Verbal insults to the mothers of those who would call me at 4:40AM for no reason!!

The BBQ Pit
1

To those that would call me at 0440 this very morning, with no caller ID on the screen, and leaving no message on my machine: be damned, be damned to hell! May your ‘wardialing’ machines be broken, and you gouged with the shards of the motherboards.

I haven’t been sleeping well at night lately, and have become a little groggy in the afternoons as a result. Your little stunt didn’t exactly help, especially since it got my adrenaline running after the second ring.

RING. “Huh, what wuzzat?” as I wearily slap my alarm clock’s snooze button.

RING. “Oh shit, it’s the office! We’ve got a recall . . .” I leap out of bed like a long jumper, and run to the phone. I glance at the caller ID screen. “No Caller ID”. :confused:

RING. Now this is weird. If it were the office, it would come up as “Government Line”. If it were someone higher on my phone chain, it would come up with their name and number. I smell a rat.

RING. The answering machine picks up. The screen still says “No Caller ID”. Now relatively awake and somewhat chilly, I meander over to the answering machine, and listen to whomever or whatever just had to call at this ungodly hour leave a message: Silence, but the audible :: pat pat, click :: of someone or something hanging up.

At this point, I’m angry, but I still have 45 minutes of shuteye to get, so I meander back to bed and spend 15 of those minutes just trying to get to sleep, you fuckers. To call me at that hour with no apparent purpose, and no apparent need is not only rude, but I intend to call the phone company this week and have them slap whatever trace I can on you, and intend to call the “Do Not Call” list people and have them come after you. Burn in hell, asswipes–calling at 4:40AM just to see if my number is valid.

Assholes.

Tripler
Take your modem and shove it up your ass. Sideways.

2

Sorry about that dude, it was an honest mistake.

3

Man I feel for you. About six months ago we had this crazy woman calling us at around 4:00 a.m. demanding to know why we were calling her. Apparently someone was calling her and she got our number from her caller ID. How I don’t know. I was willing to believe that the kids had accidentally dialed her playing with the phone, but she kept calling. At least I got to yell at her. That seemed to put an end to it even if I felt bad abusing the feebleminded.

cj

4

cj, if you have a “No Anonymous Calls” feature on your phone, any incoming callers whose numbers are marked private (and thus will not display on caller i.d.) will be instructed to enter their phone number before the call will be connected. The glitch is that the caller can type in any 10 digit number, including YOUR phone number.

Tripler, call the phone company if you’d like but I will guarantee you that no trace will be run. It was an inconvenience to you but it was hardly a threat. And even if it WAS a threatening call, the best you could do is to file a complaint with the phone company. Only if the caller persisted would the phone company reveal the name. The caller has a right to privacy up to the point where he has committed a crime.

5

If that bothers you, don’t ever get a job has a system administrator. :wink:

6

Wait a minute – your phone rings in the middle of the night and you jump up to answer it? What the hell kind of job do you have where they can get you to jump like a trained monkey?

Jebus H. Christo on a Saltine, most of the time I don’t answer the phone when I’m wide awake and it’s sitting right next to me and it’s my mother calling me because she’s on fire.

7

I was going to say the same thing, but you said it so much more funny than I ever could.

8

I used to refuse to answer the phone after 10:30pm. However, since my dad has been in failing health, I now answer the phone whenever it rings. About a month ago, at 2:45a-frickin-m:
RING! RING!
I run to the kitchen, stepping on a cat and detrious LilMiss was too lazy to pick up
MT: pantpant Hello?
Caller: (pause…pause…)
MT: HELLO?!?!
C: (pause) ummm… hey-lo?
MT: Who is this, please?
C: (pause) Jes, is Miguel dere?
MT: No, no one named Miguel here
C: (pause…pause…) Miguel?
MT: NO, no Miguel.
C: (pause) Oh. Oh-kay.
CLICK

Ten minutes later: RING!RING!
Repeat same call from above.

Immediately after last call: RING!RING!
MT: No! No Miguel! Do not call again!
C: (pause) Oh. Oh-kay.

