I recall many years ago how my Mother worried about telephone calls which she answered but where the person had rung off or didn't speak. Even then cold sales calls were common and a considerable irritation. I think I disliked the people who made them to an irrational degree because they upset my Mother so much. She couldn't believe that sales people could be so thoughtless and so believed that they were trying to see if anyone was in the house so that they could burgle it.
Until recently I received many such calls each day on my landline. I could have barred international and withheld calls but many of my legitimate calls are international and some friends have withheld numbers.
Now I have solved the problem with one of the best gadgets that I have ever bought : the BT 8500 phone with Call Guardian which, for numbers not in your address book, enables you to hear who’s calling before you answer, and block those nuisance calls. As nuisance callers never leave a name and are often automated anyway they never even ring out. Brilliant.
Certainly a good method to ensure your daily life has less unwelcome interruptions.
ReplyDeleteIn Germany, cold calls are illegal, and they happen a lot less than they used to since that regulation has been passed. Some days when I am working from home, I still get the occasional call, and because any unknown number could be a person who has found our consulting company"s website or my professional profile on XING, I always take the call.
They are few and far between, though, so no real disturbance.
And when I come home and find a "missed call" on the list of my phone, I look up the caller's number on my router. Even more usesul is to look up which number the caller called: I have three numbers here, my first landline one, which still appears on some online telephone directories, my new private one, which I only have given to a select few people, and my business number, which is never called by sales people.
Whenever I see that the missed call was directed to my old landline number, I know it was a sales call, and I make no effort to get in touch with the caller.
In the UK we have the Telephone Preference Service which is supposed to eliminate unwanted calls but as most calls are generated outwith the UK in India and points East to China they cannot be stopped by law here. My phone is a conventional land-line and does display the caller's number. Many calls generated overseas display a 'false' number. Everything is possible with the internet! Of course it is also possible to Google a number and see what it is. However with my new system the problem is solved and I have no more unwanted calls. Now if my cellphone had the same facility....
DeleteSo If I get this right, you can hear them when they call, but they can't hear you. So you can hang up if you don't want to be bothered?
ReplyDeleteMersad
Mersad Donko Photography
The way it works Mersad is that if the number is not in your phone as a contact or accepted number the caller is asked to state his or her name. The phone then rings me and I hear the message. I can then accept it on this occasion or mark it always for acceptance. Alternatively I can send it to answerphone or bar the caller. If no message is left the phone doesn't ring and I'm unaware of the call unless I check the calls made list on the phone. If I'm not in and a call is from an accepted number or the caller leaves a name and the call isn't picked up it automatically goes to the answerphone.
DeleteBy coincidence I was talking to someone else who told me about Call Guardian yesterday. He couldn't recommend it highly enough. A pity they don't have a system which uses your existing phones but I suppose that is too much to expect, technically. Thanks for reminding me. Call Guardian is now on my list.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad I'm not alone in thinking it's great Jenny. You won't regret it. I'm not sure why BT can't offer it as a line option. I'm sure they would have if it had been easy because it would be monthly income for them.
DeleteOh, id love one of those! But I've found that the best way of dealing with them is when they ask if they're speaking to me, I just tell them no. She died last week. Works every time.
ReplyDeleteI rarely ever spoke to anyone Frances. I would lift the phone and just put it down if it was a nuisance call. My problem is that I am genetically unable (as was my Mother) to leave a phone to ring. My Brother took after my Father: he won't answer a house phone now under any circumstances.
DeleteWhen first reading your post I did not understand how it worked, but I get it now from your comment to Mersad. Sounds good. I've never heard of any system like that here. I do always check the display before picking up though, and if I don't know the number, I usually let it go through to voicemail (which all my calls do after 4-5 signals) - unless I know that I'm actually expecting a call from someone "unknown". I also have a silent mode button on the phone, which I often use at night, especially if going to bed early. (Friends already know that I'm not keen on late calls, and not able to be of much help to anyone in the middle of the night anyway...)
ReplyDeleteMonica I get far too many and it's complicated by the fact than many calls via the internet from India and China generate a 'false' number. Many of my friends are overseas or have withheld numbers so blanket rejection isn't an option for me. This is an excellent compromise.
DeleteOh, and I just love how they call right at dinnertime!! Very frustrating. Oh, and don't even get me started on the political season!!!
ReplyDeleteYes Peace the calls are almost always at the most inconvenient time which seems to me to be a very bad technique.
DeleteCall identification helps too. It's not fool proof but helps. If there's "name and number not available" it's likely a telemarketer.
ReplyDeleteRed the problem is that many calls I get are from friends abroad or who have withheld numbers all of whom are identified as 'International' or 'Withheld' which is commonly how unwanted calls here are appear.
DeleteCall Guardian sounds brilliant but I have my own method of dealing with cold callers. Using my advanced technological skills, I track them down and visit their houses in the dead of night with two Liverpudlian satanists called Robbie and Mick They sometimes pose as BT engineers but this is just a cover for their more unsavoury activities. Vengeance is honey sweet.
ReplyDeleteIf you had my callers YP you would be going to spend a great deal of time abroad.
DeleteThe nuisance sales calls are a pain in the butt, but now it seems like I'm receiving more and more survey related calls. If I have just a minute to spare, I turn the tables by asking the caller, "Can we talk politics instead?" Gets them gone EVERY time.
ReplyDeleteThat's certainly one way Virginia but it still interrupts your flow having to answer the phone.
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