The Gimme Calls

[rob62521]

I am tired of the calls from different groups that are always wanting a donation or claim they have something they want you to buy. I did take the advice of someone when I blogged about a university calling three times a day to try and get a hold of me and request a donation...a donation that started at $100 and went on up. Someone told me to ask them to put me on the Do not call list. I did and the gal asked if I just didn't want to receive calls for this program or for all. I said all. She was considerate and I was polite so hopefully that is taken care of.

I can't block the calls on our landline so that leaves me to either not answer them or answer and request to be taken of their calling list. One guy was especially fiesty today -- I asked him to take me off and he said I didn't answer his question about my vehicle (he was trying to sell me an extended warranty)and I told him if I didn't want to the warranty, why bother answering his question and I hung up on him.

I've blocked the ones on my cell phone, but they seem to change numbers. I have all our phones on the Do Not Call list for what good that does.

I'm to the point I feel like these callers are interrupting my peace by calling so much.

[Nutria]

One guy was especially fiesty today -- I asked him to take me off and he said I didn't answer his question about my vehicle (he was trying to sell me an extended warranty)and I told him if I didn't want to the warranty, why bother answering his question and I hung up on him.

The flaw in your approach was in conversing with him in the first place. Just hang up as soon as you hear the spiel.

[Gailete]

I am tired of the calls from different groups that are always wanting a donation or claim they have something they want you to buy. I did take the advice of someone when I blogged about a university calling three times a day to try and get a hold of me and request a donation...a donation that started at $100 and went on up. Someone told me to ask them to put me on the Do not call list. I did and the gal asked if I just didn't want to receive calls for this program or for all. I said all. She was considerate and I was polite so hopefully that is taken care of.

I can't block the calls on our landline so that leaves me to either not answer them or answer and request to be taken of their calling list. One guy was especially fiesty today -- I asked him to take me off and he said I didn't answer his question about my vehicle (he was trying to sell me an extended warranty)and I told him if I didn't want to the warranty, why bother answering his question and I hung up on him.

I've blocked the ones on my cell phone, but they seem to change numbers. I have all our phones on the Do Not Call list for what good that does.

I'm to the point I feel like these callers are interrupting my peace by calling so much.

I don't mind telling real people to not call again, but what to do about computer calls. Most of those kind of calls that we get are computer voices and I don't have the time to waste listening to a computer spiel just to hopefully tell them not to call. We get a call pretty much everyday about Obamacare and so sign up before it closes. Funny thing we get that call year round. We have another dude in town that must be a bit older than I am but he and my husband have the same names and a few years back, my husband that wasn't even 50 at the time started getting literally reams of Medicare plans info. I'm sure if I hadn't been pitching it all it would have been a stack 2 feet or more tall! It has slowed down in the last year but what a waste. For ten years after my divorce from Mr. Big Cucks, I had creditors calling me all the time looking for him. Chrysler called me and tried to imply that I was responsible for car payments that he had reneged on! I hadn't signed for any car with him, especially several years after the divorce. They called 3 times in a ten minute time period! But it was a pain. Then my son started getting calls on his cell phone, which I would assume took some doing to find his phone number.

Yep, I hate getting calls from people wanting money or wanting me to sign up for something. This was the worse. At one point I sent a check for payment on some work a guy had done at our house. I got the most convoluted phone call in my life. Apparently in the same building or mini mall the Sheriffs association had an office there to raise money for a party/ball for the law officers or something, but not anything I would contribute to. So this sheriff calls me and is acting (or maybe he was that dumb) all confused and was asking why I had sent them money with the other guys name on the check! I told him it was because I was sending the guy money I owed him. Apparently the mailman had put it in with the Sheriff Assoc. mail and no matter what the envelope said (addressed to the other guy) they opened it, saw money and were trying to get it into their account instead of the guy I sent it too. They actually asked me once he KNEW it was for the other guy and addressed as such with the guys name on it as wel, if I wanted to give it to them anyhow/instead!!! If I had been on the ball, I would have taken down his name and address and turned it into the PO since tampering with the mail is a federal offense!

[disneysteve]

The instant I can tell a call is a sales pitch or donation request, I hang up. If it's a computer call, I can tell almost right away because nobody answers when I say hello. It always takes several seconds before the recording starts and I've hung up by then. I don't bother with the do not call request because the places that harass you with these calls are unlikely to comply anyway and it's not worth my time asking.

I do block the numbers that call my cell but I know that's futile because they just keep calling from different numbers. I get called at least a couple of times each week from some resort place which I'm sure is trying to sell me a timeshare.

[msomnipotent]

I bought the CPR Callblocker from Amazon last year. I was getting about 20 calls a day. I don't answer calls if I don't know who they are, but the phone ringing that many times a day drove me nuts. Now I get one or two. If for some reason I do pick up a charity call, I tell them that all of my charity money is allocated for the year and they will have to mail me information if they want to be a part of it next year. Then I hang up, because they usually hang up on me by then.

[AnotherReader]

NoMoRobo for the landline and Mr. Number for the cell. They get most of the spam calls. We don't answer unless we recognize the number.

[Joan.of.the.Arch]

When we had a landline, I had that number on both the federal and my state's no-call list. The state list preceded the federal one and was more satisfying, because our state attorney generals have followed up on prosecutions. In the early days, I would keep a paper form right by the phone and when a violating phone call came in, I would write it down and mail it to the AG office. I had to know who the call was, what time they called, the number they called from if possible, and a few other details when possible. In later years this of course changed to online reporting.

Every few months I would get a report on the successful prosecutions the AG office had made of no-call violators. Remember that woman with the fake sounding Jamaican accent that used to advertise on daytime TV offering psychic readings? That company used to do illegal calls. Was I glad to have been a part of recording their calls and getting a whopper judgement against them!

Now, I just turn my cell phone off a lot more than I probably should. I don't see anyway to defeat them. Who the hell fall for their idiotic sales or "charity" calls?

[msomnipotent]

I don't see why it is so hard to shut them down. Phone companies keep lists of every incoming and outgoing call. They know who pays for the lines. They already know who is a spammer and who isn't. You would think that all would be needed is a certain number of complaints coming from a number would shut it down. They should have technology to stop these calls that make it look like the call could be from a neighbor, too. That is what is tripping me up now. I think the call must be my daughter's friend or a mom, and I answer.

[Nutria]

I don't see why it is so hard to shut them down. Phone companies keep lists of every incoming and outgoing call.

Sure, but there are a L-O-T of phone calls happening every second. You'd have to keep track of exactly when the phone call arrived.

[greenskeeper]

If I accidentally answer one of these calls I tell them "hold on, I'll get him" and then I set the phone down on the counter.

Eventually they give up and end the call.