For some reason, there seems to be a dramatic increase in the number of spam calls I'm getting, starting around 1/3/2023. Almost always, I decline or let go to voice mail if I don't recognize the number. But once in a while, I feel like trolling.

A few days ago, I got a call for a reduced price (~$300) 5-day vacation at Caesar's Palace in Vegas. But wait, I'll also get another 5 days at my destination of choosing. Airfare excepted, of course. This gal was very enthusiastic about her pitch. She was very talkative, and a small question on my part kept her going easily for another 3-4 minutes. Well, after about 20 minutes, I told her I had no intention of buying anything from her, and that my only goal was to waste as much of her company's time as possible.

She hung up on me immediately. Then she called me right back. It went to voicemail. The voicemail she left was "Hey, InterpidTraveler, you dirty faggot, I hope you burn in hell." That's a direct transcription.

I call that a win!

Lol … if I’m of mind and playful … same same

Excellent!

Had a telemarketer bot call today. I answered after about 5 rings and the computer said “there’s no one here to take your call - goodbye.” I’m going to use that line on future calls after my initial hello. Let em talk for a minute and as soon as they stop, hit them with the line.

Next time ask her what she's wearing.

Good one! I'm retired, I get bored, I've thought about answering the phone and
wasting their time.

I've played with a few of them. I ask them what they're wearing. I'll tell them I'm naked on my couch eating Cheetos. When I tell them their voice is arousing me, they usually hang up.

The whole ask what they are wearing thing is bound to cut the conversation short, which is not my goal. My goals are 1) to waste as much time as I can (or I have patience for); and 2) let them know that I did that to them intentionally. Particularly #2.

I haven't gotten one on the phone in a long while.
Used to enjoy playing along with the car warranty calls.

I recall one, shortly after I'd bought my replica Lotus 7. Scammer asked what year the last car I bought was. I responded 1957 (which is how it would've been titled, a 1957 Lotus 7 Series II, IIRC)
Completely threw him off script, followed up with asking if I owned a car between X & Y years, responded yes, but the 1957 was the last car I bought.
Didn't take long for him to hang up after that.

Had a list of impractical cars to use for the next one, but haven't been answering them.
-1994 McLaren F1 in need of engine bay gold foil replacement, is this covered?
-2016 Koenigsegg Agera
-1992 Mercedes 190E 2.5-16 Cosworth Evolution II

Just because I doubt any of those would pull up in their systems.

My personal best was a car warranty call. I was in a hotel in Orlando waiting for my wife to show up. They called, and I managed to escalate it up two levels to a senior sales person. It was over 45 minutes. And I'm not a big talker....

I've been getting a lot of calls from "ASC, LLC" since the beginning of the year. When they do connect, they ask about my Tacoma. But for some reason, I can never talk back to them. I really want to talk to them about my '05 Ranger!

Dirty faggot? LMAO

Man... for about four days, I worked at a call center selling cruises for Ramada Resorts. I was really broke, really desperate. I felt icky the whole time. Didn't close one sale the whole week. Had one lady give me a fake credit card number. This other lady was all excited to buy the cruise and then said "wait... what was the name of the ship?" I reminded her, and then she remembered she had taken a cruise on that one, and it was awful. The free food that was the big selling point was terrible, the rooms were the size of a coat closet, etc. She said it was one of the worst experiences of her life. "Well ma'am, I'm really sorry to hear that. On behalf of Ramada Resorts, I'd like to apologize for your treatment and having been misled. If it were in my power to refund you, I would do so, but I just work in a call center." She said she appreciated the sentiment, and not to worry about it. We hung up, I took off my headset, hung it up on the cubicle wall, got up with my lunch and walked out without a word. Only time I've ever walked off the job. In retrospect, she was probably messing with me also, but I was just over the whole thing. I knew deep down that what she was telling me was the truth, whether she was on that ship or not.

There was some other guy on maybe the second day who cussed me out and hung up on me. One of the manager types was walking behind me at the time. Whatever my reaction was, he asked what happened. I told him. He unplugged my headset and plugged his in, and called the guy back. Threatened him with the police and that it was illegal to cuss out an operator or some nonsense. I don't know what the guy told him, but I can guess. He got mad, then called him back and cussed him out and then hung up on him and blocked the guy's number. Ugly business. Awful people.

If I answer, it’s usually “Officer Mike, narcotics….”

Get a few hang ups, one little lady talked to me for a while-she had just misdialed.

I don’t get that many anymore

Just wait until we get our Chat GPT enabled app that auto-answers telemarketers and keeps them going for hours.

My nephew was telling me yesterday that he had a solar company constantly calling him about getting an estimate. He said he finally gave them some random address. A couple weeks later he gets a call from them saying "our guy is there to do the inspection and give you an estimate, but the person who answered the door doesn't know you or anything about it."

My nephew said.. "Yeah, I just made up an address. And I'm going to keep doing that every time you call." He said the guy on the phone wasn't angry as much as he was impressed and surprised. Said he'd do everything he could to get my nephew taken off the list.

quote:

Originally posted by IntrepidTraveler:

She hung up on me immediately. Then she called me right back. It went to voicemail. The voicemail she left was "Hey, InterpidTraveler, you dirty faggot, I hope you burn in hell." That's a direct transcription.

I call that a win!

Report her to management.

quote:

Originally posted by synthplayer:
Dicking with telemarketers

Q: Clip it to your pants.

A: What if I don't wear any pants?

quote:

Originally posted by r0gue:
Just wait until we get our Chat GPT enabled app that auto-answers telemarketers and keeps them going for hours.

Yeah, but what about when the telemarketing companies start using ChatGPT to make the calls? The endless stream of computer generated smarm and bullshit would be most entertaining, but also use up a huge amount of computing capacity and electrical power.

It's ChatGPTs all the way down ...

quote:

Originally posted by Infidel:

quote:

Originally posted by r0gue:
Just wait until we get our Chat GPT enabled app that auto-answers telemarketers and keeps them going for hours.

Yeah, but what about when the telemarketing companies start using ChatGPT to make the calls? The endless stream of computer generated smarm and bullshit would be most entertaining, but also use up a huge amount of computing capacity and electrical power.

It's ChatGPTs all the way down ...

Just run your own chatGPT service to answer the phone …

These have been around for a while, but still give me a chuckle:

https://youtu.be/Vng3HwVzuJ0


https://youtu.be/aOvXxnSEQKY