I had them call me today. They were quite polite... When you don't speak English to them. I ALWAYS answer the phone from a number I don't know in Spanish. Hell, my Spanish sucks too, any High School first year Spanish class student is better than me; But that's besides the point here. I always answer the phone with a 'Hola' and say nothing more. Let them do the talking. All you need to know is two more words, 'No' and 'Si'. They figure it out real quick that you don't speak their language(those racist b@stards!) and quickly hang up.
These people call 2-3 times a day for my employer. My boss is very busy and does not have time to respond to every call that comes in, especially it if is not related to our business. When they call, I offer them his voice mail; they decline, indicating that they cannot receive inbound calls. To me, that is a bit of a red flag. They always ask if there is a better time to reach him, and I keep telling this company that he is very busy, is in and out of the office, and there is NOT a better time. They keep calling. Other than to tell them to bug off, I don't know what to do with them. You would think that after calling several days/weeks, several times each day/week, that they would get the message that he does NOT want to talk to them. I think the next time they call, I will just put them on hold for an indefinite amount of time while I go "looking" for him. Some people are just a bit dense!
While that may be true it means nothing. They apparently came by my cell phone number in a less than legitimate means and that makes them no better than a telemarketer.
For the people here defending these market research operations (for-profit outfits soliciting information from us on behalf of other enterprises so those other companies can make money off of that valuable - to them at least - information) can we come to your house and ring your doorbell at any time of our choosing & not yours to ask you questions so we can sell *that* information to other people willing to pay for it?
We're all sick of the nonstop barrage of telephone intrusions that are disturbing the peace of our homes all day every day of the week now. It's accelerated in the past few years far beyond some minor annoyance which we should all be forced to grin & bear.
Every one of these teleharassment companies has a rea$on for doing it just like Farnsworth but none of them seem to care if we've got a sick baby that we've finally gotten to go to sleep or if someone who works the overnight shift at the Emergency Room or Fire Station has just gotten home for a brief rest or if some elderly or disabled person they are calling has to expend a great deal of effort in extreme pain to reach the phone for these unsolicited calls.
ENOUGH! It *is* harassment and the callous people doing it *are* harming people.