Hi Pat,
We have a new gizmo, called the Telemarketer Destroyer.
The thing itself is very funny when used, but at the end of our page
we have a recording from a radio show of a comedian named Tom Mabe
yanking the chain of a telemarketer (I guess he does that for a
living?!?).
He drives a red VW bug that's modified to look like a phone. It's one
of the funniest bits I've ever heard, at the expense of a young
telemarketer trying to sell him satellite TV. The link is towards the
end of:
http://www.sandman.com/destroyer.html
I don't know if you get many telemarketers calling you, but it sure
feels good to use it! It connects to the handset of a regular phone
with the dial in the base -- if you have one near your PC (you can feed
whatever audio you want from your PC to the phone).
The only thing I'm happy about is that the telemarketers seem to avoid
cell phones -- but when I do get the occasional call on my cell phone I
can feel my blood pressure going up as soon as they start their pitch.
BTW, I got rid of the Nextel, and went to Verizon. I don't remember if
I gave you the Verizon number, but I had that turned off and ported
the old number over to Verizon. Nextel was horrible, and Verizon isn't
much better.
Donna showed me a postcard Nextel had the guts to send us a few weeks
ago saying something like "We know the service is terrible in your
area, but we're planning on fixing it." Unbelievable!
Mike Sandman 630-980-7710
mike@sandman.com - http://www.sandman.com
Check out our catalog of Unique Telecom Products & Tools.
[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Mike Sandman is a long time friend of
the Digest -- ten or twelve years -- and I very strongly suggest that
everyone spend some time purusing his online catalog. For example,
they have a fantastic assortment of Cable Installation Tools
and Training Videos to help you use them. New "Basic Installation 2" is a 3
tape set, 6 hours that shows you how to build a frame.
You might also check out their Telephony History Page which contains
ads, catalogs and information from telephony related magazines from the
first part of the last century: http://www.sandman.com/telhist.html
Mike and his wife Donna are among the few businesses on the internet
which really care about and are concerned for their customers and
interact with them regularly. And their baby parakeets still have the run
of their office/warehouse and make for interesting viewing on their
web cam. Just start at the beginning of their site
http://www.sandman.com and look around. If you get out of there
without finding one telephone oddity or another which you decide to
purchase, I'll be surprised. _By all means_ at least check out the new
Telemarketer Destroyer. PAT]
Mike Sandman (mike@sandman.com)