OT: Phone without long distance service

Stan in Oly, WA

Well-known Member
I have a renter who is always difficult to get ahold of. Normally this suits me fine, but now I have reason to need to get in touch with him fairly often for the next month or two. He lives about sixty miles from me, and has a different area code and no long distance service. Other than old fashioned mail, the only way to contact him is for me to leave voice mail with his friend. His friend then contacts him and then leaves voice mail for me. Occasionally the friend and I talk, but usually it's just voice mail. Last time I talked with him I asked him how he contacts my renter. He told me he could call him because they have the same area code so it's a local call for either of them. I've known people who had a land line without long distance service, but that only applied to their outgoing calls. They could still receive long distance calls. Is anyone familiar with such a phone plan, one that doesn't allow long distance calls in either direction?

Thanks,

Stan
 
No, never heard of a phone that would not receive long distance.

Years ago I had a land line that I had to block all outgoing long distance because of a step son calling the girlie lines.

But it would still receive all calls.

BTW, the look on his face when I told him the person on the other end of the line...

May have not always been a girl! LOL
 
I have no long distance service(we have two cell phones that make calls for free) I receive long distance calls everyday. I just can t call out.
 
Sounds pretty thin to me. I'd say someone else is living in the house with your renter, and they don't want you to know about it. It might even be this mysterious "friend".
 
Oh, the situation is much worse than that, Mark. Just not in any standard way you would ever imagine. Good thing for me that I've mellowed with age. Now, this kind of difficult, bizarre situation doesn't upset me so much anymore. In fact, viewed from the perspective of someone not involved, it's probably pretty interesting. It's a shame that that perspective is not available to me.

Stan
 
+1 on sounds thin. Do you even have a phone # for the renter? If so, try it.

On the other hand, giving the benefit of the doubt to the renter... Have you had any rent collection problems? Good sign if answer is no. Is this a longer-term renter? Maybe an older person? If so, they might have a land line and when they got it, they went cheapest and were told ?Ok, but there?s no long distance service at this rate? and they thought it meant in or out. And some companies will keep you on a plan until H*** freezes over (or you make a substantial change). We?ve seen this with Verizon (wireless) and they were quite accommodating for a very old low-priced plan for our flip phones- which we upgraded several times - until we finally went to smartphones.
 
Calling the renter still may not work. We just replaced our cordless phones with a set from Panasonic. Awesome!! And, even though we don't get much in the lines of unwanted calls, there is a feature where if a call comes in and you don't want them calling you anymore, you simply hit a button, then confirm, and that number will never get through to you again. You can also add numbers manually.

Here's the phone we got. It holds 250 such numbers, IIRC.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06ZZ65SW4/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1
 
A few years ago I had a renter that played games like that.

We no longer play those games, and it makes for less stress in my life.

His wife finally figured it out, as well, and she no longer plays those games with him, either.

WHEN will you figure it out?

Renting land or property is not a "right", it's a privilege, and the person enabling the privileged person shouldn't have to stress over the relationship, IMHO.
 
What is the result when you dial that number? If there is no error recording, and you hear a ring, the call went through. He/she may have caller ID, try calling from a number unknown to them.
 
Haven't had long distance on my landline for twenty years I still get long distance calls in the same as alway's. This used to be Bellsouth and is now AT&T. My guess is he has your number blocked.
 
It's been almost 20 years since I had a landline and even then long distance was free. I have never heard of a phone plan that charged fee's for incoming LD calls but maybe there is one out there. I find it odd that phone companies still charge long distance fees on outgoing calls too. Even if there is a charge it should be fairly cheap. If you need to talk to him that bad then have him show you the LD charges on his bill and waive that from the rent owed.
 
> Oh, the situation is much worse than that, Mark. Just not in any standard way you would ever imagine.

Well, Stan, having been a landlord for over twenty years, I can imagine a lot! Suffice it to say, I now know more about human nature than I ever wanted to know. Whatever it is you're dealing with, you have my sympathy!
 
Thanks, Mark. The hard to imagine elements here are not primarily related to the renter's behavior. He's been in the house 22 years and he's always paid the rent. Housing prices in Seattle have become exorbitant and predatory. The City has responded by passing laws that have swung way too far toward trying to protect renters. For instance, it's now illegal to run a criminal background check on a prospective renter. This is my last rental house, and I've wanted to sell it for several years, but I've been working with the renter to get him to clean up the property so I won't have to. Imagine someone who is a stone and brick mason and an artist in stone, brick, and concrete who is also a hoarder. That's him. I won't go into more detail, but suffice it to say that I'd like to resolve this matter in a way that nobody's life is destroyed in the process. It's complicated.

I've been a landlord for a long time, too, but I never learned so much about human nature as when I worked as the maintenance supervisor for a 200+ unit apartment complex for a few years here in Olympia. It was property which was required by the tax code to provide a certain percentage of reduced cost units for low income renters. This was property which you would see from the street, or even walking among the dozen or so buildings, and think, "This looks pretty nice. It must not be bad living here." But I saw human misbehavior from the most desperately poor and mentally ill tenants whose apartments you wouldn't want to enter without wearing a hazmat suit up to the upper level of management of the multi-state corporation which owned the management company I worked for. It did not improve my view of human nature.

Stan
 
> Imagine someone who is a stone and brick mason and an artist in stone, brick, and concrete who is also a hoarder.

Yes, an image comes immediately to mind! Yikes!
 
Next time you see your renter in person, demand to see his "no long distance" phone. When he has his phone next to him or in his hand, give his number a call and see if it rings.
I've never seen a phone that doesn't receive long distance incoming calls.
 
Same comment as the others. We had land line without long distance calling, but could still receive any call coming in. Renter is ignoring you.
 

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