A newspaper today reported that India's finance minister, Pranab Mukherjee, was miffed with the hard sell of telemarketers as he attended to one such call from a finance company assuming it to be an important call.

In response, we asked readers to send us tips on how they could avoid being harassed by telemarketers. Here are three brilliant and novel ideas from our readers.

'National Do Not Disturb facility is of no use'

It's a fact that National Do Not Disturb facility is of no use. I have subscribed to this facility for a long time and I continue to get unsolicited calls from telemarketers. When confronted with the fact that they are not supposed to call a number registered for NDND, the response varies from challenging to prove that I have registered to simply saying 'sorry'; but calls do not stop.
 
However, I have succeeded in getting rid off this problem at least partly.

My solution was to install a software to block the numbers as per the list stored in the software. It has worked quite fine for me. Only problem is that I am not able to block the SMSs which do not show the number of origin but displays the marketing company name.

However, there are softwares which allow blocking such SMSs too; I shall have to try them. The second problem is the battery consumption goes up since the software always remains active in background.
 
My solution works only on those mobile sets which operate on a particular operating system, it may not work on all mobile sets. Interested people can search the Internet and locate a software as applicable to their mobile sets.
 
Ultimate solution will be that government will have to force the mobile set manufacturers to provide this facility compulsorily, as this is the only method which will work.

U L Sharma

Have you faced a similar situation when a pesky caller calls at the wrong time? Do you have a funny or harrowing experience to share about your rendezvous with telemarketers? Your best tip on dealing with a too persistent tele-marketer?

Simply write in to us at getahead@rediff.co.in with the subject 'You are not alone Pranab da' and we'll publish the best responses right here on rediff.com!

Also read: Fun ways to deal with telesales calls 

I would like to avoid such calls by using some tricks which proved to have been successful, atleast for a month or two. They are:

When a tele call is received asking for making a deposit in their bank:

My response: Ask for a loan from the same bank in turn to deposit entire amount in their bank!

When a tele call is received asking for memberships to clubs/associations etc.:

My response: Ask for details either in post or mail detailing terms and conditions. You will never get...!

When a tele call is received offering a loan:

My response: Just inform our own quote for interest rate, terms and conditions which no bank offers.

C V Suryam

I'm at the receiving end of a different kind of tactic by telemarketers. They call me on a Sunday morning, congratulate me and say that my phone number has been selected for a Rs 50,000 worth holiday or Rs 4 lakh worth insurance policy for free. All they want from me is that I attend a one hour seminar with my spouse in their office on Sunday afternoon.

Now, the last thing I want to do is to waste my Sunday afternoon siesta (the only one I get in the week) on an Alladin story 'New lamps for old' spiel! So I tell them that as my spouse is not currently available, I'll discuss with her and come back to them.

That usually makes them clam up and they don't call back after that. I also save the number as Nuisance 1, 2 or whichever number it falls on, so that I can silence the phone and avoid picking it up if they do call back.

Gautaman