I'll bet 99% of the 'robo-calls' get the big hangup...

[spanone]

If I get an automated recording, I either don't answer or I hang up in the first few words. I bet this is how most of this robo-crap is being received.

[BruceMcF]

1. That's why they do automatic call-back ...

... except for bill collectors, most commercial robocalls don't call back (up to 9 times) because it annoys people. But annoying people is exactly what these people are looking for.

[Jackpine Radical]

2. The problem, apparently, is that the machine keeps calling you back.

All you hear at the beginning is a lead-in that makes it sound like a Dem call. Therefore you think the Dem candidate has just tried to call you 237 times in the past hour & you get pissed at the Dem.

Edited to add--it is really diabolical, something that not many Dems would implement, even if they thought of it.

[central scrutinizer]

3. I just lay the phone down and go back to what I am doing

when it makes that beeping noise, I hang it back up. I figure that way, I am using up one of their lines for a few seconds longer. I do the same thing with telemarketers. Time is money.

[GumboYaYa]

4. Robo-Calls happen b/c they work.......

in some cases. That's at least the conventional wisdom.

In the last campaign I worked with, we had two candidates start robo-calls the weekend before the election. My candidate was being bashed from both sides.

We made the decision not to go negative and released a press release saying that we would not be doing the same things our competitors were doing. You could feel the previously tight race shift when we did that. My candidate won by double digit numbers.

Maybe the Dems need to come out and talk about hope and unity instead of fear and divisiveness today. People are craving that message.

[MessiahRp]

5. What is the cost of a robocall campaign anyway?

I'm curious as to how much this form of candidate marketing runs.

Rp

[TahitiNut]

7. $0.15 per call.

Cheaper than junk mail.

[GumboYaYa]

12. If that even.

It is drastically cheaper than a real person calling.

In a race I was involved with not long ago, one of the candidates did 100,000 robo calls and had a reported expenditure of $8,000. The problem is that the people most likely to take a robo call are also the ones most likely to be influenced by a robo call.

[TahitiNut]

6. I keep them going as long as I can ... use up their time.

If I hung up, it'd just let the 'puter go to the next call quicker. I don't even want them to get that second or two.

[AngryOldDem]

8. Man...I must not count at all.

I haven't gotten even ONE robo-call.

:cry:

[Xithras]

9. Yeah, I only got one.

It received the same table treatment that I give to all telephone solicitations...I quietly set the phone down on the table and walk away until I hear the off hook warning a while later. I despise telemarketing, no matter what the message is.

[TahitiNut]

11. Shit! I've gotten FIVE this morning already. (Including one from James Dobson.)

:grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr:

[Jack Rabbit]

10. They do in my house

[KharmaTrain]

13. Don't Hang Up...Let It Play Out & Then Some

We've been getting a constant stream of Robo calls from Repugnican slime. They're not just using it for the Congressional races, but the downticket ones as well.

While they are majorly annoying, any Robo-call here is a major waste of time and money and I'm gonna make sure they spend as much of both as possible.

If you hang up quickly, you do two things. If it's within a certain number of seconds, the call is not considered "completeld" and the caller isn't charged. Also by hanging up early, that releases not just your line, but the robo-caller to make even more calls.

Yesterday, some bot called my fax machine...which picked up and I clamped down on the call. Robocall was stuck on my fax for 5 minutes trying to hand up, but it couldn't. Call it "taking one for the team"