Thanks for that Info we get heaps of those dead calls here so just hang up now.
But I will try that # key ...Cheers..MM.

Thanks for that, there is nothing worse than getting to the phone, puffing, and wondering if the hose will drown what it was dropped on to find nobody there.
I have often thought of a tin whistle but if it is only a machine that wouldn't make any difference would it ?
Now I will hit the #.

Marion,

I simply never answer the phone if I am gardening. So often these days it is a nuisance call as you describe. If it is a friend, they understand that I am quite likely out, or gardening, and will ring back later. If I have heard the call (which I usually do because my Cocker Spaniel alerts me to it by howling) then when I go in later, I dial *10# and check who it was calling.
A great idea for dealing with those nuisance calls is to just gently put the phone down on the bench and leave it there. Be it a machine or a person on the other end, this is costing them far more than if you hang up on them. Particularly if it is STD.
Try the same thing if you get a real nuisance call - i.e. a pervert or a kid being annoying. I had an anonymous one, one night who started abusing me with foul language. I hung up and went back to bed. The next time it rang (just long enough to drift back to sleep) My hubby offered to answer it for me. I declined, and took the call and the caller started to say "don't hang up or......." so I didn't hang up, I put the phone down on the bench and went back to bed, for a peaceful night's sleep.

We leave our answer machine on 24/7 pretty well, all family and friends know to speak and if we are near will pick up, if no one speaks we ignore it. I don't answer the phone when gardening, mainly because I don't hear it....though if I do I will come in and see if there is a message.

We have caller id. I was told once that telemarketers only let the phone ring up to 5 times, so now if the number comes up private or unavailable we let it ring 5 times then answer it only if it keeps ringing. So far it has worked. My usual callers know to let the phone ring for longer than 5 rings.

LOL, I like the suggestion about keeping them on the line! Must try that

However we don't answer the phone at all. Sounds pretty extreme I suppose, but we don't feel you should drop everything, just because at that moment someone wants to talk to you. We always call back almost immediately, if it's important/interesting. Otherwise, there's the answer machine. We do screen also.

I read two things about this in the last few days. One was (and damn I've probably thrown away the paper with the link) about a guy who has a sort of reverse interview, to waste the time of the ones who are actually on the end of the line. But I think he needs a life, too - who could be bothered?
The other was that these calls where no-one answered may be computer-generated telemarketing calls, and they are transferred to a human operator, IF one is available at the time the phone is answered. If not, the call drops out.

Well, I have to admit that I don't answer the phone either.
I try to remember to take the cordless with me but, if I don't, I am NOT going to break an ankle or something running to the phone for some telemarketer!

Annie I am not allowed to take the cordless out into the garden..........we got fed up using the pager when I couldn't remember where I left it. I don't wear a pinny in the garden and theres only so many (necessary) things you can cart around with you.

It got wet one day before we realised it was outside so a certain person spoke very harshly at me and to whom I also said some rather nasty words and from this day it stays inside.

So like most of us if anyone wants me they will have to use the answer machine and hope I check if I come in for a drink ...or a pee

Cathy

I used to be polite to telemarketers and hung up as soon as possible. Got very annoyed with a telco once trying to get me to change my plan saying theirs was better and mine didn't have the benefits. When I told him the benefits I did have he virtually called me a liar, wouldn't believe me, so I hung up on him as I do all of them now.

My husband gets a lot at work and got so sick of them he started an argument with one and the telemarketer actually hung up first. Had a good laugh about that one.

I have a problem with a phone whilst gardening and it isnt mine! I have a neihbour who mumbles all day on a mobile and no matter where I go I can hear him. I told him about it once and he looked at me as though I had committed a sin.Must talk on the mobile regardless of who he is upsetting.

You lot should get medals for that list they are hiliarious!!! I must try thr # thing. as a young gardener and i am have very able legs to go piss bolting around the yard and up the path to the fone however i have butter fingers when it comes to the latch on the door as i tend to miss it or something and go flying at full burst into the screen door which usually hurts very much and i begin cursing the stupid person on the other end of the fone which is usually my mother and i then think to myself why did i bother answering?? Im 17 male and fit from my garden work she's 44 she can drive arnd she only live's 5 mins away and see me in my garden i told her the other day, after i ran into the brick wall and popped my shoulder and she said to me she couldn't see what all the fuss was about.

Hi Belladonna, nice to see a younger member on GW. Sounds like you really love your garden, it does become a sanctuary to a lot of us I am sure, I know mine is for me. Sounds like you need to learn to ignore the phone before you do yourself a serious injury...:)

She Who Must Be Obeyed has a double barreled hyphenated name and telstras white pages can't handle the hyphen - so they only list her number under the first half of her name. Whene ever anyone asks for Mrs or Mr X - we know it's a telemarketer - so our trick is to leave the phone off the hook for five or ten minutes. Most of the telemarketers can't disconnect the line - so if they are calling form an Indian call centre or an STD call this starts to cost them money. We've noticed a distinct drop in the number of calls as they start to realise it will cost them money to ring us.

paradisi, I do the same - as soon as I get a telemarketer, I just say - hold the line, put the phone down and leave it off the hook for 10 minutes. I have an answering machine on my phone, if people can't leave a message when I'm outside then they are not needing me urgently.

Cosmic

I don't get very many telemarketer calls anymore. I just say "not interested, good bye" then hang up, my partner on the otherhand, gets lots coz he lets them talk, he got 3 just yesterday but I answered them for him and did my usual so hopefully they won't be ringing him so often.

Cheers, Jules

I am often "On Call" so have to answer the phone, at those times. A week or so ago I had 3 or maybe 4 calls from a comms company in the space of about 1/2 an hour. Their blue T shirt adds had been running wild on TV. In the end I told the person that I was fed up with this and wanted my number removed from their list. If I received one more call I would phone the police. I asked if the person understood. He said yes and I said farewell. Have not heard from them since. Now Bliss...Daniel

I am very short with the poor, foolish telemarketers who call here, but I got a beauty the other day - pick up the phone... "Hello?" next thing a voice(American)comes on the line "This is blah, blah blah..." and I realised it was a RECORDED voice!! I didn't even have a real person to hang up on! How rude is that?!!

Robyn

The best ones are those who already have you on hold when you answer, and you get a recorded message requesting you hang about until someone can speak to you.

Dream on. What a nerve !

For the latter sort where you pick up to discover you're on hold, I deal with them efficiently. When their person comes onto the line 3-10 seconds later, I just tell them that if they don't have the courtesy to be on the line when I answer the phone, they cannot expect me to have the courtesy to listen to them now that they are ready.

I used to work in a call centre so I am generally pretty easy going when it comes to telesurveyors. Telemarketers, on the other hand, get short shift from me. Especially when the call centre is automated. I try to bear in mind that there's some poor bugger on the other end of the phone just trying to earn money like I was, possibly paying their way through Uni or some other "higher goal" sort of scenario but when I pick up the phone and find myself in a holding pattern with a machine, I cannot be bothered with niceties.

I sometimes smoke weeds that grow in the garden. I sometimes talk a lot when I smoke these weeds. I sometimes hold long confusing conversations with anyone who will listen. My record so far with a telemarketer is 22 minutes. My new indian friend (of the 22 min conversation) promised to ring me back when they had a plan that would suit me. That was six weeks ago. I'm still waiting for the insincere bugger to call me.