It's late, you're tired, the phone rings - it's a survey. How do you react?

‘Click’ (that’s me hanging up).

I tell them I’ve never learned how to read, then I hang up.

“Oh! ... hold on.. someone is at the door.” Then wait to see how long before they hang up.

Not really… that’d be rude. I just excuse myself (sorry, I’m too busy to do that) and hang up.

I’d hang up. The great thing about the phone is that you’ve always got an easy, seamless out. :D

I listen quietly and then I tell them I’ll send money after they send me a full printed description to my mailbox of how the organization works, what it’s accomplished in the past, what the ratio is of donations spent on the work and on administration, and what my money will accomplish.

‘Click’ – (that’s THEM hanging up).

Hold on, let me get the other line. Then I put them on hold for however long they want to sit there.

Tell them I’m signed up to the Telephone Preference service and ask them to delete my phone number from their database, then hang up.

@chyna and @eden2eve Based on my own experience of working as a telemarketer, I would be surprised if they waited more than ten to fifteen seconds. We got penalised for calls being too long, and a customer disappearing or going silent was a good excuse to knock the average handling time down a bit.

If it was a survey I was interested in, like politics for instance. I would answer questions and also add a piece of my mind about something that I’m ticked off about. If I’m not interested and am on a cordless phone, I ring my doorbell and tell them some one is there that was coming to take me out.

Badly, I confess. I tell them I don’t have time at the moment and if they don’t tale no for answer after the first couple of polite refusals then it can get nasty. I should just hang up. That seems rude to me but then end up being even ruder because they insist on continuing to try to rope me in after I have politely said no several times.

I say I’m not interested and hang up.

I remember that there’s a human being on the other end of the line, and I politely say that it’s late and I’m too tired to respond. If the person ignores me and proceeds to read the script, I interrupt, say that I’d just declined in a courteous manner, and then hang up.

I think i am a little rude because i am very annoyed but in a fun way. I just got a call like that and did a bad mexican accent while answering the questions in a crazy way (or just saying tacos and crumpets and cool aid for every answer. If i am prepared then i have a soundboard web site that lets me do some Mr. rogers and arnold shwezzenager quotes. One time a newspaper person called me very late and i told them the newspaper industry was going to die soon, and that they should start looking for a job. I know thats mean, but they woke me up on one of my very few days off

In a breathy, deep voice, I just say: “So, what are you wearing?”

@filmfann GA!

Well, for one thing, I wouldn’t have answered the phone in the first place but if for a moment I forgot myself, I’m sure it would go something like this…

“Hello?”
“Good evening, this is the American Survey Assoc-CLICK”

Tell them I am not interested and then hang up.

LoL4R at @filmfann ‘s answer.

@Primobabe Your answer was Simply the Best.

I had one person call me, and I was tired, and the person started talking, so I finally started saying the same thing he was saying to me. He got mad at me after a minute of this, and he hung up on me. Huh, who knew. I thought it was my job to hang up on him, not the other way around. So, I guess he didn’t like solicitors either.

I listen and then say, “Why is it when I’m on the ‘Do not call’ list that it’s still legal for surveyors to call my house and bother me while I’m trying to eat dinner? If you were trying to sell me something, I could contact your employer and you could be fined $11,000. What gives?” I usually get hung-up on at that point.

I just hang up.