I often pick up our land line and say “Hello” only to hear: “This is Stan Pearson.* How are you today?” Since I don’t know a Stan Pearson, I figure it’s a scam and immediately hang up. I figure the company must be targeting people who either are basically “all there” but too trusting (“He gave his first and last name, so he must be legitimate!”) or, worse, at some stage of dementia and thus easily convinced Stan is an old friend they just can’t remember at the moment.
or “Laura Simmons”, or just “Duane” – I’ve heard about six different names so far. At least American English appears to be their first language, as opposed to the “Windows tech support” guy named Kevin Miller, who sounded as if he had spent his entire life in India.
You are listening to a recording made by a native American speaker, in a folksy manner, complete with pauses that appear to be where you respond. It’s a computer program you are talking to with a repertoire of canned phrases, not a person. I believe I have frequently described this elsewhere. Try responding with illogical responses and see what happens. You are now performing a Turing test!
I’m honestly surprised that “Don’t ring and go straight to voicemail unless caller is in my address book” isn’t a built-in option on both iOS and Android.
Do Not Disturb on iOS almost does what I want, but I need to use it to actually keep people I know from waking me up during times I’m asleep, and there’s no way to use it for that at night and use it for muting everyone else at other times.
Oh, yeah there are warnings. But no documented cases where it actually occurred. Everybody’s just freaking out because someone suspects that maybe it could be possible.
They asked me how I liked my timeshare. I don’t have a timeshare. But lately, when prodded, I say that I really like it a lot. This causes some kind of confusion, the last guy went off script and handed me off to a “supervisor” or whatever.
I like to talk into a large coffee can when speaking on the phone, btw.
I did check but for home phones they only work on VOIPs – free, though, so that’s good but mine isn’t VOIP.
Hopefully there’s another solution for home phones?
I do not want to waste their time, nor do I want to waste my time. I certainly don’t want to keep them on the phone long. My goal is to dispense with the call ASAP, and also not have a recorded VM that is only a dial tone.
I wish my machine did that, but it doesn’t always. Sometimes it doesn’t record the hang up, and sometimes it does and I have to delete the recorded dial tone. Annoying, very.
I do, on my cell. On my home phone, I do not. If it’s a spammer then I hang up and I add their # to my contacts list under the last name ZZ_junkCaller. It gets sorted to the end of my contacts. I also make a note of it – I like lists for some sick reason. Here is my list, pasted in:
904-274-8599: 2017-03-10T1135 Fri, Greg Parker(?) with Green Energy, acknowledged putting me on Do Not Call list
408-569-4834: 2017-01-27T1715 Fri Marriott Vacations
855-328-6700: 2017-01-25T1458 Wed: Visa 0% offer
210-981-1407: 2016-10-12T0930 Wed, I asked them to remove me from their calling list, while in the hospital visiting Lorrie P
484-891-1721: 2016-10-04T1631 Tue, call, no response
562-384-1596: 2016-09-29T1710 Thu; Spanish recording
760-292-5016: 2016-08-27T0927 Sat; nobody talking
714-694-8195: 2016-08-26T1323 Fri; Spanish recording
408-610-4900: 2016-07-27T0321; 2 VMs, quick yodel, like Yahoo!, or like WooHoo!
408-569-4584: 2016-05-27T1803; Marriott
<704-652-4300: 2016-05-17T1635 Tue; 1 ring then stop>
704-652-4300: 2016-05-11T1719 Wed; 1 ring then stop
408-569-8938; 2016-04-20T1503
405-421-0879: 2016-02-22T0953
337-446-0498: 2016-99-99T9999
I guess I get a handfull each year. But that is my cell, which I only give to friends. Whenever I need to give a phone number (accounts, orders, etc), it’s my home number.
Perhaps you can create a ZZ_junkCall or similar in your contacts, like above, so the next time they call you’ll know not to answer.
I got a new phone yesterday. I was switching my internet/cable services and the phone was free, so why not.
I haven’t had a landline phone in years but I figured to save a few bucks by using it for outgoing calls.
So a few hours after I get this new phone number, which I have given to no one, the phone starts to ring- pretty much constantly. Like a telemarketing call every 5 minutes.
Luckily I can just turn the ringer off. But first I had some fun. I picked up the phone and SCREAMED “What did you DO to her?” Where is my daughter, you son-of-bitch? Don’t play dumb, you’re the ONLY person that has this number" Give me my daughter!
I’ve gotten that one several times. I think it’s partially to make up for the slight delay caused when a robocaller dials several numbers simultaneously and then connects only the ones that pick up.
Did the dealer you bought it from provide their own warranty? In some states, used car dealers are required to provide a warranty on every car they sell.
I fell for the headset dropping chick that started in about staying at resorts for about 3 seconds. And that’s only because I’ve booked getaway weekend rentals with a reputable company that has the word “resorts” in its name and they’ve actually surprised me with good promotions although always via e-mail. So I almost started to talk back to the chick, then it clicked and I hung up.
It’s to make you think you are talking to a human. Must people have a passing familiarity with robots and may be suspicious of recorded messages, but would a robot drop a headset?
I am surprised how sophisticated some of these robocalls can get.
At first, I used to ask, “What is your name?”; they started responding, “My name is <whatever>.”
Now, the minute one starts, I reply, “Robot” or “Are you a robot?”; I have gotten a response of, “We do pre-record messages, but there is somebody live on this end.”
