In Vaud all you have to do is say in english that you don't speak french. Most telemarketeers are not confident enough in english to continue after that...
It's kind of rude of me, but I am just taking out my frustration of the lady at the Lausanne trainstation's international desk to refuse to speak any other language except french("Excuse me, but I just arrived in Lausanne and I do not speak french yet, do you speak English?" -non. Deutsch? - non. Anything else, maybe Nederlands? -non.) ... But, that is more something for another thread :-)

I can't stand telemarketers. They always seem to call at lunch or dinner time. I tried to fake that I don't speak French, but quite often the caller makes a very good attempt in English.

I now rely on caller id. If the ID is hidden or from a bizarre country or canton, I don't answer. If it really was someone I knew or a stranger who really had to talk to me, they would leave a message and then I would call them back immediately.

This works 100% as no telemarketer has ever left a message.

I get fairly regular calls from 044 563 8821 - googled the number to find out who it was and discovered this twitter link - http://twitter.com/dubiousnumber - which is seemingly used to identify and share numbers of unwanted telemarketers.

I've saved the number in my phone as "Ignore Marketing" so when they call I can just ignore the call.

Having worked as a door-to-door cold caller for 7 (long) months, I have a lot of sympathy for the people doing these kind of jobs and have no desire to belittle / humiliate / annoy them, so I'll just let it go to answerphone and let them move on to the next name on their list.

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I guess that begs the question: How could a telemarketer get your attention when they call. What could they say that would stop you from hanging up?

Hi. Im Grumpygit.Everything I tell you now is bollocks!

I wish they didn't humiliate me, they always ask if my parents are home So, no, maybe I would have sympathy if they actually knew what they are doing. It's a tough job, sure, but on top of that they so often do it so wrongly, it is hard to sympathize with arrogance.

But, I usually use it to have a conversation class and they hang up.

answering machine.

I don't answer. If I don't know the number, I don't need the phone call. My friends call me on my mobile, my family on my Canadian VOIP and that's all.

I do have a good laugh when people call me on my Canadian VOIP phone and it is a wrong number....

Caller: Is George's there?
Me: Nope sorry, wrong number, you are calling in Switzerland
Caller:
Me: Have a good day!

I usually let them go through their long opening spiel and then ask "could you repeat that in English please?". They normally hang up soon after that.

You'll probably also find if they are trying to sell you something, for legal reasons they have to follow an exact script which cannot be translated.

Cheers,
Nick

We'd had a few calls from and unusual number yesterday, 009999. The time I went to pick it up, they hung up just as I was answering. Seems to be an Asian investment do-dah according to whocallsme.com:
http://whocallsme.com/Phone-Number.aspx/009999/3

About 6 months ago my Son took part in the compulsory telephone interview. They did not cold call, they wrote about 2 weeks before and warned him that he had to answer the questions. They called 3 times and the interviews were quite long, maybe 20 minutes.

What was the interview for?

Unless its a job interview, I really wont put my life on hold to take that call. Wont be especially impressed if they wrote me a letter to "warn" me that I have to answer the questions.

I used to do telemarketing both cold and warm calls. Its a pretty mundane job but great for a student. Hell, i made almost as much money signing people up as i do now! Really the easiest way to say no is to say 'No thanks not interested' and then hang up. The best way to get the person youare calling to BE interested is to not start with a question thats really answerable; be direct and say hwello Mr./Ms. <insert name here> your looking for <insert product here> and then keep them interested. LISTEN when they respond and make them feel like they need this product or service. I was really surprised how many people DIDN't hang up on me.

Well I used to reply in the most bogus accent you can imagine "Mistress not home! Me no speak language! Me only maid!" and I actually yelled that as if I was very excited.

And I've even had people that started being abusive like one Italian guy who wanted to speak to a Mrs. Milin (couldn't pronounce our name properly) and I repeatedly told him there was no Mrs. Milin available and he started shouting and really being abusive. Now I go with Nil - never answer a number I don't know. If it's important, they can always leave a message. Or MG's sil answers the phone. And he really doesn't understand LOL

I hand the phone to my wife.

"Who are you? Not what company, you! Last name? Who's your boss? Why are you calling me when we have a star next to our name? Really? I'll ask my lawyer about that."

That's when the line usually goes dead.

Thank you very much, I just did it and it works!

@ Summerrain: the interview was the compulsory Government survey, sorry I didn't make that clear.

Problem is marketers often call at lunch or dinner time forcing you to interrupt your meal. You then spend a minute or two trying to figure out what the call is about and then try to interrupt the caller to tell him/her "no thanks not interested". Finally you go back to the table having lost your appetite. Repeat again, the next day or next week. I like my solution which is to not answer by looking at caller ID and in any case I won't even look at the phone during meal times.

They have spam filters for email so why can't we have the same for the phone?

That would be great. Some sort of code to block the last number received.

We are company X and you are already our customer. We want to talk to you about... chance that I am still not at all interested in you up-/or cross-sell approach is easily 70%.

Nothing else really would work at all. If I am interested in an insurance/fincancial advice/phone and internet provider/newspaper subscription...: I know how I could find you if I was interested in your type of service! If I don't call you, don't call me either.

1. Email spam filters are pretty complex things actually...

2. There are telecom systems that prevent fraudulent use in place at many operators. You don't know about it, because the prevent the calls you DONT get

3. Other countries have publich lists in which you can sign yourself in. Telemarketers have the duty to use those lists and respect your wish to not get called.

Switzerland is as so often a bit behind... but thats also due to the fact that the telemarketers here are far less aggressive and frankly less criminal as in other European countries.
In Germany, a company once recorded and re-cut a call with my dad as a proof that he bought something over the phone:

Original:
Are you mister Trev sen.? Yes
Are you interested to buy...? Hell, no

Re cut:
Are you mister Trev sen.? Yes
Are you interested to buy...? Yes (the same as before!)

Took him months to fight those guys.