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Telemarketers and Cell Phones?
jjshoe asks: "I have received one bumbling voice mail from a woman who seemed very confused as to why I wasn't there, like her auto dialer transfered her call to my cellphone in time for my voice mail, one missed call, and one in which I actually talked to the woman. My concern is that this all costs me minutes, which of course equals money. What laws are out there for me? What bills are out there waiting to head their way towards becoming laws? What can I do to be compensated for time? After I screamed at the tele-marketer lady she said she would mark me as a wrong number, but I still don't believe this is enough." Considering most tele-marketers use auto-dialers, would it be so hard to grab the definitive list of area-code/extensions that are exclusively used for cellular phones and just apply that to their dial-out lists?
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's website was the only site I could find that had any information on cellphones and solicitation.
Note the first question from 'JOHN PUHATCH':
Q: Regarding the sole use of wireless phones as an alternative to a land line connection, as I have done for nearly two years: You stated that tele-marketers do not call wireless phones. If only that were the case. Tele-marketing agencies have regularly contacted me on my cell phone concerning everything from vacation homes to long-distance service. My assumption is that these agencies secure my cell phone number by buying information from the plethora of forms and applications that require home telephone numbers but leave no place for a cell phone.And the answer basically amounts to, although we do have some protections, we can still be screwed:
'A: [...]In short, John, you lost your chance at a telemarketing-free life when you filled out those forms with your phone number. May others learn from your mistake.'Does anyone have any advice on things I can do to get these tele-marketers to stop calling on my cellphone?"
Most land-based phone companies allow anonymous-call blocks these days. Are there cellular phone companies doing anything similar?
..."Kill 'em all and let god sort'em out"
BTW - Anyone that says "I did this for a living" is a blatant troll. Don't fall for it.
Good quote, too many chars. Seriously, the slashdot 120 char limit sucks!
yeah, john wayne was, but I forgot which movie.
Good quote, too many chars. Seriously, the slashdot 120 char limit sucks!
When I had a land line phone, if that number rang four times, it would automagically forward into my cell phone. If you listened to this while it happened, you heard some type of little click.
The county jail uses some sorta automated call out system, announcing that "inmate x" (recorded voice by inmate)is trying to get in touch with you, do you want to accept the collect call for $1.95 (or some other vigorously offensive amount for what is really just a local phone call.)
For some reason, that little click made on forwarding was enough for the computer to think I accepted the damn collect call...so I would pick up my cell phone and someone would say:
"yo? snake?"
"no...sorry...you got the wrong number."
"sheeeeeeeeeeet" (inmate hangsup)
This happened to me a bunch of times...and there was no fucking way i could get out of paying the 1.95 or whatever it was (without a huge amount of work.) Furthermore, when I did answer my landline, and refused the call, the inmate would continue trying back over and over again (since there was no way to tell him that he got the wrong number.) Finally, it truly pisses me off that some company out there is making a killing off those incarcerated (and their friends/families) simply to make what is in most instances a local phone call. Look: americans have had unlimited local calling for years, and many businesses have it now too. Why can't the county jail? (The minimal cost of the line and the phone is likely paid already by the county.)