best defence...
"Hello"

"hello It's Jane Smith from XYZ company, is Mr Mitch there Please.."

" just one momnet please, I'll get him"

then put the phone down and go back to what you were doing...

HAHAHAHAHAH

I always say the person is out of the country indefinately....

even if they're asking for me 

 I say "HELLO,HELLO, can you speak up, I can't hear you, HELLO, I cant hear you, HELLO, HELLO, HELLO".  (They usually hang up after about 15 seconds)

I have also used the system resommended by Mitch.  :D

Hey!! I do that too!!!

BT abuse call;

* language warning on that *

Actually, check this one out. This is awesome.

The guy pretends that the person they called was murdered; It's hillarious;

http://howtoprankatelemarketer.ytmnd.com/

LOL yeah I've heard that one.. it's cool.

ROFL!!! That's Brilliant!

hehehe

I like how the marketer keeps trying to sell amid all that.... sheesh 

 That was great, I got a good laugh out of it. (made my day).

I can't wait to try the murder one on the next caller

just to focus on the other side: i had worked in a telemarketing firm before...and i swear i cried my eyes out after 8 days of work. all the abuse and ppl hanging up you....i really dunno why ppl still work in this line...

Poor Swinger, I hope you didn't get the "HELLO, cant hear you" routine from me.   

andro....i got worse....i got non-english speakers...and some abuse even when i used my sweetest little girl voice...and i also got "i'm busy watching big brother"

I know why ppl work in it.... good money

I considered doing it too..... but I didn't wanna hate myself as much as I hate them 

Next time you get one that is obviously from off-shore....

ask the person's name....

I had one last night who said her name was (in a think indian accent)

"Jenny Anniston"

I laughed and hung up...

I prolly should have said Oh I'm sorry this is Ghandi .... you have the wrong number...

HAHAHAHAHA

That would have been a brilliant comeback 

My only beef with the offshore call centres is that they recognise my name as an Indian one, and they think I should give them the time of the day because we have something in 'common'.

bleh 

Which also means that they are more rude to me when I'm uninterested in what they're selling

grrrrrrrrr 

I have no problem with accents, or offshore or anything... but the name was a classic...
I always find it funny the english name people pick for themselves...
names like Herman, or Humphrey... hee hee...

hahhaha

yeah, I got what you meant 

ya!!! You know how they go about picking names for themselves - they have a dictionary of names!!! And its a dictionary of names put together by another indian genius!!! Goes something along the lines of picking names that the average Indian can pronounce without any accent or minimal accent. So they end up picking all the common names or overtly exposed names - aka celebrities.

Honestly, I can't understand why they try so hard with the names and accents....

Everyone knows who they are anyways....

I am crying with laughter after that telemarketing clip. That's fantastic!

The name of the customer service agent on the other end of the phone is a good point..  I find it crazy that when you call a service centre and are put through to someone in India, they will introduce themselves as Bob or Sandra but when you are routed to a service centre located in the UK and the person is of Indian or Pakistani origin they give their natural name, which in most cases, is totally unpronouncable and impossible to spell unless you are fluent in the language of the area that their family originates from.

And because most of the time you are phoning to get something sorted out it's good to write down the name of the person you are speaking to and then most of the call is then spent trying to get their name pronounced and spelt properly...

Gawd....

You sound like some of the people who've had issues with my name - pronouncing and spelling it...

--> it's THREE letters long

*knows a guy with a 3-letter last name of Sng* pronounce that ->Sng

sing

??

No issues with your name Dek (Rai).  What you have to do is imagine a young bloke or girl who's family is Middle-East/Eastern extraction.  They spend their time with their family (because of the elders) speaking their heritage language, along with their natural accent etc...  When they socialise and go to work they speak English and end up with a combined regional/heritage accent - But only when they speak English!.

When they speak English to you, they end up saying their name in the combined accent - and their name sounds really weird and in reality, it isn't.  It's their combo accent plus the distortion of the telephone and I'm sorry but it is really off-putting when you are needing to establish the name of someone you are speaking to.  I've even had people tell me I'm disrespectful because I can't catch what they are saying because of the combo accent.  I have to say that this, for me, is not just a call-centre problem, it's in shops, bars and so on.  Having said that, I have no problem understanding their parents and elder friends/family and I reckon that's simply because they tend to retain their natural accent when they speak English.

Ahhh... yes, I think I get what you mean Mr Dent

btw, on my flight back, there was a guy in the seat next to me, and I found him very irritating. He was very figgety and kept falling asleep on my shoulder and... well, he was not fun to sit next to....

Turns out, he works at a call center.

Can't escape em eh?

If you have a phone account with telstra, you have the ability to put them out of action for a few hours.

Basically, it works on an open-line technology. If you don't hang up, it leaves an open line, so no matter how many times they try to hang up, they can't because when they pick up the phone again, they're still connected to your call.

Next time a telemarketer calls you, just put the phone aside and walk away for a few hours.

Oh, really?? That's all I need to do?

Wheeeeeee!

Beware of this one.  If you call someone from you home 'phone and it's a traditional analogue phone and they have a traditional analogue 'phone, the call won't finish until you hang up.  However if the call originates in a call centre it's quite likely that they have digital lines to connect to the telephone network and when they hang up the line always clears down.  Therefore they can continue to make calls.  And your 'phone is simple "off hook". Therefore no-one can call you and probably, you'll end up with a recorded message telling you the "other party has cleared" and then it sometimes changes (after 10 mins or so) into a high pitched tone.

Bummer... plan fail

Back to asking em questions till they hang up then

I like to pretend I work for a competitor of theirs and compare rates, then try to talk them around to buying my deal instead

HAHAHAHA

That's a good one!

Another tactic is to just say "yes" (and nothing more, less or other than "yes") in response to whatever they ask, and see how long it takes them to realise it's a windup.

They always mispronounce my last name, so I just tell them that no one with that name lives here, and hang up.

I do a variation of what DJ does... sometimes they call looking for a Mr or Mrs Rai. Right name, wrong title, tata!

Yeah I do the same - I always get a Mr.. what about me says I'm a guy?! And I know that when they call you off a list with just your surname and initial, they generally have to guess - but wouldn't the smarter option be to ask for the preference of the same gender as the person who answered the phone?

Eggactly...

I usually put the three year old on for a chat. He likes to give blow by blow descriptions of the fight he had with his older brother and or the neighbours kid earlier that afternoon.

HAHAHAHAHA

Do they hear him out hoping you'll come back on the phone?

No they usually hang up on him. Doesn't stop him though.

*chuckle*

that's awesome.

hehe... i  think i'd stick in a 'did you open it first when you tried to use it' question..

hahaha!

lefthandedtoons.com: I got suckered into going there because the name lead me to believe that it was drawn by a leftie(like myself) , but it was a lie

Well..... it is drawn with left hands.... just that they're right handed