>>(I am never rude to telemarketers other than the ones who won't take "no thank you" for an answer. And even then I just hang up. They're only doing a job, albeit a crummy one).
>
>That's what they're counting on, that you'll be polite to a stranger, but then that's premeditated and, well, telemarketing is rude by definition. Laws were made to ban the door-to-door peddlers, and telemarketing is just a way to bypass the door.
>
>My last skirmish with one of them was last week, when I started with "wait, wait, do we know each other? Then why are you calling me?" and she went on with "oh, come on, stop acting on me", to which I agreed, "alright, I will stop acting" and started yelling at her.

My mother and I ran the family business back in the day. Her name was Dorris, also. About a month or so after she died in 1988, we started getting calls that went something like this:

"Hello"
"Hi, could I speak with Mrs. Beaird?"
"This is her daughter, can I help you?"
"No, I'll try back later"
"Ok"
(click)

After a phone call a week, for about 6 weeks, I was now recognizing the voice - the last call went something like this:

"Hello"
"Hi, could I speak with Mrs. Beaird?"
"This is her daughter, can I help you?"
"When do you expect her back?"
"Oh, not for some time - what are you selling?"
"Oh, I'm not selling anything, I'm returning Mrs. Beaird's call"
"Oh really?" && me - starting to chuckle
"Um....yes ?" && her - starting to get a clue that something's not quite right
"When did Mrs. Beaird call you?"
"Uh...a couple of weeks ago?"
"Oh, really? What are you selling?"
"Is there a problem?"
"Well, my mother died on the 3rd of July and if she called you two weeks ago, I've got two questions for you"
"Ohmygod! I'm so sorry? What?"
"Where was she calling from and WHY did she call you first?"
"OhmygodI'msosorry - I'll take her off the list"
"Yeah, you do that"

Yeah....I love phone solicitors