My Brief History as a Telemarketer
Back in the summer of 1996, for about one month, I worked for a company called Quikpages.  Well, I really worked for a contracting company that hired me out to Quikpages.  I was telemarketing.  Quikpages designed and sold single page web pages to small businesses and then listed them in their web directory.  My job was to sit in a mini call center and dial phone numbers than appeared on my terminal.  These were mostly home-based businesses and we were supposed to convince them that their little business could prosper by being in the Quikpages directory linking to their page.

While working there, I realized exactly how horrid telemarketing was.  There were about 15-20 of us in a room, all feeding off of the same set of customers.  When a customer asked to be put on our "Do Not Call list" or for us to not call, we would select that option from our menu and continue onto the next customer.  In theory, that would mean this was removed from the main pool of prospects.  That was until our list started dwindling.  Occasionally, we'd have two or three of us calling the same prospective customer at the same time.   He'd put one of us on hold to find out who was on the other line and it was someone from the other side of the room.  Then one day we all went to go to the next person and reached End of File.  That was it.  Our list was exhausted.  Instead of our manager going to the company and asking for a new list, he would go in and release all of the customers into the general pool.  It didn't matter to him whether they were marked as Not Interested, Do Not Call, Already a Customer, Call Later, etc.  So we'd start over.  We eventually started deleting information, such as name and contact # out of the database ourselves because it sure made for a hard day when you were calling people you had already called and were just not interested in talking to you less than a month after rejecting your offer.

Fortunately, I was offered another job for the summer and couldn't get out of that place fast enough!  I felt so sleazy pushing this poor product on people for $20 a month!

Tips for Silencing Your Phone
My phone doesn't ring.  I think I now get less than one call every other month.  Below are some things that I've done to bring about this miraculous silence.

1. Answer every call that comes in as Unavailable or Private Caller.  If you don't answer, you get tagged as "Call Later", and believe me, they will.  This process is all automated and you will appear on someone's screen again until you talk to them.  I think of this as facing the problem head on.
2. "Put me on your Do Not Call List, please."  This is a powerful phrase.  Do not answer any questions, do not verify any information and do not let them push after this phrase.  It's over.  Do not hang up until you receive an acknowledgement from this person.  If they do try to push a little further, remind them that legally, you don't have to give them a reason for this and start asking for their name and to speak to their manager.  Generally, that will make the big, bad telemarketer huff and puff his way off the phone, probably hanging up on you.  (How rude!!)
3. Find out if your state has a Do Not Call list.   The Direct Marketing Association has a list on their website for every state that has a DNC list.  http://www.the-dma.org/government/donotcalllists.shtml
4. Opt out of the DMA lists.  Some states, like PA, use the DMA to administer their state DNC list.  This is convenient because you need to opt out of the DMA lists, anyway.  You can find information on opting out of the DMA lists on their website at http://www.dmaconsumers.org/consumerassistance.html.  You can opt out of email, US mail and telemarketing lists that are all given to DMA members.   Even if your state doesn't use the DMA list, DMA members are supposed to use this and there are a lot of DMA members.  You'll see the logo on the back flap of envelopes you receive in the mail.  Opting out of the DMA telemarketing list costs $5 to register online.  You can also mail it a form for free, which is what I've done.  This needs to be done every 5 years or every time you change your phone #.
5. Opt out of lists from the credit reporting agencies.  See my credit reporting page for information on their web sites and contact info.  You can opt out of all three of these agencies selling your personal information by calling (888) 5OPTOUT.
6. Read your privacy policies that come in the mail from your creditors.  Back in 2001, all creditors were required to mail out their privacy policies to each of their customers.  Generally, these were small inserts in your bill.  Some of them had phone numbers to call to opt out, others had websites to visit, yet others wants you to mail in your request to be removed.  Pay attention to these inserts!  Creditors need to mail you their privacy policies every year.  If you've already opted out, your decision should still be enforced.  Do it again if you are unsure.
7. Federal Trade Commission Do Not Call Registry.  This should be the mother of all DNC lists.  Don't forget to get on this one as soon as it's available.  Some interesting details on it are at http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/edcams/donotcall/index.html.

Getting Serious about Telemarketers - Resources
Below are some resources on telemarketing laws and what to do when they really push the envelope or break the law and ignore your rights.

1. Junkbusters:  US Laws on Telemarketing
2. Federal Trade Commission - Consumer Information
3. National Fraud Information Center
4. Federal Communications Commission - Unwanted Telephone Marketing Calls
5. Consumer Protection Association - How to Hang Up on Telemarketers for Good

Bad Companies - Observations
Companies that I've observed obviously violating these Do Not Call efforts.

1. ADT Security - horrible place.  The company apparently does not share its lists among offices and all of the local offices will call you and harass you individually.  I've had them question me for my decision to be placed on their DNC list, even get angry and hang up.  They also have machines calling and leaving voicemails while you're out.  It doesn't say anything about being put on their DNC list, but if you call back the # on your voicemail, you can talk to someone in hopes that eventually they'll pay attention.  I'm not sure if it was PA's DNC list laws, my threat to report them to the Attorney General and Federal Trade Commission, or they ran out of local offices to harass me, but they eventually went away.  It's not like I would use them, anyway, because of their poor reputation and service that I've heard so much about.  My sister has a nice little story about the office that serves the Cherry Hill, NJ, area that I'd be glad to share with anyone interested.
2. Car Craft, owned by Primedia Magazines- DMA member, nonetheless.  They called TWICE asking my husband to renew his membership.  Both times, they were told to put us on their DNC list.  My husband went on their website and complained about this.  Suddenly, his subscription was renewed for another year and the only way he noticed was the sticker on his magazine now had a new subscription expiration date.  Funny how that works.
3. Providian - I usually hesitate in asking people I do business with to put me on their DNC list.  With Providian, however, I made an exception.  They would call every couple of months to verify my name, social security #, salary, etc, only to try to get me to consolidate credit cards.  They pulled my credit report every month and knew exactly what I had on other credit cards when they called.  With all the effort they put in, it was obvious it was not to my benefit.  Their credit card interest rate was 5.99%, which is great.  Their transfer rate, however, was 21.99%.  When I refused to transfer one time, this one telemarketer kept pushing.  I finally told him to put me on their DNC list and he got mad at me.  When I asked to speak to his manager, he finally hung up.