I refuse to take robo-calls. I don't care what they're for. If there's not a real person saying something within 5 seconds of my picking up the phone, I'll hang up. I'm sorry but it's an insult to me to call me with a computer. If you have to contact me electronically, do it through email.

And what can I do if the robo-calls telling me that the warranty on my car is about to expire (even though I don't own a car) doesn't have the opt-out feature?

"Hasta la vista," not "Asta la vista."

@se7a7n7: Believe it or not, they do. If you listen to the whole spiel (in my experience, anyway), you have the choice to either "remove yourself from our database" (or something similar) or talk to someone. I talked to someone last time, he gave some really shady answer about where they got my number from, I told them I wanted to be removed, he said I'd be removed, and I haven't heard from them since...

Take that AT-5000 Auto-dialer! You and Happy Dude can DIAF!

Will this kill political robocalls, too?

But will it also kill those annoying political robocalls?

Also, I've noticed a distinct drop in the number of unsolicited Auto Warranty and Time Share calls in the last month to 6 weeks. Maybe it's because of this? :shrug:

I don't answer my phone when the display says "unknown name / unknown number" or is from a toll-free number.

The amount of calls I now receive has dropped significantly. I expect many of the computer-dial programs update records to reflect a non-live answer.

I do get especially annoyed that the robo calls typically disconnect on the third ring (presumably to avoid voicemail) and do not leave a message. They are willing to be intrusive, but not willing to identify themselves.

I feel especially bad for the elderly who may attempt, but aren't neccesary able to get to the phone by the third ring.

"Greetings, friends. Do you wish to look as happy as me? Well, you've got the power inside you right now. So, use it, and send one dollar to Happy Dude, 742 Evergreen Terrace, Springfield. Don't delay, eternal
happiness is just a dollar away."

That's December 2009, by the way, this isn't something that happened last month. Dammit.

@se7a7n7: Dude, I get that call on my home AND cell phone no less than 4 times a week..

Like you, I do not own a car. And at the end of the call, when you press 1 or 2, I dont remember, to get off their calling list, it automatically disconnects you...

One of these days I will have the patience to choose the option to speak to someone and try and make them take me off the list, or at least take my frustrations out on that person.

@Rob Weddle: and "fiery" while we're at it.

@DeannaFlying fox: Look at your caller ID on that one... if it's area code 062, don't even answer.

That one and the one about my non-existent credit card both originate from that area code.

And they always tell me to "press "2" to be removed... I wore the dad gummed 2 key out on my phone and they still call, sometimes several times a day.

I make phone spam at my home my quest to defeat.

I got a robocall from a Home Warranty company the other night, and listened for the opt out option, but I could only press 1 to speak to a live rep.

I went ahead, and when I got on the phone with the nice gentleman he hung up on me as I said "I would like you to rem...". So I looked up the company, and went on a well mannered rampage through 1 CS rep, and 2 managers. I was neither rude, nor belligerent ... but I made my displeasure clear.

They assured me I would not be getting any more calls.

@larrymac808:

Also, "Opt-Out" should be hyphenated.

It is too bad that politicians continue to exempt themselves from Do Not Call law.

StopPoliticalCalls.org is fighting for the privacy of the American voter.

1 - Creating a Political Do Not Call Registry
2 - Testifying in the US Senate about robo calls (Sen. Feinstein's Robocall Privacy Act)
3 - Forcing states to enforce existing robo call laws (CA, MN, NJ, etc..)
4 - Getting politicians to take a do not robo call pledge (7 have)

Here is a quote from a member recently:

"I'm a shift worker, working variable shifts. I depend on my sleep to be able to do my job safely and efficiently. I'm a locomotive engineer. Imagine the disaster were I to fall asleep, operating a freight train carrying hazardous materials in your neighborhood, due to fatigue from being awoken in my middle of the night on a continuous basis during election season. Please stop.."

Learn more.

Shaun Dakin
CEO
[www.stoppoliticalcalls.org]
A non-profit fighting for the privacy of the American voter

@SJActress:

And "with" should not be capitalized in a heading.

Felicidades!

