unwanted phone calls?

[rosawendel]

so i signed up for the "do not call list", yet i still receive a number of phone calls from what are obviously phone banks with people asking for, well, it's usually "steve", but sometimes they use a different name. the phone numbers usually come up as "unknown name, unknown number". they never get past me telling them they have the wrong number. i've got to think it's too coincidental that they're just dialing wrong numbers THAT often.

i've got to think someone out there is "phishing" for live phone numbers for future use, but i'm not sure. does this happen to anyone else? any insight? curious. thanks.

[Rob]

We got that for weeks at my office. Our phone system is apparently made up of a bunch of random lines that have no rhyme or reason, but they all end up under one phone number. It was always somebody asking for the same person, but we're not quite sure if it was always the same line or not. Eventually it stopped, thank goodness.

[rocket]

I signed up for the do not call list too, I think somewhere onthere it mentioned that it could take 4 weeks for the lists to be updated. Well once everything was in place...nothing. I used to get 6 calls a day on average, now...nothing, I tell family and friends when I'm out of town, and I come back to an empty machine...I love it. In fact when I was down in Mexico for 8 day, there was not 1 call that registered on the caller ID I love it.

[cart7]

I recieved a form from our state that I fill out. When those few calls come in, I ask what their name is, who they're with and the purpose of the call. Then I tell them I just filled out a form to report them and then hang up.

BTW, in my state, Missouri, companies that you already have dealings with are allowed to cold call you. AT&T is one of the ones that does it the most. All in all, the No call deal has dropped off the nuisance telemarketers to near nothing. :thumbup:

[KLang]

Prior to Do-not-call we received 6 to 10 calls per day. Now it's only a couple per week. For a long time we had none at all but in the last couple months we've started getting a few.

[indyfan31]

I may be all wet about this, but when the list was first announced they said it would not take effect until October of that year. Anyone signing up after a certain date would have to wait until October of the following year; I don't know if that still applies.
However, like KLang, my cold-calls have drop dramatically since I signed up. I get 1 or 2 every few weeks. I then tell them I'm on "the list" and they trip all over themselves to apologize for bothering me.

[G.]

I still get the "fireman's fund" and "police benevolent", but that's about it. I did get a call from SBC (tele). They claimed that since we have been doing business for a year and a half (or close) before the October 03 deadline, that they can still call. I asked them not to anymore and they said they would comply. We'll see.

Here's what the companies I deal with are doing now: I called a credit card company and got an actual voice (good thing!). After I took care of bidness the woman went on a sales pitch for various crap I don't want. She never did confirm that my business was completed. She left me hanging while slinging her pitch. We were apparently finshed though, cuz I used the card yesterday.

[JoeBob]

Yeah, you can't activate a credit card anymore without a 5 minute pitch to transfer balances, "protect your credit" and whatever else they're hawking at the moment.

A good way to make it stop is to say, "You know, now that I'm thinking about it, rather than activate this card, can you cancel it?"

[fourrunner]

Do Not Call works just geat in Pennsylvania .. since I signed up I went from 10 per day to maybe 1 per week .... The State might also require even the businesses that are allowed to call ( places you've previously done business with, Charitable Organizations, and People you owe money to) to have the caller & number be visable for caller ID.

I go by the philosophy of If you don't want me to know who's calling ( Even Friends) than you must not really care that much about it. I only pick up calls from numbers or names I can Identify ... The friends who prefer to not be known for a particular reason, I give a ring code to.

[ChampcarShark]

Do not call lists are the greatest.

Now I can have dinner with my family without the usual interruption to buy insurance or phone services.

The threat to cancel services has worked for me too. I was in a very tight budget and had to trim down my phone service, when the operator started questioning and pushing certain features, I told her that I rather cancel the service than have just the basic service. She proceded inmediately to cancel the extra services with no more sales pitch. I still enjoy paying a low phone bill and do not miss all those extra services, like three way calling, call forward, message service and so on.

(My cell phone has all that included, and I only use my home phone for dial up internet and basic local calling)

[oddlycalm]

We went on both our state's no call and no mail lists around 5yrs ago and haven't had more than a couple calls since then which were from small local businesses, and very little junk mail as well. What little junk mail we do get is from companies we have accounts with already, which apparently excludes them from the restriction.

I am still waiting patiently for the "no bill" list to go into effect however, as the bills continue to arrive with singular regularity... :(

oc