Automated Dialers

[GregG]

Is it legal for an automated dialer to call you 25 times a day. Actually not 25 times a day but more like 12 to 15.

The number reads "out of area", I get hung up on each time I answer. I either get a recording of "Hold on for a very important call", I wait 4 or 5 minutes and the line hangs up. Or I pick up the phone nobody is there. Or the phone rings once or twice and I pick it up and get a dial tone. Of course the number on the Caller ID says "Out Of Area".

I don't know if this is a telemarketer, bill collector, my phone number in the phone book is listed as the clinic (I get about a half dozen clinic calls everyday), if it has something to do with an insurance company calling the clinc. I am trying to get a hold of these Bozos to find out what they want or who they are. Its getting annoying they are taking time away from my job (I work at home) to sit on hold for a hang up.

If an ordianary person hung up on someone 10 to 12 times, 7 days a week. They would be in jail. LOL
.

 

[fairisfair]

https://www.donotcall.gov/default.aspx

and then, there's always voicemail!!

 

[HappyHusband]

Is it legal for an automated dialer to call you 25 times a day. Actually not 25 times a day but more like 12 to 15.

The number reads "out of area", I get hung up on each time I answer. I either get a recording of "Hold on for a very important call", I wait 4 or 5 minutes and the line hangs up. Or I pick up the phone nobody is there. Or the phone rings once or twice and I pick it up and get a dial tone. Of course the number on the Caller ID says "Out Of Area".

I don't know if this is a telemarketer, bill collector, my phone number in the phone book is listed as the clinic (I get about a half dozen clinic calls everyday), if it has something to do with an insurance company calling the clinc. I am trying to get a hold of these Bozos to find out what they want or who they are. Its getting annoying they are taking time away from my job (I work at home) to sit on hold for a hang up.

If an ordianary person hung up on someone 10 to 12 times, 7 days a week. They would be in jail. LOL
.

Register your phone number here...
https://www.donotcall.gov/default.aspx
Eventually the telemarketing calls will end, especially if you demand that they remove your number from their database (that is, once you ever get a "human" on the line).

MCI finally stopped calling me on Saturday mornings after I cursed out the telemarketer and long after I had signed up on the do-not-call register.

But this won't work against bill collectors because they have legitimate business to discuss with you.

The worst I've experienced was with my credit card company calling to sign me up on their latest free-for-one-month BS promotional services. After getting hung up on for two weeks at the exact same time every evening, I finally got a "human". After declining the awesome new service I would demand that they take me off their promotions list.
Repeat every other month for a year, and then eventually I stopped getting these calls.

Oh, and then there are the tricks where they call you, you answer the phone, and then all of a sudden, due to an innovative telecommunications scheme, it is YOU who are calling them! WTF?

 

[xylene]

Here's a plan.

Don't answer calls that don't appear on caller ID - that's why you pay for it.

Hang up the phone immediately for any calls which are given by a machine.

Hang up for any calls where a persons voice is not immediately on the line.

I wait on hold when I call people. I don't wait on hold when I am called. Ever.

Don't over estimate the power of the do not call list. Most call you recieve are not unsolicited commerical offers.

They are either calls from places you have an existing business relationship with (like the parent co. of your credit card...) or they are not commercial solicitations.

Don't expect the government to regulate the crap out the telephone industry and / or demolish the 1st ammendment becuase you can't hang up a damn phone

4-5 minutes holding on an inbound call

I wouldn't hold 1 minute on a call with a client. People can call back.

21st century people !!!

 

[GregG]

do not call is useless

I was on the Do Not Call list. It didn't stop non profit calls. And calls from politial organizations. The do not call list is totally useless. Plus if you contact a business for something, they can call you for 6 months no matter if you are on the do not call list or not.. If I call lets say Craftmatic. They can call me for 6 months. And any of their affailated companies can call me for 6 months.

If you contact a business with a toll free number, the company has your phone number and the legal right to call you for 6 months. Even if you use *67 to block Caller ID. Toll free numbers use ANI which is totally different from caller ID. Since they are paying for your call they have the right to know who you are.

Anyway.. I called my phone company to put a block on UNKNOWN NUMBERS to my line.
So far I haven't got a call in 6 hours. I guess its doing OK..