They have a lessened responsability, but not enough to get them off the hook. Mind, I don't tell them to piss off and die, I just say (very very quickly) 'I'm not interested thank you. Goodbye.' and put the phone down. But they're never going to get me to listen to them after they've said 'I wonder if you're interested in foo.' My view is that I'm not a moron, and that if I really wanted foo, my first port of call would be the internet, or failing that, yellow pages. Couldn't telesales drones have taken their excellent phone manner and persistence to, say, customer queries instead? That way they might be useful.

I suppose we should really shoot all the consumers who're sufficiently daft to respond positively to telemarketers. 'Yes, now you mention it, my life has a significant hole I'd never noticed before, which absolutely needs filling with a new patio. Thank you for making my life a financially poorer place."