Call Not Waiting

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[David Abramowitz]

Call Not Waiting

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I recently received not one but two calls from my phone company (who won't be mentioned but whose initials are M.C.I.). This despite being on a state and federal no-call list. I was first congradulated for being such a good customer. So good in fact that I was to receive a free month of service. Anybody want to surmise if this stopped at this point? Naaaaaah. The free month was only good if I signed up for a new plan that would cost me triple the amount I'm currently paying. This was considered a cost saving by the pitchperson. After inquiring whether or not the pitchperson's mother knew what they were doing for a living, I also inquired if I was such a good customer then I should get the free month without signing up for anything. Evidently I was not that good a customer. The evocation of speculation as to the birth legitimacy of the pitchperson was a right I chose not to use, but Judge Judy's admonition "Don't piss on my foot and tell me it's raining" did come to mind. Dave

[cwilliams@apswaco.com]

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In response to both Joel's article AND David's rant, I can only add "OH yeah." My biggest gripe is the fact that our elected officials arranged to EXCLUDE themselves and other political... well, crap... from those do-not-call lists! A local group was gathering petition signatures. When a real person by chance came to my door, I told her no, I would NOT sign her petition... not because I disagreed with the effort, but because I had received a pre-recorded voice mail entreating me to sign. I also strongly ENCOURAGED her to pass along exactly WHY I refused! I also recommend looking for a somewhat out-of-date (i.e. made before the do-not-call list) but still wonderfully entertaining CD by a comedian named Tom Green called "Revenge on the Telemarketers," which contains taped conversations with said unwelcome callers... and his messing with them. Favorites include his saying to the carpet cleaning salesperson "Oh, I'm SO glad you called! Can you get out BLOOD? LOTS of BLOOD?" My teen-aged (at the time) children, of course, loved another call in which he burped, loudly, in response to every question.

[Mike Rizzi]

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How about those 'bundled' packages to give you access to ALL those features offered at special pricing because of your "Favored" status with the phone company - my phone bill more than doubled for this distinct honor that was bestowed upon me - - - my how special! -

[Guest.Visitor]

Call Not Waiting

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I used to tell co-workers what I would REALLY like to say to telemarketers: "Why I think your product is the WORK OF SATAN!!!"...and then hang up. Never did it, but considered it!

[OzzieH]

Call Not Waiting

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Before my phone life at home became better (due to the no-call list), whenever a TM would call, I got into the habit of simply laying the phone down & walking away. This way they would read their ridiculous script to dead air. I'd come back in a couple of minutes and just hang up. Once though, I came back, and I heard the person saying "they just went away...I wonder if they had a heart attack or something? Should I call 911?" For the sake of that one person who cared, I stopped that. My all-time fav though was back in the modem days. I had received a flurry of TM emails and phone calls for a month or so about...oh, ..., seems like it was a cure for baldness. Late one Friday night (after several glasses of wine), I looked at one of those emails & thought to myself, "Screw these people. I've had enough. There is no cure for what I have!!" There was an 800-number listed, and although I had ignored it previously, I called the number to see if it was legit. Sure enough, a TM answered, and I hung up. Then I created me one of those old...what are they...modem communications shortcuts in W95? I set the properties to autodial my primary phone#; and then, if I recall, you could put a bunch of blanks in the command string to cause a delay before the modem would give up on the call & hang up. I finally got it to where I could double-click the icon, making the modem call my other line, wait about 7 seconds or so before it fired off that screeching communications noise. (the 7 seconds is the time where someone would usually say, "Hello, this is _____.") I changed the settings to point to their 800-number, and I was good to go. I double-clicked my connection icon, and listened. As soon as I heard a click or a dialtone, I'd click cancel & then do 'er again. After ten minutes or so of this, they would quit answering their number. I'd chill out for a few & then let 'er rip again. Finally after about an hour of this routine (I was getting bored), I manually dialed the number to see if anyone would answer. When the person picked up with, "Hello, you've reached _____...", I said, "So have you all had enough?!" The guy laughed and said, "Yeah, you've become quite popular here." I told him, "Well that's what you get for calling me you dirty blankity-blank. I'll quit if you just simply quit calling me." He said that he would do what he could to get my name taken off their list. I don't think it worked, but it sure made for a fun Friday night. After that I envisioned creating an anti-TM system; where you could hook up about 10 phone lines to it, and have it call a TM's 800-number RELENTLESSLY and play some insulting message when they answered. Ahh...the good old days :-/

[Guest.Visitor]

Call Not Waiting

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I am not saying this because I am working for a phone company because the proposal I am about to make, is not liked by the phone companies such as mine. What is with you guys about phones? In the last one dozen of so articles, most had been about phones!!! There are other problems in the world besides phones, e.g. umm ... duh ... internet? Why can't you guys just get a VOIP and get over with it. My phone company offers basic phone for $40! No long distance, no fancy features. No need to mention the hefty connection fee which I paid everytime I moved to a new location. Plus I had to inform everybody of my new phone number. My VOIP offers me full services for $19.99. This not only includes all fancy feature that my company does not offer, but the ones my company does not have. Plus the long distance is free North America wide. No need to mention that I carry my phone wherever I go, so no need for disconnection/connection woes/fees, no telling anybody where I am. See this months Consumer Report for best VOIPs available in the market. I use the one they did not mention i.e. lingo.com and I am perfectly happy with it.

[Guest.Visitor]

Call Not Waiting

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It is just rude. People at the checkout in the supermarket on their phone get right on my nerves too.