Getting rid of Telemarketers
Not getting any more telephone calls from telemarketers.
Telephone calls from telemarketers are by most people considered to be very annoying. They are intrusive and quite manipulative. Some telemarketers have even gone so far as to subscribe people to products and services when they only requested a flyer.
Registries
Many countries have registries where people can have their telephone numbers listed, and telemarketers are supposed not to call these numbers. In the US, there's the National Do Not Call Registry.
Political Telemarketing
As many Americans have found out, to their dismay, in the US, political telemarketing is exempt from being subject to the Do Not Call Registry. People have been annoyed with political automated phonecalls, called Robocalls, excessively during the 2008 presidential elections.
Ending the conversation quickly
The article about telemarketing gives tips on how to end the conversation with a telemarketer as fast as possible.
Consumer phone menu?
I'd love to have a phone menu on my personal phone, that would present a special option for telemarketers. Something like "When you're a telemarketer, choose 3." When they select that option, they'd get an automated message that I'm not interested (and that the connection will terminate in 5 seconds). People knowing me would simply add a number to my telephone number to bybass the menu.
Perhaps some manufacturer could include that in an answering machine for consumers.