To whom this may concern, The more people I speak to, the more I realize this issue is very widespread.
A day does not go by that we don’t received multiple phone calls from various marketing agencies or what not, seeking donations. This is beyond frustrating.
I am on the ‘Do Not Call List’ but I still receive these calls all day and night. It used to be I would receive an important message via a chain call etc. for some community event or other important announcement, but now it’s about everything else.
This is EXTREMELY ANNOYING.
Are we not entitled anymore to some quality of life?
To make things worse, my grandmother, who has a hard time walking, gets these calls too, and despite it being difficult for her to get to the phone, she makes the effort to answer, thinking it’s one of her children or grandchildren calling to check up on her. Do you know how distraught she is only to find out it’s a marketing company calling?
Another woman I spoke to who recently had a baby, says every time she’s trying to put the baby to sleep the phone rings with one of these calls.
This must stop immediately.
If you’d like my donation, either send it as an email, or send it in the email. But calling and disrupting our quality of life is just not right.
Thank you,
(Yocheved, Lakewood)
(TLS welcomes your letters by submitting them to letters@thelakewoodscoop.com)
+1000000000
I agree 100%!
I understand that many of these marketers are upstanding organizations deserving of our support. However, the end DOES NOT justify the means. They can’t just blatantly disrespect the law and peoples privacy.
Perhaps someone reading this knows which company(s) provides this telemarketing platform for all organizations to use. Individuals can then reach out to have their numbers removed.
I agree 1,000%
These phone calls just bothers me and that’s not how I give money. If you send something in the mail or have a real person call me up, then I would give accordingly.
Fully Agree, its completely out of hand!
I totally agree. Btw, why doesn’t somebody buy your grandmother a cordless phone?
I have stopped giving donations or using the services of anyone who calls me. I understand these are good organizations and businesses, and usually it is a hired marketing company. But I can’t tolerate the calls. Maybe if enough people tried this, they would stop.
“stop using the services”? as an example – you mean to say you would stop using Hatzolah if the need comes up?
yeah what do u mean, u think ppl plan on using certain organizations ahead of time, like misaskim, hatzolah, bikor cholim….
For this reason, I no longer answer my landline. I know its either a company, marketer or a call for the kids. Anyone who would be calling me for anything important has my cell phone number. I make sure all my childrens’ teachers are aware of this in the beginning of each year.
Whats so terrible about your kids having healthy social interaction?
i keep my phone on a setting that it says whos calling so i only pick up if i know who it is
I agree – I don’t want Carmen from credit card services calling, or whatever her name is with the chirpy voice telling me I won a vacation or the mosdos raising money talking in Yiddish etc. That’s why I have caller ID and an answering machine.
I get calls that my phone number has been selected to win a trip. I got on once and told them that my phone number won, but would not appreciate the trip.! He said you are too smart, and hung up.
I agree!
(With the exception of that guy with the great voice.)
As a rule, if I get called from
An organization – I do not give!
If I received 10 mailings from you… I know about you!
Calling me will not do you any good!
Btw, I like giving to worthy causes
What’s your address?
!
Agreed, but I want to add that I stopped answering phone calls whose numbers I don’t recognize and many people have done the same. Therefore, if you are trying to reach someone, leave a message so they can call you back.
Obviously it works, that is why they are calling. I know it’s annoying, but that is why congress specifically excluded non-profits from the Do-not-Call-List law. It is for the benefit of society. Mailings cost a lot of money, cause a lot of trash, and have weaker responses.
But if the request is the least bit legitimate, they could call with a real caller ID and leave a message with a number answered by humans!
Does anyone reading this post happen to know who are the companies (I’m assuming that it’s just 1 or 2 because it’s usually the same voice) that are offering this service to all of Lakewood Mosdos?
Perhaps we can reach out and demand to be removed from there list.
File a complaint with do not call list.
NOW THERE’S A WASTE OF TIME!!!!!
