I’m sick and tired of racing to a ringing phone with dishwater or plaster on my hands, only to be asked by an automated voice to hold for an “important message.” I’m sick and tired of robo calls altogether.
I always hang up on them; but today I am making it official, and inviting anyone else who feels like joining the boycott to make it official too.
Be it known, far and wide: The Prent household will not be at home to any robo-caller for any reason, whatsoever.
If you want to annoy us with unsolicited messages, at least have the decency to employ a human being in the process.
With unemployment and underemployment plaguing the nation, it is the height of arrogance and social irresponsibility to expect us to hang on the phone, listening to a message that’s been outsourced to a robot.
No sale; no kidding.
I’ve got better things to do…and so do you.
For years we had a $3 box with a display screen (because our actual phone handset had no display capability) that hooked into the phone line between the phone and the answering machine. Its function was solely for caller ID. When that phone died, we got phones with display screens and passed the box along to a friend.
It got to be pretty simple: when we don’t recognize the number, or it has been shielded (“private/unknown name, private/unknown number”), we let the call go to voice mail. Better than 90 percent of the time, the unknowns result in a hang-up, indicating that the source is some kind of automated dialer that detects an electronic response or is simply programmed to hang up after 4 rings.
Then there’s “Julie! From Trakphone!” who is so energized over the money she’s going to save us that she always leaves us a message, bless her automated internal circuits. Dunno why we haven’t opted out of that one yet (a choice she always includes).
Then there’s this: The FTC has sponsored a contest for solutions to block robocalls to landlines and cell phones (cell phone robocalls are already illegal, but many folks give out that number to political campaigns, which have no way to distinguish them from landline numbers). You just have to wait until April 15 to hear the winning proposal announced.
NanuqFC
The conspiracy theorist in me wonders if robocallers are pretending to be the opponent just to piss people off. ~ “wnrsm” posting at Fairfax (VA) Underground on campaign robocalls
I get those, and I wonder, is it a test to see how stupid the person is? Who actually stays on the line to activate the computer’s timer? Only those who stay on are dumb enough to fall for the pitch.
And then there are the calls from a cruise line. I pick up the phone and someone farts in my ear! Like that’s a good sales pitch? Yeah, it’s a recording of a cruise ship’s fog horn, but I do’t do cruises so I am not a member of ‘cruise culture’, so the noise sounds to me like someone laying a long flatus right into my ear. Thanks for calling – click!
But getting robocalls on my cell phone is the worst: making me pay (America is the only nation on the planet that has to pay for incoming phone calls!) for a spam phone call.
They are required to do so by Federal and State laws. This is different from simply registering your number on the do not call registry – tell it to the person on the phone (once you actually reach one).
If they fail to do so, both the feds and the state allow you to collect $1000 in damages per call (a total of $2k). Most companies comply immediately. That’s what I do. I actually keep the numbers of the relevant statutes next to the phone, so if I receive a call after the request to be placed on the do not call list, I tell the first human I reach that the call was placed after they were asked to put me on the do not call list, and if I receive another call from them, I will seek damages under federal law #xyz and VT law #abc, which, by then will be $4000, with the expectation of another $2k per call until the judge is done with them. I will also pursue punitive and exemplary damages, at which point, they will be buying me a house.
I’ve never had a 3rd call.