Telephone soliciters....

There is no end to these annoying people...now its Sunday and they still call...i just hang up and hope they get the message.

There is no business nor ethical reason that this nuisance should be allowed to harass the American public.
This is one place that I differ strongly with states rights people. No state can police this menace. It has to be a
national law and it has to be enforced.

"Disturbing the peace" is the name for it, but it now has an national twist. Our laws have not kept up with
technology. If the no-call laws would put a few of these charlatans in jail, we might see and end to it.

There are some rather expensive penalties for violation of the DO-NOT-CALL list. However, there are hardly any prosecutions, or fines levied. So lack of enforcement leaves us with another meaningless set of laws on the books. Since it is rarely enforced, the telephone solicitors feel free to go right at it and call with impunity. I don't think we have any choice but to not answer, or hang up on them. I should say something about our wonderful government at this point, but it's pointless.

It is all about $$$.

Ray, State Interstate speed limit is 70 MPH. A semi passed me yesterday (I was running 80). All the traffic was 80 MPH or more. Hundreds of cars running 80 plus. Not one pulled over.
States do not enforce laws either.

It is motorcycle season. See any bikes ticketed for excess noise? ...a local ordinance, but not enforced by the cops here.

I keep hearing that we can force better government accountability at the local level, but I certainly don't see much of it is my state and county.

Call the local police chief to complain about a violation, then set back and see how much action results. Usually none.

just remember they are people just trying to make an honest buck or would you sooner see them standing on the corner asking for a hand out give them respect you just mite be down and out someday and thats all you can find quick way to make a few bucks.

Somebody must be buying what they are selling.
If not they would try something different.

You have the right idea, nothing will be done about it. I live just off a funny stretch of highway. It is US27. About 20 miles of it is not classified as freeway as it is on each end of this stretch. On either end, it is called US27 and is classified as limited access freeway with speed limits of 70 MPH, and you can only access it from an on or off ramp. But once you get a mile north of Saint Johns, it drops speed limit and has the normal crossroads at every mile interval like any other road, except this is 2 lanes northbound and 2 lanes southbound with a median in the middle, and driveway access directly to the roadway. It continues this way for about 20 miles to Ithaca MI. This is one of the 3 major "heading up north routes" through MI. Once it becomes summer, you pretty much don't plan on trying to cross it on a Friday evening or Sunday evening, it will be absolutely impossible. We have to plan to do all of our farming on property we own on that stretch during the week since we have to drive about half a mile down US27 with our equipment. My option to cross the highway at the beginning or end of the weekend is go 3 miles north to M57 overpass, or 11 miles south to St.Johns exit, if I need to get to the other farm where dad lives. Well, this stretch used to be a regular old 55 MPH stretch, but people complaining that it took to long through this stretch were able to get it bumped up to 65MPH on a non freeway highway. Now you have no chance to merge with solid traffic, and when I am headed home down US27, especially from the south where I am required to make a LH turn from the passing lane into a VERY short turn lane, I can almost always be expected to have some AHOLE honking at me, because the turn lane is made for cars running 55-60, not 75-80. Yes, that's right, even though the speed limit is 65, people that have continued along off the freeway portion can't be bothered enough to knock their cruise down to even 70. Most of then run right at 75-80 with no fear of being stopped. When I asked about it one time to the State Police, they told me "well, we'd have to stop every car!" If that's what you have to do, then by all means, I'm tired of not being able to leave and get on and off the highway because somebody with a BMW needs to get to their lake cottage. This stretch used to be known for its heavy police presence 20 years ago. MDOT says they have received many less complaints now that the speed limit is higher, and it's safer too. Probably only because people that live around here just know to avoid it on the weekends, and don't complain about not being able to drive "fast enuff". Ah, but if I'm driving my old F250, I don't care if some idiot runs into the back of me with their Mercedes, it won't hurt mine!

You might try the do not call list. We used it a number of years ago when we had a land line and it worked great. Now I understand it also includes cell phones.

My mom had me pick her up a loud whistle so that when ever she gets a call like that she just grabs the whistle and lets them have a good long blast with it. She then hangs up on them and she does not set the phone down easy either

That just hurts the poor person working for minimum wage or less, not the company at fault.

Well maybe but it also tends to get her number off the lists

I no longer answer the phone.

