STORM2K

Woman Gets Threatening Letter After Hanging Up On Telemarketer

El Paso Police Investigating Phone Call

UPDATED: 10:30 AM EST December 7, 2004

A Detroit-area woman received a threatening letter in the mail after hanging up on a telemarketer calling from Texas, according to Detroit TV station WDIV.

Jill Beyer, of Waterford Township, Mich., said she received the letter about one week after she refused to donate money in a recent call from a telemarketer.

"He wanted a donation for the veterans' association, which the veterans don't get that much of that money. That's why I wouldn't donate to him," Beyer said.

Beyer (pictured, left) said the man refused to take no for an answer so she hung up the phone.

"I slammed the phone very hard," Beyer said.

The letter arrived postmarked from El Paso, Texas. The first lines read, "Before you are rude to another telemarketer, you should keep in mind that he or she has your phone number and your address. Many of them live in your own state and most don't give a (expletive)! " (Read Full Letter)

"It makes me nervous. Obviously he's not playing with a full deck and even my kids are nervous," Beyer said.

El Paso police are reportedly taking the threat seriously and are searching for the person who sent the letter.

http://www.wral.com/news/3977271/detail.html

Distributed by Internet Broadcasting Systems, Inc.

Letter From Telemarketer

POSTED: 7:51 pm EST December 6, 2004
UPDATED: 7:52 pm EST December 6, 2004

Jill Beyer,

Before you are rude to another telemarketer, you should keep in mind that he or she has your phone number and your address.

Many of them live in your own state and most don't give a (expletive)!

So, Ms. Beyer, the next time a telemarketer calls and you don't want to be bothered, a simple "not interested" will do.

Your son or daughter or next-door neighbor's daughter could very well be a telemarketer. A handicapped, wheelchair-bound person could be a telemarketer. A biker or ex-con is more likely to be a telemarketer. You really, really shouldn't (expletive) with them!

As they say in the telemarketing industry, "Have a good day Ms. Beyer!"

Unbelievable!!!

Hope the guy was FIRED and charged with communicating threats and harrassment!!!!

Eric

What a loon, I hang up on them all the time I don't really care, sometimes I tell them they have called a payphone or that person no longer lives here.

I'll still hang up on them if I even bother picking up the phone. If they want to go to the trouble to <expletive> with me in person over a hang up, I'll be happy to introduce them to my Texas-size arsenal!

Doesnt Radio Shack sell a handly little device that zaps your number from a telemarketer's computer?

Also, my mother always had a whistle that she blew when there were prank phone calls or persistent telemarketers...

air horns work well too

Do Not Call List Alicia they had the zapper on our local news station and put it to the test with telemarketers they knew.. Didnt do a dern thing. Who would of thunk.. lol

JenBayles wrote:I'll still hang up on them if I even bother picking up the phone. If they want to go to the trouble to <expletive> with me in person over a hang up, I'll be happy to introduce them to my Texas-size arsenal!

Sounds good to me...

Personally, I prefer to quickly say, Oh could you hang on for a minute", set the phone down on the counter and walk away. About 10 minutes later, I'll walk by and hang the phone up.

My brother goes into this entire routine that has me in absolute stitches every time I hear it.

He heard about it somewhere else and uses it every time. When a telemarketer calls, he asks them if they know how to get blood out of the carpet and off wallpaper. and then onto how much blood there is and how he'll never get it all cleaned up in time.....

Telemarketers - A menace to society!!

Register for the National Do Not Call List. Register ALL your phones, and all phone lines connected to things such as fax machines as well.

When you do get a call from a telemarketer (there should now be fewer, but you will get them), interrupt them as soon as possible and say, "Take me off your call list" and then hang up. But do this in a firm, but reasonable tone of voice, and don't slam the phone down--just hang up.

Don't blow whistles or sound air horns or do other things like that because it is not the individual telemarketer (with a few sick exceptions such as the one who sent the letter) who is the problem, but the companies who hire telemarketing companies to mount these campaigns.

Telemarketing is one of those jobs that many of the young, the poor, the unemployed, etc. take because they have no choice--and somehow I'd rather that these people be working than hanging out, stealing, etc. It is a crappy, minimum wage job--but it is, after all, a job. And it puts food on the table for a lot of people or buys Christmas presents for their children, etc. I'll bet there are some young people on this board--college students, for example (and perhaps even some high school students) who have "done time" as telemarketers. Perhaps some others of us have done so as well. It's an awful job--but the bottom line is that it is a job--and for some, better than no job at all.

The person you are talking to on the phone works in a call center where they make the calls and read the scripts provided to them by their company. The company the actual telemarketers work for is usually not the charity, or the company selling the products, but a company that makes these calls on a price per call basis for the charities, the time-share companies, the credit-card companies, the mortgage brokers, the roofing and siding companies, etc.

If you have an issue with the company that sells its products or solicits donations via telemarketing, and especially if it violates the do not call list, do write letters complaining about the company or charity to your state's attorney general, to the FCC (regulates telemarketers), and your local newspaper, etc. But don't take it out on the telemarketer in ways that could do permanent physical harm to the telemarketer (e.g., the whistle in the ear).

Do not waste your breath trying to complain to the telemarketer about the company or charity--they do not work for that company or that charity, have no way to log the complaint, and they probably just want to get off the phone. Presumably so do you--so just say "Take me off your call list" and hang up. The telemarketer DOES have a way to take you off the call list because the law requires this.

I'm sorry. But you always have a choice. No one is rounding people up, enslaving them and forcing them to make telemarketing calls.

Do not call list+caller ID=no more talking to telemarketers

I had to change my home phone number after I declined a cell phone from WorldCom. It got to where I was being harrassed daily and even when my children would answer the "unavailable" number. I contacted Bellsouth and was told there was nothing they could do. I then contacted the FBI in Gulfport, MS. They did do something. Come to find out the calls were coming from Ocean Springs, MS from the WorldCom phone center. The guy said that there was no way I could find him. Proved him wrong. I then contacted Bellsouth again and they changed my home number for free and also have it unlisted for free.

Also, the Do Not Call list does not apply to political organizations or charitable organizations with which you have ever done business with.

I'll admit I've lost my temper on a few occasions (when the telemarketer would call back AFTER I told them politely "sorry, but I'm not interested...you have a nice day" ); when that happens, I do get angry, and tell them where to go (and it isn't El Paso), but never gave being threatened because of it a second thought....at least until now.

I guess the threatening letter is only another example of how dangerous the time we live in is becoming. In an era in which teachers molest students and even some police officers break the laws they are sworn to uphold, it shouldn't surprise anyone that some folks employed as telemarketers are psychotic and potentially dangerous.

alicia-w wrote:My brother goes into this entire routine that has me in absolute stitches every time I hear it.

He heard about it somewhere else and uses it every time. When a telemarketer calls, he asks them if they know how to get blood out of the carpet and off wallpaper. and then onto how much blood there is and how he'll never get it all cleaned up in time.....

My husband does the same thing - got his routine from this obscure little movie we saw called "The Corndog Man" - and NO it's NOT stuff! It's about a bigot who gets some major telephone harrassment and it escalates out of control. So, Dave picks up the phone on a telemarketer and says, "Triple-K Marine! It's a good day for boating. Wanna buy a boat? What? You don't wanna buy a boat? Well, why not? I got a 28-foot Grady White just rarin' to go! C'mon down here and we'll take her for a test spin!........" Works every time...

That's great. He also does a but about finding Jesus, but this isnt the proper place to elaborate on that one.