On the Hatred of Phones

You know the public opinion survey's that make the rounds of the phone system?
I started asking them who they were and what they planned on doing with the information.

I stopped getting such calls....now if only I could get the advertizing idiots to leave me alone!
:^\

There's a "do not call" list that screens out the big offenders, but won't stop little mom'n'pop stores from dialling every number in order to blab about their weekly specials. But the phone company *has* done something about it, at least in the U.S.: Caller ID. This invention means that I can see the number and sometimes the name on the phone account from which somebody's calling me, so if I answer I have by definition authorized the person to call.

The only problem is that some cheap land phones, as still used by some people who can't afford to upgrade and don't want to take "Obamaphones," don't *have* Caller ID. I grumbled about this for four or five years before someone bought me a cell phone and said, "Don't agonize, modernize." Probably five or six thousand other neighbors are still waiting for friends to do this for them.

You literally have to sign up for the unknown/screened caller block as well as caller ID these days.
Did you know there's an AP now that can tell the caller ID on your phone another number than the one it's dialing from?
Yes!
We keep getting calls from the "Indian IRS" which come out of the Detroit area which our phone company claims it cannot trace.
:^\

My grandma had a really loud whistle she kept next to the phone. Anybody she didn't care for called her, their ear was gonna RING!

Of course, these days you have to get past the robocaller to ring some poor sod's ears...

Caller*ID crossed by answering machine/voicemail is the way to go if you bother at all. If I don't recognise it as friendly, straight into the voicemail bin it goes!

An excellent idea--an answering machine and caller ID is coming soon to rhodie's household.
:^)