Annoying Phone Calls

[Steeveedee]

That right there is pretty funny, Tony. I get calls all day long at home. We let the machine take any call that we don't recognize the number and/or caller. A guy I knew back in the '90s had this for his voice mail message,

"Hello? Hello? Is there someone there? I can barely hear anything. Is there someone there? Speak up, I can barely hear you!", etc., for awhile; then he says, Leave a message".

So, people will be yelling into the phone and get really PO'd when it gets to the "leave a message" part. I'd do it, but if my wife called home from work, she'd be the one PO'd, and I don't want that.

One thing I learned from a guy who used to work for the phone company- the people who make those calls can't use a cheap calling rate. Once the phone is answered, they start getting charged. If the long message above got them charged a lot, maybe after awhile, it would stop. But I doubt it. My wife used to give one of the kids the phone to talk to the person when they were little. I gotta figure out the call blocking. Scammers and solicitors are 95% of our phone calls. I have more blocked numbers than contacts, on my cell phone! And I have a big family- lots of them, plus friends. Crazy.

[71CHEVYSHORTBED402]

Originally Posted by Steeveedee

That right there is pretty funny, Tony. I get calls all day long at home. We let the machine take any call that we don't recognize the number and/or caller. A guy I knew back in the '90s had this for his voice mail message,

"Hello? Hello? Is there someone there? I can barely hear anything. Is there someone there? Speak up, I can barely hear you!", etc., for awhile; then he says, Leave a message".

So, people will be yelling into the phone and get really PO'd when it gets to the "leave a message" part. I'd do it, but if my wife called home from work, she'd be the one PO'd, and I don't want that.

One thing I learned from a guy who used to work for the phone company- the people who make those calls can't use a cheap calling rate. Once the phone is answered, they start getting charged. If the long message above got them charged a lot, maybe after awhile, it would stop. But I doubt it. My wife used to give one of the kids the phone to talk to the person when they were little. I gotta figure out the call blocking. Scammers and solicitors are 95% of our phone calls. I have more blocked numbers than contacts, on my cell phone! And I have a big family- lots of them, plus friends. Crazy.

Everyday it becomes more clear why I don't use a cell phone. I have one only for emergencies, costs me $70 a year. Downside is without one you're approaching dysfunctional. Everyone assumes you use one and I don't. Now that I'm single and considering a post-retirement income source - I may have to cave in

@ giving the phone to the kids. That's gold.

[a1vintage69]

Originally Posted by 71CHEVYSHORTBED402

Everyday it becomes more clear why I don't use a cell phone. I have one only for emergencies, costs me $70 a year. Downside is without one you're approaching dysfunctional. Everyone assumes you use one and I don't. Now that I'm single and considering a post-retirement income source - I may have to cave in

@ giving the phone to the kids. That's gold.

Tony, Lets talk here for a bit. That little 6"x3" device called a cell phone I hold in my hand and carry in my pocket at all times is so much more than just for calling someone. It is my personal secretary, my instant computer that connects me to the interwebb world wide! I can use it for eBay, pay pal, search tempest , email, buy sell trade, it can direct me to your door step one turn at a time, tell me the weather, lets me know when the Warriors are playing, I can talk and see my granddaughters on it. It wakes me up in the morning, it's a flashlight, does math for me , calculates divides, percentages, spells for me, reminds me of my appointments, its a calendar. I could do my banking also but I am old and refuse to and just before typing this I just took 20 pictures of nos gm parts to transfer onto my computer with it to sell here.I am sure I have missed some things but it was the best decision I ever made.yeah it cost me $600 + a year and worth every penny. If I can learn how to use one you can too. that's why it's called a smartphone. JUST DO IT!!! take care, a1

[PanelDeland]

I'm on the do not call list. It's not very good. I think they've also started a new special list for me. If I'm not doing anything and a solicitor calls me, I'll answer. Of the ones I answer, none call a second time. Something about the 1-900-sex-call I turn it into, I think. That's worked better than the do not call list for me.

