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Kev Williams
09-20-2017, 2:30 PM
I get that people need to make a living and charities need money, so I've resigned myself to the fact that I'm going to have to live with the charity and sales robocalls.

However, I semi-screen for robocalls by NOT answering most calls where a City-State is the name that shows up on the caller ID. Almost always they're a charity or robot. Most 'real' numbers with a city-state ID, I recognize the number and will answer. Anyone really interested if I don't answer will leave a message...

Calls I always answer? Those where the caller ID says "Cell Phone", mostly since they're always real people..

--until a few minutes ago, when I answered a 'cell phone' call only to find out it was a Google robocall. :mad:
This spoofing is complete http://www.engraver1.com/gifs/bs.gif and if not already, SHOULD be against the law. Blacklists already don't work because the robo phone numbers are random numbers.

So now I have to worry about every "cell phone" call I pick up being someone I have to say NO to or hang up on? Ecchh...

Jim Becker
09-20-2017, 4:21 PM
I spoke about that in this thread... http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?257724-Do-big-business-phones-get-nuisance-phone-sales-calls just a few days ago. It's not legal, but it's also hard to stop because many of the calls are originating overseas and coming in via VoIP. The trend has been to randomization of CID with the added twist of "local AC and exchange" so you think it's coming from a person or business around the corner from your home. Unfortunately, it's going to force most of us to stop answering the phone unless we are expecting a call and/or actually know the person calling. Of course, one person pointed out that they received a call from "themselves" not long ago... :D

Bruce Page
09-20-2017, 4:37 PM
I'm already there. I won't answer if I don't recognize the number. If it's important they'll leave a message.
I have sympathy for the people that have to use a phone for their daily business.

Dennis Peacock
09-20-2017, 4:51 PM
I feel your pain.!! If my phone rings and it's just a phone number and I don't have a name assigned to the number? I never....ever...answer it. I dislike phones anyway...especially cell phones. I've seen too many people get hurt because of drivers using cell phones while driving.

Ken Fitzgerald
09-20-2017, 5:02 PM
With my cochlear implant, answering the phone has become a chore to begin with....so if I don't recognize the number or there isn't a name I recognize.....it doesn't get answered.

Steve Peterson
09-20-2017, 5:17 PM
We get about 3-4 calls from random numbers per day on the land line. I usually screen them and they rarely leave a message. Sometimes I will answer to tell them to take me off their call list, but at least 90% of the time there is nobody to pick up at the other end, just dead air. So why do they bother calling if they don't want to talk?

Steve

Mike Null
09-20-2017, 5:20 PM
We do not answer our "land line" (voip) unless we know who is calling. We are getting 8 or 10 calls a day and we've managed to block some but if it isn't family or the dr or pharmacy we don't answer. I don't get many nuisance calls on my cell phone--maybe one a day. Always from a credit card processing company.

Larry Edgerton
09-20-2017, 7:25 PM
I got a couple of calls from my own number in the phone I was using? I am no longer polite these days, these people are wasting my time, and I am old, I just don't have time to waste on their bologna.

Jim Becker
09-20-2017, 7:40 PM
... but at least 90% of the time there is nobody to pick up at the other end, just dead air. So why do they bother calling if they don't want to talk?


Low end dialers pretty much 'spray' calls without regard to monitoring for an answer. When you do pick up one of these calls, if there isn't a recording-playback port or a live agent available, you get dead air. Quality outbound dialing systems are much smarter, but they are used by real companies who actually try to serve real customers, rather than foisting scams. Cost is the reason...the good systems are not in any way, shape or form inexpensive. I know because I work for a company that builds and sells the "good stuff"...

Dave Zellers
09-20-2017, 8:04 PM
I'm already there. I won't answer if I don't recognize the number. If it's important they'll leave a message.
That's the bottom line. It's what we do and there has never been a problem.

The phone never gets picked up on the first ring.

glenn bradley
09-20-2017, 8:45 PM
I'm already there. I won't answer if I don't recognize the number. If it's important they'll leave a message.


This is totally me. The wife practices this method as well.

Stan Calow
09-20-2017, 9:20 PM
If you haven't seen it already, they call showing phone numbers that are from same area code and exchange that you are from, so as to make you think it is a local caller.

Brian Henderson
09-20-2017, 10:13 PM
I got rid of my landline specifically because the only people who ever called it were telemarketers and robocalls. I don't get a lot on my cell phone, but I've given up answering any calls from people I don't recognize. If they leave a voice mail, I'll decide whether to call them back. If they leave no voicemail, I delete the number. Anyone I care about knows how to reach me. Anyone who doesn't know how to reach me, I don't care about.

