Nuisance solutions - NMR

[Guest guest]

Some of these I knew about and some I didn't. Good ideas all

I think.

Subject: Some Good Advice

I suppose some degree of commerce would grind to a halt if telephone

solicitors weren't able to call people at home during dinner hour, but

that doesn't make it any more pleasant.

Now Steve stein, a writer for the San Francisco Chronicle, has

proposed Three Little Words, based on his brief experience in a

telemarketing operation that would stop the nuisance for all time. The

three little words are: Hold On, Please...

Saying this while putting down your phone and walking off instead of

hanging up immediately would make each telemarketing call so

time-consuming that boiler rooms would grind to a halt. When you

eventually hear the phone company's beep-beep-beep tone, you know it's

time to go back and hang up your handset, which has efficiently

completed its task

This might be one of those articles you'll want to e-mail to your

friends. Three little words that eliminate telephone soliciting.

Using the # Sign

Do you ever get those annoying phone calls with no one on the other

end?

This is a telemarketing technique where a machine makes phone calls and

records the time of day when a person answers the phone. This technique

is used to determine the best time of day for a real sales person to

call back and get someone at home. What you can do after answering, if

you

notice there is no one there, immediately start hitting your # button

on the phone, 6 or 7 times, as quickly as possible. This confuses the

machine dialed call, and it kicks your number out of their system.

Another Good Idea

When you get ads in your phone or utility bill, include them with the

payment; let the companies throw them away.

When you get those pre-approved letters in the mail for everything from

credit cards to 2nd mortgages and junk like that, most of them come

with postage paid return envelopes, right? Well, why not get rid of some

of

your other junk mail and put it in these cool little envelopes. Send an

ad for your local chimney cleaner to American Express. Send the pizza

coupon to Citibank. If you didn't get anything else that day then just

send them their application back! If you want to remain anonymous, just

make sure your name isn't on anything you send them. You can send it

back empty if you want to just to keep them guessing!

Eventually, the banks and credit card companies will begin getting

their junk back in the mail. Let's let them know what it's like to get

junk

mail, and the best of it is that they're paying for it. Twice.

Let's help keep our postal service busy since they say e-mail is

cutting into their business, and that's why they need to increase

postage

again.

Send this to a friend or two or three...or fifty