says, "Leave a message", fools a lot of these systems into thinking that I've actually answered the phone.

Our answering-machine greeting is just the default "Please leave a message after the tone" (not even human-sounding) and we'll still get telemarketers going "Hello, is X there, please?" (it's kind of a game in our house now to see how long they keep saying "Hello?" before the penny drops and they hang up; the record is 4 from a number that just identifies itself as "Call Center")