John K Jordan
09-20-2017, 11:47 PM
I feel your pain.!! If my phone rings and it's just a phone number and I don't have a name assigned to the number? I never....ever...answer it. I dislike phones anyway...especially cell phones.

We should never forget that there is no law that says you have to answer your phone! Ever.

I've heard from more people lately that don't even turn their cell phone on unless they are ready to make a call. I've started doing that occasionally myself - it's far more relaxing once I got over the initial separation anxiety. (Battery sure does last a long time that way!:)) We forget that most of us somehow survived much of our lives without being bonded to a phone.

JKJ

James Pallas
09-21-2017, 7:07 AM
Cell phones are great things. My cell phone is for "my" convenience not anyone else. I answer when I want to. The rudest statement I ever hear from callers is "Why don't you ever answer your phone". The simple answer is "It is not your phone and you have no business questioning me about how I use it". Biggest time waster ever invented
Jim

Malcolm McLeod
09-21-2017, 7:26 AM
... for "my" convenience...

Reminds me of a story related to me about my great grandfather - - in early to mid-1920s when as a grocery store owner, he got a newfangled telephone installed. It promptly rang and he answered, "What?! NO!!" And hung up. (Sam was semi-famous for being a bit cantankerous.)

A friend standing near him said, "Sam, that wasn't very nice."

Sam replied, "I bought the d%$& thing to talk on, not to listen to!"

Some things never change.:D

James Pallas
09-21-2017, 8:14 AM
Reminds me of a story related to me about my great grandfather - - in early to mid-1920s when as a grocery store owner, he got a newfangled telephone installed. It promptly rang and he answered, "What?! NO!!" And hung up. (Sam was semi-famous for being a bit cantankerous.)

A friend standing near him said, "Sam, that wasn't very nice."

Sam replied, "I bought the d%$& thing to talk on, not to listen to!"

Some things never change.:D
Your great grandfather and I may have been great friends!
Jim

Rich Engelhardt
09-21-2017, 8:41 AM
I love being retired.... :D :D

I'm firm, polite and brief with people that are legitimate sales people that somehow sneak through the national do not call list.

Scammers are a whole different story :D.
When they call, I put on my very best "confused old person" voice and keep asking them if they are my doctor calling or my dog's doctor calling. Then I go on and on and on about how much I love my dog and how worried I am because she might be sick....
When they finally manage to get a word in, I explode at them for not showing any compassion for my possibly sick dog. :D

Sometimes I'll just ramble on about my aches and pains & all the pills and potions I have to take. :D

It beats sitting around having to watch Judge Judy and all the stupid court shows my wife watches in the afternoon!

James Waldron
09-21-2017, 10:38 AM
I love being retired.... :D :D

I'm firm, polite and brief with people that are legitimate sales people that somehow sneak through the national do not call list.

Scammers are a whole different story :D.
When they call, I put on my very best "confused old person" voice and keep asking them if they are my doctor calling or my dog's doctor calling. Then I go on and on and on about how much I love my dog and how worried I am because she might be sick....
When they finally manage to get a word in, I explode at them for not showing any compassion for my possibly sick dog. :D

Sometimes I'll just ramble on about my aches and pains & all the pills and potions I have to take. :D

It beats sitting around having to watch Judge Judy and all the stupid court shows my wife watches in the afternoon!

GAD!!! Think of all the shop time you're wasting that way! And you should be more thankful for Judge Judy. She keeps you from being disturbed in the shop with Honey Do items. (Of course, you have your phone turned off at the time as well.) A perfect world.

Bert Kemp
09-21-2017, 12:08 PM
yea its pretty simple for me if their not in my contact list I don't answer. Like everyone else has said if they really want to talk to you they will leave a message. Put all you known numbers in your contact list with a name attached, then you know who's calling.

Michael Weber
09-21-2017, 12:25 PM
Well, looks like every cloud does have a silver lining. Being effectively deaf I simply do not use a phone for voice, so never pick up.

John K Jordan
09-21-2017, 2:58 PM
I love being retired.... :D :D
...When they call, I put on my very best "confused old person" voice and keep asking them if they are my doctor calling or my dog's doctor calling. ...


Ha! Back when real person telemarketers called I would sometime ask them to hold on a moment and set the phone down. Oddest thing, 20 minutes later I pick up the phone and find we had been disconnected for some reason. Hmm...

The most fun was when I wanted an unlisted number in the '80s but was too cheap to pay for it. We listed our phone as "S. Maxwell" which happened to be our dog's registered name (Sharon's Maxwell). That way when someone called asking for Mr Maxwell I knew they pulled my number from the phone book and I could them anything:
- Sorry, he's in the doghouse and can't come to the phone.
- Oh, he's in the front yard relieving himself. Hold on a bit.
- He can't talk now.
- He can't come to the phone - he just got neutered today and doesn't feel like like doing anything.
- Can you call back?, I'm trying to give him a bath and he's getting water everywhere.
- Hold on, I'll holler at him - he's out chasing a neighbor's cat.
- Ah, he's confined to the porch - got sprayed by a skunk again. Second time this week.
- Oh, [sob] he died last week [sniff] and we buried him by the lilac bush.