Just take up some of their time, since using the CSR/Sales people cost them money. Offer to sell the encyclopedias, Entertainer books, magazine subscriptions, girl scout cookies, ect. Also, ask them about car warantees on your Bell helicopter, Cessna, Orbiting Telecommunications Satellite.

My call volume from them has dropped since I started actively wasting their time.

@PerpetualBoredom: Contact your state AG. Mine has a form you can get online to file about solicitors that won't remove you from their list. Then the state AG sends them a threatening letter on your behalf to make them stop. And if enough people in your state complain, the state AG might even sue them, which is about all you can do to the REALLY scammy places.

@PerpetualBoredom: I get the car warranties all the time many times a week and even if you push to get taken off they still call back. I pushed to talk to someone and as soon as I said take me off the list they hung up on me.

They still keep calling and the number is blocked or when you call back it is just a busy tone.

Can't find the company online either through 800 notes.

@TCTH: I save all those numbers as various phone numbers of a fine gentleman called "Z Douche" so he appears at the bottom of my contact list. It has a silent ring. I only ever get those calls once ... that I notice. :)

It's "fiery" not "firey", btw.

We have a do not call list here in Canada and it has been a complete disaster. When you sign up for the national do not call list you get added to a huge list which companies in the buisness have to recieve and abide by the rule of not calling the people on that list or face penalties. Basically a pre opt-out.

The problem is that basically anyone can say they are a telephone marketing company and obtain the list -including scammers and dubious out of country telephone marketers. So in effect what they had when they got the list was a huge set of confirmed live telephone numbers, really a gold mine to them. Many people on the list have reported they are receiving way more telephone spam then when they were not on the list.

The websites here: [www.crtc.gc.ca]

Want a telephone spam list? Best place to go.

The minute I hear anything I perceive as robotic I hang the phone up.

They can't have a person call me, well this person does not have to listen or respond!

@nicemarmot617: 5 seconds is way to long.

Biggest chuckle in the article was:

According to Tim Searcy, CEO of the American Teleservices Association, telemarketers now have "a greater understanding of how frustrated consumers are with the use of prerecorded messages....

What, did they find a focus group that said they liked them? That is sooo Charter Cable-like, when they claimed their focus group research revealed that their subscribers liked having their web habits monitored and targeted advertising pitched at them when they browsed the web.

@Shaun Dakin: Thank you for posting this, I just registered and will be spreading the word.

Much like politicians don't participate in our typical healthcare or retirement accounts, they have exempted themselves from the restrictions created for others with the current Do Not Call Registry.

How delightful if our Congress had a taste of living on Main Street!

@nicemarmot617: 90% agree. Except the shouldn't necessarily contact me by email either. :)

@Casey Daniell: Then you must be getting legitimate business calls. I'm getting "Card Services" people who hang up instantly if they hear anything other than "Let me pay you." I doubt they're going to be much bothered by the new law, since they're fraudsters anyway.

@floraposte:

Nope, I get the auto dialer telling me that "my car warantee maybe about to expire".

@nicemarmot617: This is one reason I so love Caller ID. If a call comes in from "unknown", "unavailable", "blocked", etc. or obviously phony phone numbers like "000-000-0000" it goes straight to my answering machine. Even questionable numbers go to the answering machine. I'll pretty much only pick up on numbers or names that I recognize now.

@IphtashuFitz:

One I did get a "000-000-0000" call that was legit. It was PSE&G letting me know that, due to the holiday schedule, they'd be reading my meter at a different time. It didn't actually mean I had to do anything different, but still something that I'd like to know.

@TakingItSeriously: my husband works at night/sleeps during the day and we constantly get phone calls from banks calling for people who are neither one of us (thus disrupting his sleep, pissing him off and making him pissy the rest of the day). Our answering machine is, "You've reached T & M, NO ONE ELSE LIVES HERE so if you are calling for anyone besides T & M, STOP CALLING! Otherwise, leave a message!" We still get messages for Andre, as well as others. The other day I was home during the day and got one of those people and went off on them. It was awesome, and it's my quest.

