I seem to be about the only person alive who doesn't have a cellular telephone grafted to my ear. Don't even own one. Don't even want one.

Yet it seems that while everyone is answering telephone calls, machines do the calling.

About once a day, I get a "call" with only a dial tone greeting me when I answer it.

Today, which is far from over yet, I've already gotten two "calls" from machines droning recorded messages. I'm not a machine, so I don't talk to machines. TV is the only machine that I even try to listen-to, and unless I get fitted with a couple of good hearing aids, even that's gonna end with a rubber-burning screech ere long.

What's the point of having a simple, honest, old-fashioned telephone any more? Even when I try to place calls, I get machines with endless, irrelevant menus that chew-up time before I can finally [and rarely] talk to a human being.

I've lived too long.

I'm with you Dr. Howell. When I get a call from a machine, I immediately disconnect.

When I make a call and get a machine, I hit 0 until I get a person, or hang up.

There are places that I really love to hunt that have zero reception for phones, radios, or televisions.

Caller ID traps their phone numbers. I tell my machine (computer is always on anyway) when that number comes in from their machine to answer and tell them to bugger off. They give up after a while though sometimes they try again after a few months.

If you didn't answer, like two rings and it stops, Google the number to see if it's been reported as a nuisance call.


Nah. I remember those calls coming in at dinner time way back when I was a kid. No good way to fend them off at the time.

I don't have/need/want a cellular phone either though eventually I'll get stuck with one for business. How the hell did we ever survive without constantly chattering with someone?

Those unsolicited messages can continue to tie up your land line phone until they end and disconnect on their end even though you have already hung up on your end. Oftentimes after hanging up you can pick up your receiver again and still hear them gabbing away with their spiel. We dropped our land line phone service a good while ago but what I would do back when we did get those type of land line calls was to unplug our phone jack for a second or two completely breaking the connection and then plug the jack back into our telephone.

I can't count all the tele/recorded calls I've gotten in the past couple months -

the main one is about did you know how many homes are robbed-
I've put at least a dozen different #'s on my block call list and they keep callin from someplace other location - everywhere from Oregon to Pa. to Florida- damn security system calls!! how can I get secure from their damnn calls!

then when you actually get a person with some sales pitch - they wonder why they get - listen don't you think I'm intelligent enough to call -someone/anyone if I wanted a security system or other service- quit damn callin and remove my name from the list!

I absolutely hate the sales call: "Hi, How are you doing? How's the weather there?" etc, etc.

I usually respond with "What do you want, you are burning minutes on my cell plan!"

A lot of them come up on the caller ID as unavailable, which I seldom answer or even as 000-000-0000. Occasionally a missed call will actually show a real number on the caller ID. One attempts to call the number back, in order to see if it was a missed business call. And the fricken number comes up as "not in service", I don't have a clue how they pull that off.

The newspaper people called me today,...wanting to know if I wanted to subscribe.

I say, "I dunno,...is it still a liberal rag?"

The guy on the other end kept mumbling something so I hung up.

Surprisingly this actually reduced, but did not eliminate, the number of solicitor calls I get. You have to do it every year but you'll remember when they start calling you again.

https://www.donotcall.gov/

There is need for an on-off switch that will connect in-line between the phone and the socket.

woman from my phone company told me to answer and start hitting the pound key or don't say anything just leave the phone off the hook for awhile.

It's called a plug, Sonny. Give it a whirl some time.

Receive these robot calls on my office phone all the time. Despite being on a No Call list I must have received a hundred or more calls from Google & Yellow Pages in the last month. Since I use an answering machine I just erase all the nuisance calls. When I do answer a call from a telemarketer (usually speaking broken English) asking for me or the owner I advise just a second & lay the receiver down as I continue working.

A while back I got what I thought was a rather strange phone call.
A brief recorded message first identified itself as originating from a county jail out in one of the western states and then an electronic voice asked if I would accept charges for a collect call from a (pause ________ ________ a human male voice said a first and last name here). No idea who they were.

I didn't respond with a yes or no or say anything and just hung up my phone.

If that was his one and only shot at a phone call, I guess he was just S.O.L.

Just keep listening at some point they are going to give you a way to contact a real person. When they do you do it. Then you give them a piece of your mind they are never going to forget.

It is Frustrating how bad the Telemarketing industry has gotten in the past years. I only have a cell phone and have been extremely lucky to not have gotten a whole lot of them calling me. At one time I got a landline to try and get a better deal on my cable bill by "bundling". I got the line hooked up and literally got about 10 calls a day from telemarketers and robots. The Stupid cable company had sold out the number before I even got it hooked up.

On another note. I have several friends who work in call centers and honestly I think that is one of the worst jobs ever. Sucks because they have to deal with people that are just angry because they called them and they just doing their job. I know I would never take that job unless I was forced to with NO other option

Other than watching LSU baseball/football/NO Saints....I wouldn't give a schitt if all TVs exploded! Their intent...was COMMERCIALISM....and they're damn good at it! Damn glad there's a mute button!!

I am not your son, and I would prefer to use a switch...now kindly f_ck off and be condescending to someone that gives a rats arse.

Tried that.. About as worthless as the Azzhole-In-Chief..