What should you do when you get Sales or Telemarketing calls?

Report them. Keep a log if you have the time. If they call more than once specially after you have asked to be removed, the penalty for them gets larger. They are forced to check your number at http://www.donotcall.gov.

You can file a complaint right from the Donotcall.gov site, but register your number or numbers first. You can register up to 3 numbers per email address. If you have more than 3 just get a free email address and register with that.

Here is what they recommend you do. I file the complaint from the donotcall.gov site, then sometimes follow these instructions also:

What Should You Do If You Get a Robocall?

If you get a robocall:

• Hang up the phone. Don’t press 1 to speak to a live operator and don’t press any other number to get your number off the list. If you respond by pressing any number, it will probably just lead to more robocalls.
• Consider contacting your phone provider and asking them to block the number, and whether they charge for that service. Remember that telemarketers change Caller ID information easily and often, so it might not be worth paying a fee to block a number that will change.
• Report your experience to the FTC online at or by calling 1-888-382-1222. or simply go to http://www.ftc.gov/complaint
  

So when you get a Robocall, don’t click on anything, just hang up, but note then number and listen for the company name (If the Caller ID is not showing it). Then complain baby complain. Even write a blog like I’m doing just so you can get more people to do this. Make the SOBs’ lives miserable.

Sometimes I get calls that just hang up. These are calls from companies in 3rd world countries using VOIP phone systems, looking to clean phone lists for telemarketers. You say “Hello” and they know it’s a live number, they just hang up and mark it live. They are onto the next number. This is similar to the mailing list cleanups. So complain with the number, again at Donotcall.gov or the FTC.

I hope this helps.

P.S. If you have more serious stuff like Identity theft etc, then go to this address: Click here for the FTC Complaint for Identity theft

Can you spot the English
Palace Guard below?

Palace Guard restraining himself
(He probably quit 20 seconds later)

Oh, did you say Work? I thought you said Twerk!

Kids, if you don’t go to school, then either
Flip burgers or this is what you will do for the rest of your life!

She says she tried it, but she didn’t inhale!

T A X <===> D A Y !

(Enough Goofing off. Now Go Pay Your Taxes)

I had a friend that told me, “This Internet is a fad, I wouldn’t base my career on it… What do we need a website for?” That was in 1995 when I first started working on the web and had just established my hosting company.

Two years later, everywhere I went while consulting and selling people on the idea of getting their own websites, I got complaints about how the Internet had destroyed or was in the process of destroying their industry. This was true whether it’s the guy that sells watches, the stockbroker that used to make a killing, the travel agent that sold tickets and made a living, even the mechanic that thought people were watching YouTube to learn how easy it was to change parts at home by themselves, etc.

The first thing I ask them, “Do you know what happened to the buggy whip when cars came to market? How about the telegram when the phones came? How about the scribes when the printing press was invented? Or Kerosene when electricity, and Gasoline, etc etc?” All these industries had to adapt or retire (go extinct after a short time of spinning its wheels.

I feel for them though, when I see what the new economy is doing to the old, but it’s a part of life. The complainers themselves are using it daily. So the old adage is true, “If you can’t beat them, join them”. Use the internet to change the way your job is done. Look at Robert Shapiro (O.J. Simpson’s lawyer), he started, or endorsed and became a part of, LegalZoom. Think of how you can do that.

Saw this car yesterday, I had to take a picture (or two)

Don’t feed the Beast