@nicemarmot617: If anyone I know dials out from a University of Maryland line, their phone number shows up on my caller ID as 301-xxx-0000 (I can't remember the prefix for it in College Park)

After years of telemarketing, junk mail, pop-up ads, magazine salesman and spam, I just started blocking out nearly everyone I don't know or am not expecting.

If I don't recognize a caller id or it's blocked, I don't pick up. If it's important they will leave a message. I don't answer my door unless I'm expecting a delivery or something. Gmail handles the spam, of course. Adblock, Tivo, etc, etc.

I just want to live my life without the onslaught of marketers trying to get into my wallet. If I want something, and your product doesn't suck, I'll find you.

Solution:

1. Have an interenet- based phone service (vonage, cable company, etc) with really great voicemail features.

2. Make a VIP list of the people you actually want to talk to.

3. Have all non VIP calls go directly to voicemail.

4. All anonymous calls get the eteranal busy signal.

Peace and quiet at last :-)

I keep getting the car warranty calls and the ones trying to give me a free vacation. Seriously WTF, in this economy (or any state of economy, but that's beside the point) I'm supposed to believe I'm entitled to a free vacation simply because of my dazzling personality?

@nicemarmot617:

I don't either. I get a lot of them at work. I've done the opt-out at the end of calls before, but it doesn't seem to do any good. It's hard to believe that they will actually stop now. The people that do this are not going to pay attention to the rules until they start getting sued, or it starts costing them in some way.

This is also one more reason to ditch the landline and go wireless only - marketing calls to cellphones are already illegal across the board, IIRC even for politicians. Something about the potential to not only waste someone's time but their money as well at up to $.40 cents a minute.

Back in the day before national cellphone plans, I got a telemarketing call on my cellphone while I was in California, which cost me $2.97 in roaming charges - even though I didn't answer it (airtime is calculated from the moment the phone rings to the nearest minute, plus the airtime I used to dial into my voicemail box).

Yes, that did make me Very Angry. You Don't Want To Talk To Me When I'm Angry.

@Rob Weddle:

I doubt it. Warranty Helpdesk still calls my home and cell phones several times a week despite my being on the do not call list, repeatedly asking not to be contacted and filing FTC complaints. They say that since they are calling from Canada and having the calls routed through a US switchboard, they do not have to comply. I think they are calling from within the US and spoofing their caller ID.

@nicemarmot617: Forget 5 seconds - I give them until the 2nd "Hello" and then I hang up.

I work from a home office with clients around the country, so if it is valid area code I tend to pick up the call since it may be a business call. However, 9 times out of 10 it is for a timeshare or opportunity to lower my credit card interest rates. The opt-out option clearly doesn't work, however, since I invariably get the same call a couple of days later.

The one that I hate the most comes from the 727 area code (Tampa). No one is there when you answer, but they will call back within an hour since they know that it is a live phone number. If I didn't have several clients in Tampa/St. Pete I would ignore them, but that is not an option I can afford to gamble with.

@Eyebrows McGee: The ones that are calling me tend to be offshore, judging from their area code. I've always assumed that they therefore don't have to care about things like the DNC list, my AG, or any other local law or law enforcement.

@67alecto: In a similar fashion,

Me: Hello?
*unnatural pause*
Obvious recording voice: "Hello! W-"

and that's when I hang up the phone.

That is a load of ****ing bull**** by a bunch of *****s who deserve to have *****s shoved up their ***es.

Sideways.

Once again, politicians prove that they are prostitutes in the pockets of big business. Telewhoring should be opt in only: they can't call unless you give permission.

This guy echoes my feelings exactly: [www.ranting-gryphon.com]

Or, if it must be "opt out", then the phone companies should be required to give people an "asterisk option" - press the asterisk, and the telewhore receives and electric shock.

I'm not joking.

Great, what do I do when I get a call that is a blast of horrible loud noise and a recording of someone yelling at me in Spanish?

@CFinWV:
Yes, and to go with your dazzling personality should be dazzling teeth, which is why we are offering you this
"revolutionary" tooth cleaning system FREE!!
Just pay $49.95 S&H

Here in Indiana, robocalls are illegal.