When the phone rang my kids would come running to see what I was going to say this time. Unfortunately, robotic calls took all the fun out of telemarketing calls.

JKJ

Larry Edgerton
09-21-2017, 5:04 PM
. I know because I work for a company that builds and sells the "good stuff"...

Ah Ha! Now I can put a face to my pain!:p

The no answer thing does not work for me. My customers know that my cell is the best way to find me, and they are from all over the country, so I have to answer the phone as there is no way I know all the numbers they might call from. I don't mind so much until I drop what I am doing to answer and it is a junk call.

Kev Williams
09-21-2017, 7:25 PM
Yeah, I can't just not answer all calls, my home is also my business. What I NEVER use for business is my cell phone. It's to call the wife, period :)

And ironically just this morning, I get "SLC UT" on the ID, and I was expecting a call from my customer whose ID comes up the same way...

Nope. "Can I speak to the owner?" Uh oh, know where this is going- I should've said that he was in Puerto Rico helping people clean up after the hurricane, but I'm not much for lying..

"that's me"

"I'm a representative of some fundraiser for some police charity this and that and such and such and we'd really like to count on your support."

"Sorry, I don't do donations via telephones, i've had my cards and ID hacked 3 times in the past right after pledging donations by phone so I don't do that any more" (this is true)

"We have a $15 pledge package, would that work for you?"

"Like I said, I don't do donations over the phone, sorry".

"We have a minimum pledge package of $10--"

"Sorry, not by phone!"

"[-unintelligible as I'm hanging up]..."

"feel free to keep on talking"--click

AGGHHH!!! GAWWDD!! Do I REEEAALLYY have to tell you NO THREE times AND hang up on you so I don't have to tell you FOUR times!?

--People like that are THEE reason I hate answering unknown callers...

Dave Zellers
09-21-2017, 8:52 PM
I know it's hard because none of us were raised to behave this way but when that happens you have to teach yourself to just say 'no thank you', hang up and go back to what you were doing.

Brian Henderson
09-22-2017, 3:41 PM
I know it's hard because none of us were raised to behave this way but when that happens you have to teach yourself to just say 'no thank you', hang up and go back to what you were doing.

Some of them are really, really insistent though. A long, long time ago, back when I had a land line, I got a call from a new local telemarketer. I said no thanks and hung up. They called back. I hung up again, they called back again. This went on for a while with the guy on the other end getting ruder and ruder, it must have been some kid, but then he started issuing physical threats, saying he knew where I lived and he was going to come over and beat me up. I kicked on the answering machine and recorded it, then turned it over to the police. That company doesn't exist anymore, as far as I know.

The problem with the no-call list is that telemarketers know it has no teeth. Nobody ever gets in trouble for violating it. If you tell the telemarketer you're on the list, they will laugh at you. They don't care.

John K Jordan
09-22-2017, 5:51 PM
... If you tell the telemarketer you're on the list, they will laugh at you. They don't care.

I once heard the recommendation of getting their attention first with a police whistle but I never tried that.

JKJ

James Pallas
09-22-2017, 6:12 PM
I once heard the recommendation of getting their attention first with a police whistle but I never tried that.

JKJ
Portable boat horn like they advise women to use on bad guys. Problem is you would probably hurt some person who was just trying to make a buck or two. They are reading a prepared script and are told to just keep talking. I admit there are times when I would do it because it is so aggravating. If I sure about the call I sometimes answer by saying "This is agent so and so with the[insert your favorite agency name here] this is being recorded how may I assist you.
Jim

Bill Jobe
09-23-2017, 2:50 AM
Don't make the mistake I did and download a CID app. My "spoof" calls tripled. It's a scam to get your number on the list of all who downloaded it, making it available to scammers.
Do not fall for it. You will regret it quickly. Even though I've uninstalled the app, my number is still out there and i'm getting spoof calls regularly.

Bill Jobe
09-23-2017, 2:54 AM
Just wanted to add that I downloaded it from Play Store thinking it would be legitimate. NOT !!!

Mark W Pugh
09-29-2017, 6:42 AM
yea its pretty simple for me if their not in my contact list I don't answer. Like everyone else has said if they really want to talk to you they will leave a message. Put all you known numbers in your contact list with a name attached, then you know who's calling.

That ^^^^^^^^^^^

If they don't leave a msg, they really didn't want to talk to you and it wasn't that important.