We all get them, those unwanted sales calls, but how do you make them stop? That is the question a woman asked her community and the answers are priceless!
Johannesburg, South Africa (04 November 2020) – Caitlin Ashley Moss has had enough! Enough of the endless and unrelenting sales calls. She gets them on a daily basis, from multiple companies. Caitlin is like us all, a little fed-up, especially because she has never consented to these companies having her private information.
She took to her local community group, ‘I Love Fourways’ to ask for help in making the calls stop and the community didn’t disappoint! They gave her some epic answers, and we plan to try a few of them ourselves.
Hi Everyone
I have a very annoying problem, and I’m sure many of you have the same, and so this is beneficial to me and many others. I get about 13 or more calls a day from someone trying to sell me something, and it’s driving me right up a brick wall.
Old mutual
Clientele
Platinum life
Budget
My way and so many more
I swear they all call at the exact same time every day. I am about to pull all my hair out if I get one more.
How can I put an end to this? How do they even get my number, I have never tried to contact them or plan to, and I haven’t filled in their fancy website forms.
Does anyone know how to get them to leave me alone, please?
I have tried blocking the numbers, but NO then they leave a voice mail, my voice mailbox is overflowing. I have asked them to remove me from their call lists, that doesn’t work either.
I do have Truecaller and have blocked them on that as well. But as I said, they leave a voicemail or SMS me to tell me they can’t get hold of me.
Please help!
Some of the answers are so funny; we couldn’t help but laugh out loud. It is a wonder how people on the calling end can hold their composure when they hear the things people say. Take a look at some of the solutions to getting rid of these callers below. Let us know if you have any that work for you?
- “NOTHING has worked better than me saying, “my mom said no” they assume I’m a minor, so I don’t get called again.” – Nadia Venter.
- “I always tell them I’m the CEO of the company that they phoning me from. I always end off my conversation with “Please remove my number, and you are doing a great job for the company” – Jessica Britz.
- “So I did this, and they NEVER phoned me back again. EVER. As I answered the call I literally said “Hello, please hold” and then spoke away from the phone and said “Just figure out where to bury the body and how to hide the evidence” and they put the phone down. They never phoned me again.
OR I’ve also answered as a recruitment agent of a brothel I haven’t had any of those calls literally for just over a year” – Monique Eybers. - “As soon as they ask you how you are, oh thank you for asking actually I woke up this morning with a serious bout of diarrhoea. I tell you I was shitting through the eye of a needle. Oh and I also had an earache and my head was really sore and I kicked my toe on the sideboard and split the nail and on an on it goes just don’t let them get a word in and then say bye” – Terry Harman-Leak.
- “I thank them so enthusiastically for phoning me and tell them I’m unemployed and ask if they can send me some airtime or a Checkers voucher. It goes very quiet, and they tell me they will call again and hang up very quickly. I did this as a joke during lockdown, and my calls have reduced to almost ten percent. It works” – Jill McDonald.
- “I’ve tried selling them things in return – each time I get a call from them (thanks Truecaller for identifying them) id answer with “good day, you’ve reached whatever company, how can I direct your call” and they eventually stopped” – Sharona Walker.
- “Every time an automated call thing calls you- press 9, and you get deleted off of their system automatically. For the others, Truecaller is great.” – Doron Haberer.
Another way to “opt-out” is to register with DMASA. The DMA National OPT-OUT Database is a system that helps you get off those pesky lists.
Registering on this database will mean that you will not be contacted by members of the DMA (Direct Marketing Association of Southern Africa).
This helps you to make sure your address, email address, telephone and cell number are no longer available to organisations, who are members of the DMA, who want to make offers and send information that you do not wish to receive. You can also do this by contacting companies directly and asking them not to contact you.
You can read the T’s & C’s before opting out here.
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