The Dreaded Sales Call

Are you a prisoner in your own home? Are you afraid to answer the phone, the door, take out the trash or get into your car and go somewhere? If you are, then you are not alone. Everyday, when the phone rings, I yell out to my kids, "Don't answer the phone." The phone will then ring and ring and ring. My five year-old son usually replies with the question, "Is it a sales call daddy?" Nine times out of ten, the answer is yes. When the doorbell rings, I now walk to the do with the check book in hand, because there is usually some sweet little girl selling cookies or raising funds for their school.

The callers are ruthless though. Don't they sleep? They call my house seven days a week and at all hours of the day. I have had sales calls at 7 am and I have had them at 10 pm. It just seems to be non-stop.

Every once in a while, I get mad and answer the phone. I don't want to be mean to these people, because I know they are just doing their job; however, when I say no, I mean no! For example, the police associations that bombard me constantly won't take no for an answer until I have said it at least three times.

Their first line is, "I will put you down for the gold package at thirty-five dollars and we'll send out to you all the decals, Charles." "No." Their second line will go something like this, "I understand Charles and what I will do is put you down for our Silver package at twenty-five dollars and you will still get the same decals." "No." Their third line gets a little more sympathetic, "I can understand that times are tough and for only ten dollars, you can still support you state police and I will send you one decal you can place on the back window of your car." "No." This is usually when they secede and tell me to have a nice day. But at least they say goodbye and don't just hang up on me as many of them do.

The above type of call is for donations and I used to donate to these organizations, but then I learned of a few scams perpetrating themselves as fund raisers for different types of police organizations. Now, I make all of my donations in person. This way I know who I am donating my money too. And these types of organizations are like stray cats and dogs, once you feed them, you can't get rid of them. Many on my donations are anonymous. This topic is whole other story in itself.

The mortgage companies are the worst. As soon as they call, I tell them that I am not interested in re-financing my mortgage. I try to stop them before they make that long winded passage, but it doesn't work. They then proceed to tell me that they are not trying to get me to re-finance, they just want me to hear my options. I will tell you right now that if "No" isn't good enough, than my options are to hang up this phone. Even when I tell them that my mortgage is below the current rates. They don't care. They just want to schedule me for a real mortgage person to call and convince me how bad my current mortgage is. I know how to re-finance my mortgage, I don't need someone to call me on the phone when I am eating dinner, playing with my children, working on my computer, or sleeping to tell me.

About every three months, I receive a call from a place that sales stuff for your septic tank. I bought from them once and a week later they called me to sell me an upgrade to product I just dished out $160 for. Why didn't I get the upgrade a week ago? And every time they call, I tell them no. These sale's calls are usually long winded ones. I have actually put the phone down, went to the refrigerator to get a drink, made a sandwich and when I returned to the phone, she was still making her pitch. When she was done, I said no. Of course, she just hung up on me. I thought that was pretty rude.

You can combat these calls. The Federal Trade Commission operates a do-not-call list. I, again, registered my home number on their site. It says that it takes 31 days for it to take effect, but you have to click on a link that they send to you email within 72 hours. After that, if you receive calls, you can file a complaint against the company. Many states also have similar do-not-call lists for companies residing in the state.

As of now, companies are not allowed to call cell phones. However, if you buy something from a company and you give them your cell phone number as a point of contact, they are going to use that number to make future pitches to you.

If you still receive calls, politely tell them that you are on the DNC list and that you are going to report their company. Maybe then, they will stop, and we can all look out the windows, mow our grass in piece, and watch late night television without all the annoying phone calls. The adorable little children are still going to knock on your door, but school fundraisers are usually a good thing.