[71CHEVYSHORTBED402]

Originally Posted by a1vintage69

Tony, Lets talk here for a bit. That little 6"x3" device called a cell phone I hold in my hand and carry in my pocket at all times is so much more than just for calling someone. It is my personal secretary, my instant computer that connects me to the interwebb world wide! I can use it for eBay, pay pal, search tempest , email, buy sell trade, it can direct me to your door step one turn at a time, tell me the weather, lets me know when the Warriors are playing, I can talk and see my granddaughters on it. It wakes me up in the morning, it's a flashlight, does math for me , calculates divides, percentages, spells for me, reminds me of my appointments, its a calendar. I could do my banking also but I am old and refuse to and just before typing this I just took 20 pictures of nos gm parts to transfer onto my computer with it to sell here.I am sure I have missed some things but it was the best decision I ever made.yeah it cost me $600 + a year and worth every penny. If I can learn how to use one you can too. that's why it's called a smartphone. JUST DO IT!!! take care, a1

You still haven't talked me into one

[a1vintage69]

Originally Posted by 71CHEVYSHORTBED402

You still haven't talked me into one

It gave you some perspective and you are getting close to biting the bullet. Go fo it!

[flashed]

I used to keep a coaches whistle next to my home phone and when I got a live person I gave them an ear full .Now they mostly seem to be computerized so I just let the machine take it .

[71CHEVYSHORTBED402]

Originally Posted by a1vintage69

It gave you some perspective and you are getting close to biting the bullet. Go fo it!

, yeah probably

[Steeveedee]

Originally Posted by flashed

I used to keep a coaches whistle next to my home phone and when I got a live person I gave them an ear full .Now they mostly seem to be computerized so I just let the machine take it .

From our days with Cub and Boy Scouts, our whole family has Blaster V whistles. They can be heard for miles when you blow them. Plug your ears if you use one to troll a phone solicitor...hmmmmm, maybe I'll go back to answering the phone, after all.

[slomotion]

I still use a simple flip phone. My kids rag me about not texting, but I don't feel it's necessary to be available 24-7. I can remember a time when our phone wouldn't ring for a day or two and we still survived. As for the scammers/telemarketers, why haven't the "Computer wizards" developed a device that would back-feed a signal to the caller that would "smoke" their equipment? Not to hurt anyone, just wreck their terminal or at least disable it for the length of a shift.
Special K, when I get the mailed stuff with the return postage-paid envelope I put their propaganda in the return envelope and mail it back to them. That way they pay postage both ways, the Post Office gets paid for carrying it back, and it didn't cost me anything to send it back. Sometimes I'll mix up competitor's fliers to mail back, sometimes just an empty envelope.

[Steeveedee]

Originally Posted by slomotion

I still use a simple flip phone. My kids rag me about not texting, but I don't feel it's necessary to be available 24-7. I can remember a time when our phone wouldn't ring for a day or two and we still survived. As for the scammers/telemarketers, why haven't the "Computer wizards" developed a device that would back-feed a signal to the caller that would "smoke" their equipment? Not to hurt anyone, just wreck their terminal or at least disable it for the length of a shift.
Special K, when I get the mailed stuff with the return postage-paid envelope I put their propaganda in the return envelope and mail it back to them. That way they pay postage both ways, the Post Office gets paid for carrying it back, and it didn't cost me anything to send it back. Sometimes I'll mix up competitor's fliers to mail back, sometimes just an empty envelope.

After my wife and I got married, we got tons of junk mail. We stuffed those envelopes with all kinds of paper to be sure that they went back with increased postage due. It stopped after a few months.

