If you call me

[DucksNuts]

Originally Posted by jinx

You don't even need similar equipment - any baby monitor will do.

Its amazing what you can pick up on those things!!

Actually, the buzz lightyear walkie talkie thingies pick up everything as well.

[monster]

Originally Posted by Spexxvet

Okay - you got me. Once, in 1983, I was mean to a telemarketer. I thought I was having some fun at an annoying telemarketer's expense, and everybody I've ever shared that story with has laughed. Alas, I find that I've been mean. Please forgive me. I've changed - I swear it!

ok

I used to hang up on market researchers before I was one -I thought they were just lying telemarketers. But it was the MR gig that taught me to hang up on telemarketers without feeling bad -you called them, you don't know them, they don't want to know you -let's move on to something that might be more profitable, save everybody's time.

[monster]

Originally Posted by DucksNuts

Its amazing what you can pick up on those things!!

Actually, the buzz lightyear walkie talkie thingies pick up everything as well.

My fillings are even better -I can hear my neighbors having sex in my head....

[Elspode]

Elspode's patented method for making phone solicitors hang up on *you*:

"Hello?"

"Hello, Mr Chambers! Bob with Window Pros, here. Say, I'm calling you today because you requested information on our products at the Home Show."

"Bob, that's great! Yeah, I need all new windows, siding, a sun room and awnings!"

"Well, fine, Mr Chambers. Now, when can I call on you to look at your home."

"How about tomorrow evening Bob, say, about 6:00? I should be home from my bankruptcy hearing by then."

Click.

Does anyone else here do the thing with junk mail where you mail it to each other so it costs them money?

[monster]

not worth my time.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Just mailing it back will cost them 50 or 60 cents....plus what it cost to mail it out to you the first time.

[Elspode]

At the roofing company I used to work for, we put sheets of thin flat lead into the prepaid return envelopes that came with junk mail. That way, they got hit with overweight charges, too.

[chrisinhouston]

Originally Posted by rkzenrage

Does anyone else here do the thing with junk mail where you mail it to each other so it costs them money?

I especially like mailing back things that don't make sense, like recipes for tuna noodle casserole or coupons from other junk mail packets. Sometimes I mail back a note saying "Help, I'm being held by Chechen rebels in Florida". And sometimes I just write "I forgive you for all you have done to me" with no further explanation. During the election season I would mail back things to the Republican National Committee with stuff supporting Democrats and vice versa for the Democratic committee.

My wife says it's stupid but I think everyone wants to believe their job has a purpose even if it is just opening mail and I also believe that everyone likes to get something especially for them in the mail

[chrisinhouston]

Regarding those annoying telemarketing calls. We still get quite a few for my wife's late first husband who died 11 years ago (shows how out of date their call lists are). When the ask for Rex, I usually fake a tearful voice and say, "Oh, I'm sorry but he's been dead since 1996". Usually the say they are so sorry and hang up but the guys at the group trying to sell those stickers for the local sherriff's dept. don't get fazed, they just keep going like I said nothing.

[Elspode]

I get junk mail for my ex wife, from whom I've been legally divorced, including her name change, for over twelve years. I even get it here at my new address.

The real kicker? I get junk mail for her, here at my new address...in her current married name, Clampitt.

Anybody able to figure out how the fuck *that* happens?

[xoxoxoBruce]

Probably when she changed her name with one or two accounts, word went out to the 3 credit centers and they spread the word to every file she was ever in. Then when you changed your address the big 3 changed it for every listing with that address.

How's that for a wildass guess.

[Elspode]

But...but...why associate her with me at all? Our mutual debts were paid long ago. Are they keeping our names attached to each other on the wild off chance that one of us might want to pay the other's bills for old time's sake or something?

[Clodfobble]

It's not that she's associated with you Els, the chain probably goes something like this:

BettyLou Elspode lives in house A.
BettyLou Elspode has changed her name to BettyLou Clampitt.
The address for House A got forwarded to House B.

They just never got word that she left House A, is all.

On one of my credit reports, I'm listed as currently living at a place I actually lived at about 7 years ago... but my current address IS listed, as an "old" address. My husband gets junk mail for an employer he had about 10 years ago, and it has followed him through three address changes already. Data entry on these things is haphazard at best, and junk mail senders will still pay a certain amount even for mailing lists where half of the addresses are probably wrong.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Clodfobble's done a better job of what I was trying to say. The name is tied to the address, even when no longer tied to the ex-spouse.

Maybe the people that glean this info for mailing lists boost their totals by adding different combos of the same information. That way they could claim honest mistake. OK, that's pretty far fetched, isn't it.




Spellchecker tried to change Clodfobble to bloodmobile.