Posted on 09/07/2014 4:36:21 AM PDT by raccoonradio
My wife and I had a problem with our Internet. Since we have a bundled service, the folks who came to fix our access also had to reboot the cable and phone. After they left, we found our TV had gained psychic powers. When the phone rings, our screen displays the name and number of the person trying to interrupt our television viewing.
This may be old stuff to you, but since I’m a lazy slug who would rather watch reruns of 1960s sitcoms than actually speak to most folks who are calling, I consider it a godsend. Even better, my boob tube occasionally identifies a call as “Political Message.” When that pops up on the screen, I utter a small prayer of thanks for this modern age (something my wife will tell you is a rare thing, indeed.)
The odds of my picking up the receiver and answering the phone when our TV says “Political Message” are about the same as those for my becoming the next queen of England. I would rather have spiders crawl into my ear than have it filled with the noise of a prerecorded political spiel.
There is nothing more annoying than having an advertisement assault me when I pick up the phone. For future reference, you folks who are in charge of such things should know that I immediately cross the candidate responsible for such a call off the list of those for whom I might vote.
(If I were running for office, I’d record a message telling people to vote for my opponent and then robo call everyone between 2 and 5 a.m., but I suppose there’s some sort of law against that. If not, and you’re running for office, you’ll get my vote if you propose such a law, but not if you call to tell me about it.)
Maybe some folks find worth in having politicians care so little about them that they’ll program a robot to make calls that interrupt them during dinner. Maybe some people who receive such calls say, “Gosh, having cold meatloaf is a small price to pay for such a service! If that robo call hadn’t come, I would have been voting for the wrong person!” I doubt it, though.
Has anyone ever done a study on this? Is there evidence that recorded political messages played over the phone have actually swayed an election in favor of the candidate placing such calls? Do some people actually sit by the phone and wait for their political education to arrive with the next ring? If so, has a way been invented to send a dope slap through the phone?
I expect now that I’ve raised the question of efficacy, some idiot will commission a phone survey about it. Meanwhile, we have the blessed ability to completely ignore such calls and we will continue to do so. We’re hoping our TV someday informs us “PUBLISHER’S CLEARING HOUSE CALLING TO SAY YOU’VE WON 10 KAJILLION DOLLARS,” but we’re not holding our breath.
And of course politicians, charities etc are exempt from the DO NOT CALL list. You’ll still get ‘em.
Not I said the cat. . . . . .
Thanks to caller ID (the bestest invention since sliced bread).
The best robo calls would be to set them up for your opponent to call say around 8am, 6pm and 10 pm.
If you were running in say Texas, the message would say, hi, am from Austin. I am in favor of fag marriage, gun control, and open immigration.
We rarely answer our land line because 90% of the calls are solicitations of one form or another. We’re considering getting rid of it entirely. Verizon, can you hear me now?
I haven’t had a land line in 10 years. I never get solicitation calls.
During big storms we’ve lost cell service but somehow the land line fares better. Since we have kids we have (so far) kept it, “just in case”. The phone companies should allow better blocking if they want to keep their customers.
I’m sure many folks are turning them off.
13 of the last 15 calls to my land line were spam calls. Between Uverse and nomorobo.com they were all blocked. We keep our landline so my wife can speak to her family members around the country without the “can you hear me now” nonsense of the cell phone system.
That DO NOT CALL list thing is no different from any other gubmit horsehockey program. Pestering peddlers call without any regard for the “list”. The list is no different from TSA, its just to make you think the gubmit is looking out for you while they let the bad guys walk right by.
Go to the trouble to tell the caller you are on the no call list and they just laugh.
Submit a complaint against one of these pests and apparently it goes to the round file as the calls still keep coming.
I kept our landline as part of the cable bundle. I use it for outgoing calls because it is clearer, especially on speaker. Incoming calls are auto answered by the fax in the printer. When a business wants a phone number I give it to them. I still use fax for a number of things, but all the incoming calls are junk.
What is stopping them from calling cell phones?
Got rid of my landline about three years ago. Still get spam calls, political and otherwise, but only about two a month.
Political calls do nothing more than piss off the voters, IMO.
The idiots think that when a number is on the Do-Not-Call list the owner actually meant unless it is an annoying political call.
I don't know if the old copper line home phone service from Verizon has that capability, but it's sure made my life easier knowing that if my phone rings, it's someone I want to talk to calling.
Next election season I’m keeping score, gonna note every political call (robo or personal) and vote for the ones that hassled me the less. Couldn’t go 20 minutes without a call this last primary season, sick of it, sick of them.
Do Not Call works great for me. The minute that thing went into effect I went from multiple sales calls a day to none. Maybe every other week I get a charity call, and there was some research group that got obsessed with me for a while but they’ve finally taken the hint. During election season the self exempted politicians start hassling me, but things are quiet again. Overall I’ve found it pretty effective, though I know some folks who still get hassled a lot. Guess it’s another “your mileage may vary”.
Oh there's one company out there that pays no attention to list anyway. I get up to 5 calls a day now. It's called "Consumer Services". These Jerks call my regular number several times a day first for a medical alert device in case I fall and can't get up, then for home security, then they off lower credit card interest. One such invader SPOOFS my caller ID into displaying a local name and number like a hospital. Every day from Monday - Saturday. If you stay on the line to say "Please take me off" you hear "Click" when you say please and you'll get a call within the hour many times.
I'm on the national and state list. I pay extra for a private number. One jerk in Knoxville, TN supposedly collecting for the fire department does one better. He calls my Ringmaster number only two other persons know it. He knows my name. How???? That number is incoming calls only and I've never used it on any forms.
There needs to be a serious crack down on these boiler room telemarketing operations no matter why they are calling. It's way out of hand. I consider it Harassing Phone Calls however AT&T stopped taking and dealing with complaints about such. Gee I wonder why??? /sarcasm.. I mean they only lease maybe a thousand phone lines to each of these companies. /sarcasm
I have no land line, just a cell phone, and I have my cell phone configured to only ring for phone numbers on my contacts list. So cold-call salesmen, robo-calls, etc, welcome to my voice mail, which then goes to a text message where I can promptly read, reject, and delete at my leisure.
That too is a phone company Con. The telemarketers have thousands of phone numbers. When the robo call machine detects a call block it has another line call you. Phone companies are making a fortune off telemarketers both from consumer and business. They have no ethics.
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