Comment from Carmen Ducharme

Excellent

Lol to funny absolutely love this ! My husband and I actually do crazy stuff like that all the time no offence to telemarketers but sometimes you need to except NO! We like to toy with them also ! Nice writing ! Congrats on your win :)

 Comment Written 28-Aug-2021

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reply by the author on 30-Aug-2021

Thanks so much! Some folks took this FAR too seriously - I got lectured a couple of times on being nice to others, etc. HA! It's ficiton, but I guess they'd read it as an instructable or something. lol
Glad you and your husband can keep it light and have some fun, even if the telemarketers may get a bit riled. (They're used to it!)
Blessings,
Deb

reply by Carmen Ducharme on 31-Aug-2021

Hi people are strange sometimes you gotta live light and have fun we inly get one chance at life so enjoy it !

Comment from Judy Lawless

Excellent

Congratulations on winning this contest. I've heard of similar ways of dealing with telemarketers before, but this is hilarious. My husband used to say he was Superintendent of the FBI Fraud Squad, (we live in Canada - no FBI here, lol) and start asking all kinds of questions. The call ended rather abruptly. Well done.

 Comment Written 21-Aug-2021

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reply by the author on 21-Aug-2021

I BET! Your bubby sounds incredible... Unless, of course, you're a telemarketer! HA!
Thank you so much, Judy. I appreciate your reading and congratulations. :)
Blessings,
Deb

Comment from pome lover

Excellent

that's cute! do you really have something you use on telemarketers?
that's pretty funny.
well, you nailed this guy.
Congrats on your win and being recognized.
Katharine

 Comment Written 20-Aug-2021

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reply by the author on 21-Aug-2021

Thank you, Katharine ! No... When it comes to real-life, I'm a big wimp! I have a friend with a mentally challenged 40 year old who loves to talk, but has the speech capacity of a 2 year old. She just says, "Let me give you to the man of the house" and gives the phone to him. He loves it. And he probably talks to dead air for a long time before Momma tells him it's time to hang up. I do believe that's my favorite. :)
Blessings and thank you for the kind words and congratulations.
Deb

reply by pome lover on 21-Aug-2021

Wouldn't you love to see the face of the telemarketer on the other end of that phone?

reply by the author on 21-Aug-2021

You know it! lol

Comment from Begin Again

Exceptional

Congratulations on the win for the Dialogue Only Contest. This story was so awesome and definitely deserved the ribbon. how many people wish they could do something like this as payback for all the irritating calls. Bravo!

Smiles, Carol

 Comment Written 16-Aug-2021

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reply by the author on 16-Aug-2021

Thank you, Carol. My 'little' brother was a special crimes detective and a group of us were sitting around talking about what we would do if we only had the nerve. This came up. He nixed it, of course. lol.
Thank you for reading and for those shiny stars. Much appreciated!
Blessings,
Deb
And I love your user name, Carol! We all need a chance to begin again once in a while.

Comment from John Garvey

Exceptional

So satisfying and funny! Nice use of color formatting to keep it unambiguous with regard to who was speaking. Maybe I should have done that.
Good use of details (especially the closing dialogue between the couple) to make it sound natural and plausible.

 Comment Written 16-Aug-2021

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reply by the author on 16-Aug-2021

Thank you, John! I learned the alternating color trick from another writer here a long time ago. I've even used it when I'm plotting dialogue for a book. It helps this old gal keep it straight, too! :)
Thank you for your delightful review and those shiny stars! Both are appreciated.
Blessings,
Deb

reply by John Garvey on 19-Aug-2021

You're welcome, Debora! Thanks for sharing your humor and wit.

Comment from MAMONIA

Excellent

Congrats on your win! This was hysterical, and I enjoyed it thoroughly.
What a fabulous and creative idea this is. I wish I knew what to say when they call. What a bummer! I have no clue what to say when they call because I am so annoyed.
But you had the perfect ploy.
I love it!
My best,
Marie

 Comment Written 15-Aug-2021

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reply by the author on 15-Aug-2021

Oh, Marie, I'd never actually have the nerve to do this! My little brother was a special crimes detective, which sparked the idea, and told me this would be strictly against the law. lol. But he liked it, too. lol, My younger sister just says something like, "Oh, thank GOD! I haven't spoken to another adult in days and days and just want to visit. I don't care what you're selling but I'll chat for hours! That's okay, right? Hello?" It usually works. lol
I'm glad you took it with the humor it was intended. Other reviewers evidently thought I would do this! HA!
Anyhow, thank you so much for the kind words!
Blessings,
Deb

Comment from artisart4u

Exceptional

Yes, this would give a telemarketer something to think about. You did a nice job in writing this and good luck with it.
Congratulations on your wins.

