Quatloos!

Lately I've been getting a bunch of automated phone calls from a mortgage/debt collection company, looking for some person who isn't me.

If I answer the call or call the number back, there's no way to do anything without pressing 1 to confirm that I'm the person they're looking for. That seemed a bit seedy, so I Googled the company name, and called the main customer service number. I couldn't get past the first voicemail screen without giving them my SSN. I called a third customer service number, finally got a person on the phone, and they were willing to do was refer me to the second number.

I can't help but wonder if this was some kind of scam. What kind of mortgage company can't pay a human being $10 an hour to call people? Especially when they're trying to collect past due accounts? What kind of company would demand that a caller enter their entire SSN when dialing a service number not specifically designed for existing customers, and at a point in the menu where it's not appropriate anyway?

I hate to sound all tinfoil-hat about this, but the 419ers and other scammers are awfully creative. You certainly couldn't put this kind of thing past them.

you know, I have been getting "800" calls and don't answer them because I am not being dunned. Anyway, if they ring long enough to key the answering machine, a voice informs me that all operators are busy and I need to hold. Boy it's annoying and sounds as if computers are making the decisions...)

Is the future now?

texino wrote:you know, I have been getting "800" calls and don't answer them because I am not being dunned. Anyway, if they ring long enough to key the answering machine, a voice informs me that all operators are busy and I need to hold.

I'll tell you what that is. Big outbound call centers (i.e., telemarketers) discovered that it was inefficient to have their $8-an-hour employees wasting precious seconds on busy signals, unanswered calls, answering machines, and whatnot.

So now they have a system where computers mass-dial phone numbers. They only put an employee on the phone when the call is answered. If the call is answered, and all the human employees are occupied, you'll be put on hold until one is free.

In other words, they have a machine call you and then put on hold so you can hear their sales pitch. Isn't telemarketing a great industry?

Try this and see if it will get you off their list.

Google "SIT tone" and download a WAV or MP3 file of the tone. It's that error beep you hear on the phone with three different tones.

Put these beeps on your answering machine or voicemail outgoing message before you record your message.

From what I've read, the automated dialing systems is supposed to listen for this tone and delete your number if it hears it.

I always keep my answering machine on at home. A few weeks ago, one of these machines called. A recorded voice stated: We are trying to reach the residence of [insert name] - not my name of course, and no one I had ever heard of. The recording did specifically state that it was a debt collection activity. I did not answer the phone. At one point, the recording said something like, "Press 1 if you are [insert name]. Press 2 if you are not [insert name]. If you continue to listen to this message, you are agreeing that you are [insert name]."

I giggled a bit at that. Now machines are calling me at my residence and trying to dictate the rules to me about what unsolicited phone messages I can listen to.

To any "machines" out there that may be reading this, please note:

I am not [name of the guy you were looking for]. However, if I choose to listen to your recorded message all the way through, with or without pushing any buttons, I will do so. I am not required to follow your instructions. I will listen to your phone calls without "complying" with your rules if I so desire, and there is nothing that legally commits me in any way when I do that. If you don't like it, tough. I make the rules, here. "You no pay-ah dee phone bill, you no make-uh dee rules," get it?

TheSaint wrote:

texino wrote:you know, I have been getting "800" calls and don't answer them because I am not being dunned. Anyway, if they ring long enough to key the answering machine, a voice informs me that all operators are busy and I need to hold.

I'll tell you what that is. Big outbound call centers (i.e., telemarketers) discovered that it was inefficient to have their $8-an-hour employees wasting precious seconds on busy signals, unanswered calls, answering machines, and whatnot.

So now they have a system where computers mass-dial phone numbers. They only put an employee on the phone when the call is answered. If the call is answered, and all the human employees are occupied, you'll be put on hold until one is free.

In other words, they have a machine call you and then put on hold so you can hear their sales pitch. Isn't telemarketing a great industry?

That tactic is just dumber than a box of rocks.

Similar situation: A few years ago I answered the phone at work, and THE FIRST THING OUT OF THE BOX was a recorded message from an unknown party that LITERALLY said SOMETHING VERY CLOSE TO: "We're too busy to talk with you right now, but please hold for an important message coming shortly...."

In "telemarketing" the "marketing" portion of the term is obviously used very loosely. How many people in a place of business are really going to answer a phone call from an unknown caller and then wait on hold after being told RIGHT UP FRONT, that the UNKNOWN people behind the machine are too busy right now to talk -- even though they're the ones who called you????

And anyone who actually stays on hold for something like that is either setting himself/herself up to be taken or, perhaps, has some time to waste and is intending to hurl some well-deserved abuse at whoever finally answers the phone.

I suspect that many people work in these kinds of jobs because they must be desperate. They must catch a lot of abuse from the people they call. I feel very little sympathy, however.

I feel no sympathy for a person who sets up a system like that. Find some meaningful way to earn a living..