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From: lauren@yale.ARPA (Lauren Smith)
Newsgroups: net.consumers
Subject: Re: Telephone mailing lists
Message-ID: <477@yale.ARPA>
Date: Wed, 23-Oct-85 09:58:29 EDT
Article-I.D.: yale.477
Posted: Wed Oct 23 09:58:29 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 25-Oct-85 02:13:51 EDT
References: <1042@mtuxo.UUCP> <1468@teddy.UUCP>
Reply-To: lauren@yale-comix.UUCP (Lauren Smith)
Organization: Yale University CS Dept., New Haven CT
Lines: 48
Summary: 

>If someone calls you up and you're not interested, please just say so
>politiely.  There's really no reason to extend the suffering of these
>individuals.   BEING OBNOXIOUS TO THEM WILL NOT STOP THEM FROM CALLING.  They
>call you based on computerized lists of numbers.  They're certainly not going
>to remember the next time who was obnoxious and who wasn't.
>

The problem is that the solicitors rarely even listen to you until they 
are done with the sales pitch (which I do not want to listen).  If you
try to tell them that you are not interested, they do not listen, and
continue on with the sales pitch - hence the only way to get out of it
is to hang-up mid-sentence or be obnoxious.  When a solicitor does not
listen to me when I say that I am not interested, I consider that obnoxious,
and have no qualms about being obnoxious back.

What is even worse is when the solicitors make mistakes (and refuse to
admit it) or "make up" sales.  I was away all of the summer, so my apt.
was empty.  I discovered when I got back that through a "successful 
phone solicitation" in early August, I was now subscribed to the local paper.
Now, unless a burglar got into my apt, and answered the phone (highly
unlikely, and no signs of entry), there was a mistake on the part of the
solicitors somewhere.  I explained the situation to the newspaper (I was
not about to pay for a month of papers that I did not order) and said
that I could prove that I was out of state at the time, and noone was in
my apartment.  Well, the paper said fine, and I thought that was that.  
Obviously, they got back to the solicitors about the problem - because the
next thing I knew was that I was getting late evening phone calls (after
10:00) from the solictitors.  I explained the situation several times (several
calls from different people on successive evenings) and wasn't
getting anywhere.  Then the solicitor who claimed that I had answered
the phone called me (after 11:00 PM, waking me up), and
started calling me a liar, and started lecturing me and swearing at me.
I hung up.  The supervisor called right after that, and also begain
tirading me - well, I informed her that I was going to sue for     
harassment - that shut her up quickly.  The following day, I called the
newspaper, explained the situation again, explained the treatment that
I was getting from the solicitors (the swearing and name-calling), and told
the paper that if I ever heard from them or the solicitors again, they would
have a harassment suit on their hands.  I have not had a local soliciting
phone call since - I've probably been marked as a trouble-maker (thankfully).
Now, if only I could be removed from regional/national lists...

- Lauren Smith

ARPA: smith-lauren@yale