Dealing with nuisance phone calls
- From: "Dave" <aceblink@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 30 Apr 2006 13:10:59 -0400
In the past you could report nuisance calls to the phone company and they
would block the caller. Today they no longer offer that service and instead
refer everyone to a national "Do not call list." The law, however, now
exempts bill collectors and they can use automated dialers to call and leave
recorded messages.
Such callers often ignore requests to stop calling even after being informed
they have the wrong number. Consequently use of the following solution
may be necessary:
No one has phone service for free. Even though the phone system is a public
utility a subscriber must rent or least a "private" subscriber line in order
to have phone service. The service you are renting or leasing involves
incoming and outgoing calls. In many places renters or leasers of "private"
subscriber lines charge a fee for use of the line for outgoing calls. Some
places also charge for incoming calls and for use of any associated
equipment such as a fax machine of a computer. The logic for doing this is
that the renter or leaser is being deprived of the opportunity to use the
line (or bandwidth in the case of a cell phone) for either outgoing or for
incoming calls. A hotel may charge for instance not only for outgoing and
incoming calls but for the use of any associated equipment.
Whenever anyone calls me I let my computer handle answering the call. The
message I have setup is that if the purpose of the call is to solicit
payment then there will be a charge for making the call and tying up the
line for whatever time it takes to leave a message and there will be a
charge for leaving the message on the computer as well as a charge for
storage of the message until it is retrieved and that the caller may avoid
such fees by not leaving a message or by limiting the length of the call and
the length of the message and by stating how long they agree for the message
to be stored subject to a minimum storage fee and the default fee for
calling, recording and storing.
Since SITEL is usually the parent of such companies in Canada and the US I
have also faxed and mailed such notices to them and informed them that any
future calls will constitute their agreement to pay for all prior call at
triple the rate in addition to a sizable inconvenience fee for have
necessitated the issuance of such notice.
.
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