First of all regarding the do-not-call law, they somehow got around it. Another issue that they started learning is that they call you from a local number so you think could someone you know. The best thing is instead of getting upset simply let the person talk on the other line till they give you an option to press 2 which removes you from their list. Do not hang up right away just wait for option 2.
I will put in my 2 cents , Agree with everybody, But is there a way to stop it? that’s my ?????. Gut Shabbos everybody. At least we have menuchah on Shabbos. [thats just a joke of course]
we even get calls on shabbos from non jewish organizations
Smart ph block them after they leave a msg or keep calling.
Call your Atty Gen state ofc and complain.
Re the mailings, I love to mail all their junk papers back blank of course in the pre paid envelope they send. Ha Ha
It costs the organizations money when you return mail back the envelope. You may not like their methods, but that doesn’t mean you can steal from them.
I tried being nice. It did not help. One Mossad sent a huge amount of mail in a short time. I returned about 20 labels from that month, and $1.00 to cover their cost for the prepaid mailer. They took the money and continued harassing us. BTW they had our info because we were donating about once a year. But the donation was being used to send more mail! I started returning every item to them , marked REFUSED. RETURN TO SENDER . They finally got the message.
imagine hashem would do that to u every time u daven for s/t more than once, do u want him to just say k its too much mail from this guy lets send it back?? no so maybe next time think u do the same thing 3 times a day to hashem, maybe it will help it not bother u so much.
@Moishmasskimsteen
RIGHT ON
I agree, and the most annoying part is that the number looks like some random cell phone number so I picked it up thinking it must be someone I know. If these organizations would only be upfront and use their own caller ID info, then I would be then it would be at my discretion to decide if I want to pick up and donate to these organizations or ignore their calls. But hiding behind some random cell phone number makes it extremely difficult for us
What about the uncalled for texts from organizations & businesses?
Dear grocery store or other commercial enterprise, please don’t sell my cellphone # to others. I’m not interested in spam, even for a good cause.
Wow first time i saw so much agreement in a open letter comment section here. Keep it up
I get 20 calls a day on my cell phones.some numbers will call 4 times in a roll. I have a call blocker on both my cell phones. I don’t answer. I block all incoming out of state, country and unknown calls. I report all these calls. I am on the do not call list and no one pays attention to that list. I have actually answered my phone and have a high pitch whistle to annoy the person repeating calls
I hate these calls when I am driving and they ringing over my speakers. Very distracting. They need to stop these (moderated) calls or start charging the persons making these calls.
Devorah, I do the same; the amount of telemarketer calls I get is getting out of hand.
As far as I know, charities are legally exempt from the Do Not Call list. I’m more concerned about daily calls from non-exempt, profit-making enterprises, like “Medical Alert,” that flout the law with impunity.
I totally disagree. The calls that come in are almost always for community organisations that help the needy/sick/underprivileged/struggling youth etc. How can anyone dare sit on their high horse selfishly looking down upon the people who benefit from these organizations saying “you are annoying me” with your requests for help.
I have been getting the calls on my cell phone multiple times a day and just started blocking the numbers.
The real question is, do you or anyone you know actually donate to these callers? Does this method of collecting actually work?!?!?!
I agree the substance but not the tone of the above comments. As we know every annoyance in life deducts from the punishment due to us, so there’s a silver lining here perhaps it will be a zechus that we shouldn’t nor our children have to come onto these charity org.
maskim but maybe donate, that might help as a zechus as well
Lately many calls have been coming from moisdis outside of lkwd.
I agree with all, however I know that the problem is the mailings don’t work anymore almost nobody responds,so they are looking for new ways to grab our attention if we would respond then it would save them lots of marketing money, and us a lot of headache.
Ask them to hold for a second and then never get back with them. They understand this and will not call again.
stay classy
Try nomorobocalls.com for easily stopping most calls gor most landline phone companies. Works great for me, and it’s free!
