My non-violent, pro-active way to stop those niggle's that waste your time, that intervene in your life without your request. Including Junk Mail, Sales Calls and Spam E-mail.
Do you want a fantastic shiny new credit card???
U know the type of junk mail that lands on your doormat every day, offering this, selling you that.
Well it's fairly low impact, budget wise for companies, to use this kind of advertising. But if you want to make it less cost effective for them why not use their pre-paid envelope to send them back all their offers (remove the forms with your name on first). This has a double impact, the company has to employ someone to open all the extra mail and the companies postage goes up as well.
Ripping the pamphlets, information and advertisments (or whatever else they sent you), into pieces also means they won't be able to use them again. Another impact on the company from this is the fact that company's have to pay for the disposal of their waste.
It's 8pm, your getting ready to go out/putting the kids to bed/kicking back in front of the TV....
The phone rings and someone asks for you by your surname and also miss-pronounces it... ...it's the Sales Call.
OK, i know it can be the ideal opportunity to slam the phone down, tell them exactly how you feel or just leave the phone on the desk, but once your aware it's a call from some company trying to sell, Stop... relax... let's make this fun :)
First a couple of rules:
1. DO NOT SWEAR (or get angry) - If you swear (the supervisor they have listening to them won't be bothered when) they hang up.
2. DO NOT SAY YOU ARE NOT INTERESTED - This would just waste a fun opportunity.
OK, here's the deal, a non-sale sales call waste's the (annoying) company very little time, most of them pay their staff very little and have an automated dialing system that does all the dialing for them, so the turn around time is very low.
So to make this less cost effective for the company (in manpower and call charges) we need to string the call out as long as possible. There's no need to say your want to buy the product, but if the sales person asks if your interested then ask them to sell it to you. When their patter runs dry you could use such comments such as "Tell me more", or "Could you explain that again". Adding a "Sorry, i'll have to get my hearing aid, hold on" after they have explained their product for the 2nd time is just superb by my book! If they offer to send around a sales person just tell them your not sure ir your intrested and could they explain again.The possibilities are endless.
Although this obviously wastes your precious time, and should be the last thing you put down anything else for, it could actually work, i mean how many businesses want to use telephone sales if it takes too long and costs too much?
I've discovered the "Hello" method to be most amusing lately. Initially you speak to the sales person calling (long enough to register it's a sales call) and let them babble on with their pitch, say nothing until they realise there's no response. Nearly 100% of the time they will say "Hello" to get your attention, from this point on the only thing you should say is "Hello". It works a treat! Responses so far have resulting in me being thought to be deaf or having phone problems ;].
Lots of sales calls are to do with replacement windows, mortgages and so on, all based on the fact that you own the property that they are trying to sell to. Try saying "Sorry, but it's a rented house, could you take me off your list please", it usually ends the call in no time at all, and you never know they might actually take you off their list too.
A good friend sent me this telephone number which can be used to remove you from many of the sales lists that companys use. Ring (UK Only) 0845 0700707, it's a local rate call and a free service, following a few simple instructions is all it takes. You should notice a drop in the number of calls you receive, i certainly did!
Everyone gets unrequested e-mail from time to time, some of us more than others. Here's how i avoid it as best i can which is simple but effective.
First of all i always check to see what e-mails i have waiting for me on the server, this means using a program such as PalMail (link on the software page) or your email program if it has that facility. From here u can examine the e-mail waiting to be downloaded without actually downloading them. Deleting the ones that are not required or unrequested before actually downloading them to your e-mail program, this method is also great for deleting virus e-mail before it reaches your machine. I find it helps to disable automatic checking in my e-mail program so all my email can be vetted using PalMail first.
Very similar to the above, but using a program like Mail Washer you can also bounce e-mail back to the sender. This may seem like a waste of time but what it does is return an email to the spammer as if the email they sent was undeliverable (which makes your e-mail address look like it doesn't exist), from personal experience this has cut down my spam the most effectively as it would appear to be the best way to get yourself off e-mail lists that are bought and sold by unscrupulous companies.