 Comment Written 14-Aug-2021

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reply by the author on 14-Aug-2021

Thank you! I just logged on and saw. I'm so glad that you enjoyed my off-center humor :)
Thank you for the shiny stars and for your comments
Blessings,
Deb

Comment from dragonpoet

Excellent

This is a good bit of imaginative conversation with a telemarker. It was mean though. Now this telemarketer will probably never leave his home city again and maybe look for a new job. This really didn't need to be done cause on phones now you can block numbers you don't want to call you again.
Congrats on the win.
Keep writing and stay healthy
dragonpoet

 Comment Written 14-Aug-2021

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reply by the author on 14-Aug-2021

Thank you. :)
Yes, I do appreciate the 'scam caller' notification on my pone! Younger people probably won't relate to how frustrating it used to be. I know that, when I was a telemarketer, we were told we had to hear 'no!' at least five timmes to disconnect a call. I never did that; 'no' was good neough for me. :)
Tjank you,
Blessings,
Deb

reply by dragonpoet on 14-Aug-2021

No problem. You are probably the only one who took the first no. So, If I answered and said no five times and hung up would they not call agian?

reply by the author on 14-Aug-2021

I"m pretty sure things have changed in the past few decades (gasp! yes... that long!) but used to, we weren't allowed to redial. At least, not for the company I worked for back then. Now... I think all rules are off when it comes to some of those folks. Sad, but true.
Have a great Sunday!
D)

reply by the author on 17-Aug-2021

I'm not sure about now. Back then, we were told not to redial. At least, that was a kindness! lol

Comment from Dortmunder

Good

Hello Debby,

FanStory has disagreed with my take on your story, and after further personal consideration I've decided I need to respect the reality that independent artists might unintentionally stumble onto the same idea.

In my defence, Tom Mabe's radio shtick was widely shared amongst my circle of friends, so it was impossible for me to not see your story as virtual plagiarism....I hope you listened and understand my view.

Anyway, I've upgraded my rating to 4-stars...and I apologize for my firm accusation.

------------------

Did you get Tom Mabe's permission to plagiarize his gag and call it your own?

Four lines in I recognized what was going on.

Tom Mabe's better version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOvXxnSEQKY





This rating does not count towards story rating or author rank.
The highest and the lowest rating are not included in calculations.

 Comment Written 14-Aug-2021

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reply by the author on 14-Aug-2021

I"m disappointed -- no in your rating, of course. I thought this was original! A group of us sat around one day discussing what we'd WANT to say to telemarketers if we only had the nerve. We had some pretty otrageous ones and this was mine. My brother is a police special crimes detective and he nixed the idea right away since it is actually a crime to impersonate an officer. (Not that I would have had the nerve to ever do it, anyway.)
So, no... I didn't realize I'd plagiarized. I am not a YouTube watcher unless I'm trying to learn a new skill, so I've never seen this...
Blessings,
Deb

Comment from Contests

A contest winning entry! A seven star rating from the Contest Committee for posting the winning contest entry.

 Comment Written 14-Aug-2021

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reply by the author on 14-Aug-2021

Thank you!
But, as much as it pains me to do so, I need to bring to your attention that I've been accused of plagiarism. Evidently, this is similar to something on YouTube.
I'm not a YouTube watcher, so I was unaware, but Dortmunder (FS writer) recognized it and indicated someone named Tom Mabe did this first.
As I explained to him/her, a group of us were sitting around one day goofing off with the idea of 'if I had the nerve' to say whatever to certain people. I did this because my y younger brother was a special crimes detective.
The plagiarism was unintentional, but I did want to point it out to you so you could make the decision whether or not to let the award stand.
Deb