So, where I’m from, we’re taught that if someone calls us, or messages us on the phone, we be nice to them.
Even if we’re not in a good mood.
Even if we don’t know who they are, we still be nice.
Just say no thank you and drop the call. Or don’t respond and immediately drop if it’s a suspected scam call.
Would I be the asshole then if I decided to, well, NOT be nice towards the other person?
\_\_\_
So, this random telemarketer was calling and trying to sell something during a home-alone movie night. I didn’t know it was someone attempting to sell stuff at first and decided to entertain just out of curiosity (mostly on how they got my number to begin with).
Turns out it’s a sales call for stuff. Insurance? Private property? Forgot.
I said "No, thank you." nicely after listening for a while, but the person wouldn’t listen; just kept going on and on. Kept saying typical sales buzzwords like "Oh this is a once-in-a-lifetime sale", "You’ll regret if you don’t buy now because we won’t have discounts for this item after this call ends" or "Buy not for yourself, but for family members or for kids in the future".
I don’t know how, or what gave me the idea, but after the part about buying for a family member or a kid in the future, I had enough.
Went to the kitchen, found a metal bowl on the drying rack. Set the call to loudspeaker, covered my phone with the bowl… and then whacked away. For a few seconds. Like jamming out in a band session and you’re on the drums.
I took out the phone after that, and the person didn’t say anything. Probably still recoiling from the shock of all the noise. Then I told them off:
"One, you are calling me at 8pm. After work hours. During family dinner time.
Two, I said no and you didn’t stop. You just kept going on and on.
Three, you got my number. I don’t know how.
End this call now, don’t call again or God help you if I decide to take action and sue you legally. Not whoever you work for, just you. The person making this call now."
I don’t know if the person ever said anything after that; dropped the call, then immediately blocked and reported their number.
The nice game only works if they are nice back. You said no thank you, and they ignored you. Sometimes being rude is only way to get your message across. Nta
I mean what if OP said no thank you and then actually just hung up the phone.
So…. IDK… hang up? Block them.
I like to have fun with telemarketers. I respond excitedly….oh, that sounds exciting/interesting, tell me more. Then I just set the phone down and let them get out the spiel. When they stop talking I pick the phone up and say…”I like the sound of that. Send me one and I’ll try it out and get back to you. I can be your tester. .” Then I just waste as much of their time as I can…” why won’t you send me one to try it out?.” It goes on like that until he hangs up.
Sometimes I tell that that they are speaking to a police officer and tell them I am tracing this call right now….again they hang up.
Sometimes times I pretend to misunderstand everything they say. I’ve watched some on YouTube that are absolutely hilarious.
Every story on this sub is not real! This why I tend to down vote and not read!
I don’t care if people are rude to telemarketers, because part of telemarketer’s job is to be rude, but in defense of the “be nice to people who call you” strategy the strategy is “Just say no thank you **and drop the call.**” You didn’t execute the strategy because you didn’t drop the call! You don’t need their permission to hang up! The “being nice” strategy failed because you didn’t actually execute the crucial part of it which is actually hanging up instead of yelling at them.
Also telemarketers are on the same spectrum/type of call as scammers so the same principle of “just hang up” also applies to them.
And TBH I think there is something sort of corrosive to yourself if you get used to being rude or yelling at people even if they do deserve it. Just hang up the phone!
INFO, you know you can hang up the phone right? Like you genuinely you seem to not realize (from like a social norms perspective) you can hang up the phone and then go to a lot of effort to get him to hang up, including threatening him, instead of just hanging the phone up yourself.
NTA
but I would just put the phone in front of the tv’s speakers and ignore it.
I miss having a fax machine. back then, when I got a spam call, I would call back from the fax machine, and when they said hello, I pressed ‘start’.
YTA
You don’t have to answer unknown callers. You can also hang up on them. Instead you went from 0 to f-ing bat shit nuts in 3 seconds flat.
Also the person on the other end of the phone is a human being with a pretty shitty job just trying to make ends meet. You need help with your issues.
sometimes we can feel overwhelmed by these calls. Tell them you already are insured & just hang up.
We always just say loudly and politely, “Sorry, we don’t respond to telephone solicitations” and then hang up. You’re actually doing them a favor by not wasting their time.
Saying ‘no thank you good bye’ and hanging up is completely good manners.
NTA – but then I am sometimes as rude as I can possibly be.
Now, when there is an obvious south asian accent on the other end, I ask them how they are going to work off the karmic burden they are accumulating and do they expect to be reborn as a pig or a goat, or possibly something lower like a slug.
Just hang up, man. They’re just doing their sh*tty Jon, trying to make it through the week. They aren’t some billionaire harassing you. They get nothing from the call. Capitalism wins when we turn against each other.