First many of these calls are usually not orginated from this country. Second, fraudsters use number spoofing to hide their identity. The reciever will assume that it is a legitimate number.You block one number another one comes and so on,that makes it very difficult to block. The best you could do is to ignore such calls, let them go into voicemail.If it’s a telemarketer, do not answer. The more you answer the more likely they will call.
i also receive many calls every day but what really bothers me is how late they call.
There is a great app called mr number that blocks a lot of calls .its great!
I never answer these calls!
I’m just so busy deleting all the messages they leave!
Usually when “heather” or “elizebath” call it’s from a local number almost identical to mine or to one of the numbers in my contact..they’ve gotten very smart. The calls that same likely to be theirs I no longer pick up
We can not compare Recording Telemarketers that are businesses or mosdos with recordings in Yiddish some times with a loud voice etc, to our local Mosdos who are helping our Community, our neighbors, which would not be able to help with out with out it. It does not justify calling late at night or keep calling.
Totally 100% agree!!! I just dont answer my phone anymore! Missed my sons rebbes phonecall twice bec i just dont answer my housephone. It has GOTTEN OUT OF HAND! I dont even understand the yiddish ones! PLEASE LETS GET GEDOLEI HADOR INVOLVED TO HAVE THIS STOPPED!
i hope u dont use gedoilei hadoir to help with ur own patience, let them learn, be happy ur living.
My mail box has been filled with mostly junk and now my landline phone calls are mostly junk too! I hardly answer the phone anymore so my voice mailbox is mostly junk also. Just leave us alone already!!
Registered landline & cell phone numbers with the National Do Not Call Register & I get more calls now than ever before. I’ve”opted” out, I’ve asked to be taken off their list, I’ve told them I’m going to report them… nothing works. I block 1 number & I get 3 new numbers calling. Enough is enough! What are we supposed to do? I get calls as early as 7am & as late as 11pm 7days a week
PROBLEM SOLVED! (at least for me).
My home phone was in receipt of telemarketing calls each day. Every time I asked the caller, where did you get my phone number from? One time I received a useful response – the caller indicated an outfit by the name of discoverorg.com. Upon further research, discoverorg.com sources their data from public records, and sells this information to prospective marketers.
I contacted discoverorg.com and requested they remove my number from their records. 3 weeks later, the calls have stopped!
I also did some internet searches for my name and phone number and found one ‘public records’ outfit (instantcheckmate.com). I also contacted them to have my information removed, which they did within a couple of days.
This solution worked well for me. It may be helpful for others. I suspect most cases will be unique and data sources for these telemarketers will vary greatly.
Good luck.
i think this is the cleanest way
We need to do this as a tzibur.anyone that calls does not get any donations from anyone they will learn very quickly to stop calling. A local gvir did this and it worked very well.
We have alot more important things to work on together as a tzibbur which will probably bring Hashem more nachas
chas vshalom to stop giving tzedakah?? u never know if ur staying alive bec. of ur tzedakah that u give. rachmanah litzlan, dont ever say such a thing. and shame to that gvir!!!!!!!!!!!!
The fact is it’s alot easier to throw out a letter than to hang up on another yid asking for your help.Another fact is that these worthy orginazations need the money.As long as they do it in a mentchlich way I don’t think we should be so negative about it.And yes, thank Hashem that you are on that end of the deal.
True!! We should stop being so negative about helping our Mosdos!!!
But the BUSINESS telemarketing gotta stop.
While I agree for the most part with what has been said here,I do think we have to differentiate between the nonsense business telemarketers and the legitimate Tzedaka collectors. Both are annoying,but the latter at least has a legitimate purpose…
Don’t pick up unless you recognize the number if it’s really important they will leave a message
The Do Not Call list is recognized as part of the scam.
Read the Washington Post article by googling “how telemarketers get around the do not call list”
Web links disabled here.
be a mentch and dont read washington post!