If someone really wants or needs to speak with me they will leave a message.

Dean

Know that stretch of road well. Your complaints are well founded.

Back to telephones: I listed all our phones on the DO-NOT-CALL lists, land lines and cells. Was of little use, as calls continued on land line. So I dropped land line. Now they have discovered our cell numbers and are calling them with impunity. Think they have a computer program that simply calls random numbers until they get s hit, and from then you're on their sucker list.

I don't know how many more times I will have to explain this, but here goes......again.
It is IRRELEVANT how much noise you make into a phone. It will not reach the other end at that level. Period.

Why you ask??

Because of the simple mechanical limitations of the equipment. Simply put, the equipment on the other end is not capable of reproducing the sounds that you put into the phone on your end. Add to that, the telephone company equipment has volume and bandwidth limitations.

So, go ahead and blow that whistle as loud as you like. It will not have much effect on the other end.

Also, as a side note, if you COULD make such a loud noise as to cause hearing damage to the caller, you could be charged criminally for assault and battery.

Hello Stephen
Newell,


Do not call list is a joke! Many people on it I'm sure, including me........

Guido.

they dont, first when the call first comes in its usually an auto dialer, a machine that dials the numbers, then when you answer, a person will pick up the line, usually speaking english like a 2 year old, also when you pick up they note the time and day that you answer, so they know when your home, to receive the call, telling them no thank you only works for that 1 person that one time, the next shift will call again, we never answer a number we dont know, after awhile when they receive no answer they log it as a business number, such as a number dedicated to a computer or something similar, it takes months of not answering calls to note then dropping off we still get the die hards several times a day but our ringer is on low, and we just dont answer it, personal friends know to use the cell anyway and we dont answer strange numbers on it either , i dont sell anything, and we already have more business customers than we can handle so im not missing anything there

I've heard that they score on 5% of their calls, so it's a simple matter of making a lot of calls.

When I have time, I answer unknown numbers with a voice of a retarded kid. I tell them that mommy and daddy are not home and i have cat. His name is kitty and it likes milk. Do you have a cat? i
ask. Oh look here comes kitty. Hold on i have to feed kitty right now.........

And I just keep it going until they hang up.. Its what old retired folks do for fun...... well at least this old fart does.

Yes the noise level might not be as loud on the other end, but it sure as heck maks me feel better! I don't use a loud whistle, I use 1 and a half inch firecrackers about 2 inches from the handset. They might call back again and again but like I said I feel better. joe

I would much rather them be standing on a corner selling pencils than aggravating the daylights out of people who have no interest in what they are peddling. YMMV TDF

For some reason I never really got too many solicitor calls. Maybe the national do not call registry is working for me? A few years ago though, some younger guy used to call my number about once a month or so looking for his girlfriend, I'd tell him that he had the wrong number, and not hear from him until the next month or two. That went on for a year or so, and finally when he called looking for his girlfriend I told him that she was taking a bath, I was just about to join her and would tell her after I did and that maybe she would call him back after we finished. I don't know if he just got more careful in his dialing or they broke up, but never called me again after that.

Mark

First of all, I never answer the phone with a Hello. I say greetings or Good Morning. If not
one is there immediately, I then say Bueno... They think I am Hispanic and never call back.

But if they do start talking, I talk to them but get quieter and quieter. Finally I yell... As
for the guy who says that a whistle won't make a difference. Have you never heard when someone
else is on the phone and you can hear every word they hear even though you are 15 feet away?

It bothers me that someone enters my home via the phone lines. They were not invited in.

More options.....
Keep handy the phone number of someone you don't like. That might be a better phone number to
reach you. Give them a phony name.

I got a call last week from a number I
didn't recognize. I answered, it was really
noisy in the background. They asked if this
was John or something like that. When I said
No, they responded, have a great day,
thanks. I'll probably get nailed now. They
were probably just fishing for a good
number, and when I answered, bingo. Sell it
to a solicitor.

Used to be that way south of St Johns and is getting there again. Our main route to US27 is Price rd and good for use they put a light there. Used to need to go into town to use a stop light to get across.

You think the people trying to "help" you with your credit card account or "fix" your slow-running computer are trying to make an honest living?

very well said I fell the same way. Phone companies can step up and do better at this too.