What is your typical manner for handling telemarketers?

Sometimes ( I'm being 100% honest here)   I ask them to hold on one second then hold the phone near the toilet while I pee then hang up.

Depends on whether I'm feeling playful. Normally I just hang up as soon as I know who they are. Once I managed to convince a guy that I was Russian and don't speak any English.

But to hear a master at work, listen to how Ted Mabe handles telemarketers. 

I put on the deepest, creepiest voice I can manage, and say:
"That's very interesting ... WHAT are you WEARING?"
That's when THEY hang up.

I just say no thank you and hang up. 

Out of the hundreds of telemarketers calls we receive every year .... We finally cracked it ... in the middle of sex the phone rang & there it was on the screen (overseas call) My partner said to me ... stop stop .... "Helloooo, ok, please hold the line & I'll get the owner of the property" With that she put the phone on the bed & said to me ... where were we.

They stayed on the phone for ages before we heard the beeping sound ... its not typical but it was an opportunity that couldn't be missed ... not to mention I did find it rather arousing.  

Hello B:

I have a different take on it, of course..  At one time in my checkered past, I WAS a telemarketer..  But, I was SOOO good at telemarketing, that NONE of my customers ever thought of me in that light..  It's not hard to do, if you BELIEVE in what you're selling, and I did...  First off, I established a rapport with my customers because I have the unique ability to correctly pronounce difficult last names on the fly.. Then it was off to the races..

Here's an example of that in my own life..  My last name is difficult, so when somebody calls me and pronounces it correctly, he's got my attention..  Then if he starts talking about stuff I'm VERY interested in, he has me. 

goody This post was edited by excon at April 19, 2017 1:27 PM MDT

Easy, most can't pronounce my first or last name right. It's usually obvious when they call, it's obvious that J-eh-pah isn't around, so I tell them that I'm not in and they have the wrong number, then blacklist their number. 

I usually answer if I am close to the phone---simply because until they get a contact and a declination, they consider the phone number still to be a possible lead.

I never answer a question asked.  (If they say can you hear me and you answer "yes," your answer is recorded and can be used to show that you authorized them do various things.)

The first think I ask is "What do you want?"---that usually prevents them from staying on script.

Also, I have two phone lines in my house.  I always give the one dedicated to my fax out when I need to list a number---unless I regularly deal with the business requesting my number.

I don't have the patience to jerk them around.

i got one today, i just told them to take me off their list, i did put myself on the donotcall.gov list but they call anyways, what i hate is when im waiting to hear from jobs and then hear from them instead. wonder how they get jobs like that, maybe i should do that, i could use a job

We put a telemarketer block on the phone. That way they can't even call us.