I have AT&T phone service along with their call blocking service. I have a few numbers stored for blocking. Every time I try to add an 800#, I get the message that I entered the number wrong. Many attempts have proved futile. Can it be done with AT&T or not?
I’ve always wondered about this and other call-blocking. I have no answer but (Bump)
It’s been awhile since I had to deal with this sort of thing but my understanding is that a toll free number receives, but doesn’t send. In effect, you can’t block calls from an 800 number because you can’t receive calls from an 800 number; the phone calling you would be identified under a conventional area code.
That said, it’s been awhile, so I could be wrong.
I don’t think that can be right, because I’ve seen 800 numbers show up on my caller ID box before …
It’s a little weird, but it has something to do with the fact that if someone is calling you from a toll free number (800, 866, 888, etc) the assumption is you entered into a contract that says you will receive the call and pay the charges for said call. Theoretically, it is your 800#.
No one should be calling you from a toll free number if you didn’t set one up. If you get a call from a toll free #, someone is being slightly underhanded by masking the correct local number it is actually originating from.
Also, when you dial a toll free number, you cannot mask your number with caller ID block or something similar, as the toll free number provider is paying for the service and it is HIS?HER phone call - not yours, so you lose your right to block the i.d. going out.
Think it might have something to do with lobbying from collection agencies? The only calls I’ve gotten where the caller ID showed an 800 number were from collection agencies. (No, they weren’t looking for me.)
Not a factual answer, but: I think it may be that the phone companies are making a whole lot more money from the folks that have the 800 numbers than they are making from you.
I know Canada is not the States, so there may be different rules (or lack thereof) up here, but I can definitely block 800 numbers (and 866 and I assume the other toll-free codes); I do it quite regularly.
Given my broad definition of telemarketing (I consider cold-calls from charities and politicians just as [del]slimy[/del] bad and just as unnecessary as “real” telemarketing), there is no possibility that such a call would be anything but telemarketing, so if I get the same such 800 number more than once within a couple of days I block it without bothering to answer. (I do periodically hit the 12 number limit on my call blocking, but I then just wait a few days after blocking the 12th number, clear the entire list, and start over; it still is reasonably effective).
Well, I should have said in the OP that I know who is calling, because I googled the number before I posted. I just didn’t want to make the OP too long. Also, I wasn’t sure if I could post the number, because I saw in another thread that maybe we could not. The number shows up on my Caller ID as area code 800 and the exchange is 927. Google gives me a whocalled.us report of 147 complaints. Several of the reports state that the calls are from Sears wanting people to sign up for service contracts on appliances. They call some people several times per day. I get about 1-2 calls per day. I don’t answer them because from past experience, I do know that they are telemarketers calling.
It makes sense that it would be Sears because I bought a refrigerator from them last year. I am not so concerned about who it is as much as the fact that I cannot block the calls. I suppose if I talk to them and say no, that I will no longer get the calls but we all know that telemarketers are persistant. I just would like that option if the calls persist.
I do appreciate the answers I have recieved, so thank you all. I guess I should call AT&T to see why I cana’t block them. I just wanted to avoid the shuffle on the phone.
Thanks again.
It’s about money. The technology exists. It’s like the phone company claiming people WANT their numbers listed.
If you didn’t get charged extra no one would want it listed. The companies pay for 800 numbers why would any phone company want to make it able so they wouldn’t get money.
The only other thing I can think of is when I worked one summer in a call center, if I called out we had over 50 toll free lines and you never knew which one of those numbers would show up on the caller ID of the person I called. So blocking is kind of useless. It’s like blocking IP numbers from AOL, it works but since so many people have AOL you block a lot of innocent people too.
This seems like the most likely reason.