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What are traditional local calls?

Will Noone Rid Me Of These Troublesome Political Calls?

  • We get what I consider to be an excessive number of political advocation/push polls/polls/robocalls at our house (9 calls between noon on Wednesday and noon on Thursday, for example). We get 1-3 political-oriented calls per-week year round, but it is beginning to feel like harassment now. Help me figure out how to cut way back on the calls for the future. Limiting factors: We can not get rid of our landline in the near future. We live in Virginia, in one of the hotly contested Obama swing districts. There are multiple voters in the household, all Independent, all united in asking live callers to never call again - efforts that have shown no discernible effect. All 3 parties at the local, state, and national level call us regularly the time to greet people at the airport or to push their agenda or to give them money, in addition to the various ________ for _________ "independent" ad-making bile-spewing groups. Now we have variously voted in Democratic or Republican primaries in the past (in order to get the best choice in November) - which is legal in Virginia, so its understandable that the parties might want to contact us - but every time they call we ask to be taken off all their lists, and they say they will and never do. We've seen a very very small reduction in calls from the Democrats, but calls from the Republicans and conservative _______ for ________ groups have mushroomed. Now we're getting political calls from them for elections in Virginia AND Illinois AND West Virginia. I'm pretty sure someone in the local GOP gave the local Tea Party our contact info, too, and they refuse to believe me that we don't want their calls, have never given them money, and that I might speak for the household in asking them not to call again. Would a registered letter sent to local, state, and national groups help? Is there someplace online where I can at least ask them not to political spam me for states I don't even live in? Could I at least get them not to send me the same George Allen or Sarah Palin robocall 3 or 4 times? Am I asking political parties the right thing when I say "Please take me off all of your mailing, phone, and contact lists?" Finally, many of the _______ of _______ blank groups and pollsters refuse to tell me who is paying for the call (just the service who is running it). How do I figure out who to ask to stop calling us, and what - if any - tactics would work with them? Sorry about the length - I'm just so frustrated! Help!

  • Answer:

    Lifehacker had a post on just that subject this week: http://lifehacker.com/5674575/press-pound-to-to-escape-political-robocall-lists

julen at Ask.Metafilter.Com Visit the source

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Register as a member of one of the two parties. You'll still get some calls, but the independents are the coveted vote.

azpenguin

Thank you everyone! For reasons that I won't go into, we can't not answer restricted numbers. I guess I knew it would be useless to write a formal letter and impossible to find a major bullet to end this, but I like to dream (if only to stop getting messages targeted to voters in other states!). The pound solution has already seemingly worked a little, and will probably help reduce the 1-4 calls we get each week in non-prime-politicking season, which will be awesome. I like the idea of the disconnected ringtone on the voicemail, very much, but will have to play with that idea in the future.

julen

"He's dead" hasn't stopped the GOP from calling for my late father-in-law. I'll try "He's dead, but you have his zombie vote!" next time. A coworker just tried "This is an organ transplant hotline. Is this an emergency?" Too early to see if that worked.

dws

'She's dead.' I like when they start stammering and apologizing. I'm not a nice person. This would work too. It is heartening to think that some of the people I have gotten this from might have just been screwing with me.

naoko

I feel your pain. I'm in PA, and we have gotten a ridiculous amount of phone calls and mailers this year from both parties. They're merciless! And I refuse to vote for anyone who calls after I've asked them to remove our number from their list and any candidate that sends more than two mailers .. essentially I don't plan on ever voting again, really. I don't have any tips for getting around the robocalls. I haven't gotten a chance to try the # key work-around, so I don't know how effective that is. I've found that it's not always effective to ask the caller to remove my number from their mailing list. I've had more luck feigning confusion and saying, 'Who?!!? Uhhh.. you have the wrong number!' or (with a slightly wavering voice as if I'm barely keeping it together) 'She's dead.' I like when they start stammering and apologizing. I'm not a nice person.. Not answering the phone is the most efficient way, but that's not always practical.

Mael Oui

I just wanted to point out that Virginia does not have party registration, so that's not an option to fix it. Having spent a lot of time phone banking for various candidates (sorry!), I agree with the above suggestion of saying "I already voted" - that is pretty much the only thing that will get you off a party's call list (for that cycle). I'm guessing you're in the Virginia 5th, which is one of the most-watched races in the country and kind of a big deal, with tons of money and advertising pouring in from outside sources. Thing will quiet down in just 4 days, and you can breathe easy until...state delegate races next year! (Seriously, if you are sick of political calls, you should probably just leave Virginia).

naoko

We screen our calls year-round and haven't talked to a telemarketer, pollster, or bill collector* in years. The outgoing message, which never changes:*beep beep beep* [the three-tone "line disconnected" signal, downloaded from the net] "Hi, you've reached 555-1212. We screen our calls to avoid telemarketers, so if you are one, please put us on your Do Not Call list. If you're not a telemarketer and you really want to speak with us, please leave a message because that's the only way you'll get through. Thanks."The ones who don't hang up when they hear the tones generally hang up after "to avoid telemarketers". The ones who wait past that usually hang up after "that's the only way you'll get through." It's usually only pollsters and political calls that stay on the line past "Thanks". * No, we don't know anybody named John Bailey, and even if we did, we wouldn't give you his contact info because you're a bill collector and that automatically inclines me to the other person's side.

Lexica

I'm a member of a political party and I still get an obscene number of calls. I simply take my cordless phone off the charger, let the charger die, and assume if you really need to call me you will call my cell. Occasionally I will charge the phone up long enough to check messages, but that's all. (It helps that this phone has a crappy battery and won't hold a charge long anyway.) This is the ONLY way I can survive political season without feeling like committing assault and battery with a cordless phone.

St. Alia of the Bunnies

Congress really needs to amend the donotcall.gov service to apply to political organizations as well as corporations.

dgran

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