PreFone Filter
STOP telemarketers
STOP fundraisers
STOP hang-up calls
STOP wrong numbers
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BEFORE your phone rings
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PreFone Filter is a simple, solid-state,
computer-based device that attaches to your
phone line and eliminates unwanted calls before your phone rings.
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- Installs in seconds
- Small size: 6" x 4" x 1.5"
- Works with both touch-tone and rotary dial phones
- Accepts calls from both touch-tone and rotary dial phones
- Compatible with all answering machines
- Rock-solid 1 year warranty
- Shipping since 1992
- Made in the U.S.A.
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How it works
- Someone calls you
- PreFone answers—your phone does not ring
- PreFone plays a prerecorded message
- If the caller still wants to talk to you,
they press 4, 5, or 6.
(Rotary phone callers just stay on the line.)
- PreFone rings your phone
- You answer
Messages
- PreFone comes with a pre-recorded message that rejects telemarketers
- You can record your own messages, right from the telephone
- no mikes
- no tapes
- no hassle
- Suggested scripts are supplied
Ring patterns
PreFone uses distinctive ring patterns to tell you whether the caller pressed
4, 5, or 6.
Models
PreFone Filter Deluxe
- Includes all features described above
- PRICE $149.95
PreFone Filter Standard
- Omits distinctive ring patterns
- PRICE $119.95
PreFone Filter JunkBuster
- Omits custom message recording—telemarketer rejection message is permanently
recorded
- Omits distinctive ring patterns
- PRICE $89.95
Here are some ways to make PreFone work for you
Basic
You have reached (123) 555-1234.
Press 5 to speak to a person.
If you do not have a touch tone phone, please stay on the line.
This simple message will screen out wrong numbers,
as well as the most telemarketers.
Junk buster
Sales and fundraising calls are not wanted here.
Telemarketers and fundraisers hang up now.
Others please press 5.
This gives you grounds for taking legal action against any telemarketer
who persists in calling you.
Directing calls
You have reached (123) 555-1234.
To speak to Mr. Smith, press 4.
To speak to Mrs. Smith, press 5.
To speak to Tommy, press 6.
Distinctive ring patterns let each person know when a call is for them.
Telling friends from strangers
You have reached (123) 555-1234.
Please press 5 to continue.
Tell your friends and family to press 4 instead.
When the phone rings, you'll know if it's a friend or a stranger.
Screening out strangers
You have reached (123) 555-1234.
Please press 1 to continue.
PreFone will not ring your phone if the caller presses 1.
Tell your friends and family to press 5 instead.
You'll never get a call from a stranger.
Screening out everyone
<silence>
For the paranoid.
Why PreFone is a better way to deal with telemarketers
There are lots of ways to deal with telemarketers.
THE ANTI-TELEMARKETERS SOURCE
has some great ideas. Go ahead—take a look.
Then come back here.
We'll wait...
Pretty funny, no?
But when you think about it,
all those ideas basically boil down to three approaches:
- Hang up
- Say "I'm not interested" and hang up.
This gets you off the phone fast.
- Waste their time
- Let them go through their spiel,
and then tell them you're not interested.
If they're going to waste your time, you might as well waste some of theirs.
If you use your imagination, this can even be amusing.
- Sue them
- Telemarketers have to follow rules:
keeping don't call lists,
disclosing certain information, etc.
If they don't follow the rules, you can sue them.
Some people make money doing this.
But there's a fundamental problem with all these approaches:
as soon as a telemarketer makes your phone ring, you've lost.
As soon as a telemarketer makes your phone ring
- he's invaded your privacy
- he's interrupted your meal/bath/sleep/movie/discussion/whatever
- he's woken your kids
- he's made you give your time and attention to him
With PreFone, your phone doesn't ring.
With PreFone, you win.
Why you keep getting hang-up calls
Telemarketers spend all day making phone calls.
Sometimes they work from lists of phone numbers.
Sometimes they just dial numbers at random.
Either way, it takes time:
- dial a number
- wait for it to ring
- discover that
- the number is not in service
- the line is busy
- there is no answer
- an answering machine picks up
- they've reached a business, not a residence
- try the next number
- and the next...
- and the next...
Telemarketers don't make money while they're dialing the phone.
They only make money while they are talking to customers.
To keep their operators talking instead of dialing,
many telemarketers use computers to do the dialing:
- the computer dials the phone
- the computer waits for it to ring
- the computer waits for someone to pick up
- the computer waits for a person to say "Hello"
Only after the computer hears the word "Hello" does it connect
an operator to the line.
In order for this to work,
the computer has to dial numbers constantly.
If the computer waits until an operator is free before it starts dialing,
then the operator has to wait for the computer to find a customer.
The computer is doing the work that the operator used to do,
but it isn't saving the operator any time.
It isn't helping the operator make more money.
To avoid this,
the computer dials numbers constantly.
When someone answers "Hello",
the computer checks to see if there is an available operator.
If there is, it connects the operator to the customer.
If all the operators are busy,
it just hangs up on the customer,
and keeps on dialing.
In short,
telemarketers use computers so that they can waste your
time instead of their time.
Get PreFone. Let your machine hang up on their machine.
Steven W. McDougall /
resume /
swmcd@theworld.com /
1998 February 2