[70' GMC]

If you have a smart phone download an app called hiya it blocks calls and you can block unknown and private numbers. It's on Android and I believe on iPhone. I use it. It's stopped a lot of calls and maybe one or two slip through the cracks and once the call is over simply open the app and click block. 9 times out of 10 when the call happens it goes straight to voice mail but most of the time they were robo calls

[kwmech]

Well today it's all about the security system I'm supposed to need. 2 calls so far

[abig84]

i seem to get one every other day on my cell phone from all sorts of different numbers that have the exact same area code and first 3 digits of my cell phone. never leaves a message or anything. most the time im at work and dont see it til later, i would be curious to answer it but i always think that would make it worse and get more calls

[Stocker]

Originally Posted by kwmech

Well today it's all about the security system I'm supposed to need. 2 calls so far

My calls today are credit card offers, because they (whoever "they" are) have been monitoring my accounts for the last 6 months. *click* as I hang up....

[cypressbog]

I'm getting the "We're calling about your credit card. There's nothing wrong, we can lower your interest rate".

I've been answering lately and when a live person comes on I act like I'm very interested. They go through a canned speech and then hang up when I ask them how they can lower my credit card interest below Zero Percent, because I pay off my balance every month, LOL!

[Steeveedee]

When my sons were little, sometimes my wife would hand them the phone.

[Ironhorse]

Well, looks as if there is a LOT of company with the annoying phone calls. There are some days we don't get any questionable calls, sometimes get 5-6 or even more. Cell phone, not so much. But there again, if the calling number is not in my listed phone #s, I don't answer. Did that only once years ago, won a free all expenses paid cruise, just had to pay the up-front "logistics costs" what ever that meant. Did't pay the costs and didn't go on the cruise, LOL.

[The Rocknrod]

I use a flip phone. If I want to get on the computer I go to a computer to do that.

[franken]

Strangely, I never get calls like this. I've only had work phones for the last ~20 years other than for a few months.

[beautimus]

yep, same here. 10 calls a day from spoof numbers. i did finally press 2 to talk to a representative, just to ask them to stop. then i find out that the high court in the land recently ruled that if you press a number to talk to someone, you have given them permission to call, forever. so the do not call list is now junk.
you get on the list thinking that will stop them. they call with impunity, because the list can not be enforced, because you dont have a legitimate number for who is calling. even if they have a menu item that says press this number to be taken off our call list, that gives them permission to call back forever. and if you press any number at all, you have given them permission to call back forever. so no matter what you do, you are stuck with them. Also a lot of those calls are coming out of india and pakistan, so our government has no juristiction there. so again you are stuck and there is nothing you can do.
the spoofed number is many times the legit number of an innocent party.
so if you report a number for harrasing calls , all you have done is get someone else in trouble that doesnt have anything to do with the problem.
i get several calls a month from people asking me to stop calling them.
i dont know what the answer is, but something has got to happen soon. our whole communication system is breaking down over this mess.

[Stocker]

This was a first for me today and I'm still just a bit stunned. Phone rang, wife was napping so I picked up and a guy's voice said you're going to hell if you don't belong to our church. Dunno if it's a recording or a live person but I immediately hung up. If it happens again and it's not a recording, he might not appreciate what I have to say to him. That's not the best way to drum up more business.

[B. W.]

I get a lot of sales calls at work (never answer the house phone) I ask them "Is this a sales call?" When they say yes I interrupt them them & say "I'll buy whatever you're selling!" That takes them back for a second, then I finish "I'll buy whatever you're selling if you buy a set of tires from me!"

Then they say they live in a different state, they're too far away, blah, blah. And I say "I can ship them!"

Believe it or not, I've sold two sets of tires that way & yes, I bought what they were selling.

[chevlady]

Last one I got was last week.I hear this after answering it,you won a free vacation and have received these 4 times now.I know it is a scam and full of BS right away.Know it is not free at all.

[FleetsidePaul]

Originally Posted by chevlady

Last one I got was last week.I hear this after answering it,you won a free vacation and have received these 4 times now.I know it is a scam and full of BS right away.Know it is not free at all.

Yup. I win a free trip to the Bahamas about every week.