GAH!
The following morning I told my mom about the calls- she asked why I answered. I replied to the effect that I thought it might be her saying dad was in the hospital, &c. She told me she wouldn’t call during the middle of the night- she’d wait until morning. Even if he was not expected to make it through the night? Now, MissTake, I know how crabby you are when you wake up. Your dad doesn’t need that. :confused:

9

Air Force. Recall means they’ll be sent somewhere.

10

Well, I got off the phone with the phone company a few hours ago, but I have to call back to the Annoyance Calls Hotline during regular business hours (which end at 1700 local–how annoying).

But by God, I’m out for blood. And get this, apparently, someone with “No Caller ID” tried to call me again at 0813 this morn as well. This time there wasn’t any message on the machine.

The blood of the non-human-dialers shall be spilt, and the rivers will flow forth with those that do not heed the Do-Not-Call list.

Okay, I’m overdramatic, but there’s something pretty darn satisfying about levying a possible $10,000 fine against a company or individual that did that. . .

Tripler
I’m a simple man, with simple pleasures.

11

I frequently won’t bother to answer the phone during normal hours - that’s what voicemail is for - but if there was a call in the wee small hours I’d be up and out of bed in a flash, on the assumption it was the direst emergency.

12

Well, for the past 8 or 9 years I have always had a cell phone [first it was one of the prepaid ones, but about 5 years ago we got verizon so mrAru and I could each have one] and my mother, father and brother, and mr Aru’s family know to get either of us to use the cells instead of the wired phone. The wired phone is exclusively answered by machine between 0700 and 2100, and in person outside those hours. The wired phone exists only for convenience. I reserve the right to sit next to it and ignore its ringing for hours if I so choose. The machine picks up during temelarketing hours because I refuse to be importuned by telemarketers.

We had a roommate with a 10 year old kid [at that time, about 5 years ago] and as the phone is in my bedroom, I answer it when it rings or the machine picks it up. Everybody who knows us is informed that due to mrArus working hours, no incoming calls after 2200 at night unless they are emergencies. Anny and her son were told the phone rules when they lived with us, and they had no problems with them, most of the calls incoming were for them. What godawful parent lets their 10 year old kid call a total strangers house at 2330 on a school night just to chat? And then gets their panties in a bunch when I find out the next day from caller ID and call them back to politely tell them not to call my house after 2200 unless somebody is bleeding or dying. I got an earfull on how rude I was to pick up the phone, say hello and when a little boy asks for Alan telling him not to ever call after 2200 at night and hang up is so blasted rude that i must have been raised in a barn. I finally told her that she nor her son were to ever call my house ever agan, and alan can call them if he wants to speak with her son - it was my house, my phone and only a courtesy that they were allowed access to my phone. [it sounds worse than the actual situation, she and alan were living with mrAru and I because she had to leave an abusive marriage, and we had space for her and her son, and supported them until she got back on her feet after a year of divorce-fu and job-fu.]

13

Dammit. . . another day and I missed the chance to call the Annoyance Call Hotline.

But I noted this morning there were no calls on my caller ID, but unfortunately, that won’t help me tonight should it ring again. . .

Here’s a question: When I called the hotline the first time, it said “If you were instructed to give a date and a time, press 2”. Well, basically I was informed to give a day and a time. Will the phone company be able to look back into ‘the records’ and find the scum-sucking weasels that would deprive me of my sleep, or is that too “Law and Order”-ish?

[side note]
Gingy! Haven’t yakked at you in awhile! How are ya?
[/side note]

Anyway, stay tuned–the plot may thicken.

Tripler
Same Trip-time, same Trip-channel.

14

Pregnant and exhausted.

Trip, have you thought about TURNING OFF THE RINGER?

15

[side note]
Awesome!! Congratulations!
[/side note]

No, I can’t! Just for the sake of the fact that I’m on a “six-ring standby” whereas not as scary as a recall itself, but I have to answer that phone within six rings. Turning off the ringer would defeat that. . .

Believe me, I’ve wished about it. But even if I had turned it off, 0440? What. The. F*ck. Because you simply know that person or wardialer went on to the next number and did it to someone else.

Tripler
[John Connor (Terminator 3)]F*cking machines![/JC(t3)]