Text 3748, 99 rader
Skriven 2012-09-10 08:16:19 av mark lewis (1:3634/12.0)
   Kommentar till text 3734 av Robert Bashe (2:2448/44)
Ärende: Unlisted phone numbers
==============================
RB>> My God, Mark - have things become that bad in the States in the
RB>> meantime?

ml> meantime?? what ever are you talking about? this has been quite common
ml> place since the 60's AFAIK...

 RB> Maybe the 1970's, but certainly not in the 1960s. Remember, I lived
 RB> in the States then.

yeah... and we had private unlisted numbers then... at least one or two that
i'm aware of before we went to Turkey with the USNavy... at least one when we
came back and before going to Japan... and then at least one more before 1970
after we came back from Japan and drove cross-country to the east coast but i
don't remember if that was on base housing before our house was ready or if it
was the first number we had in our house...

RB>> I really am shocked. I've been gone a long time, but didn't realize
RB>> the situation had become so difficult.

ml> it isn't difficult and never has been... these days, 98% of the calls
ml> that come to our published line are fekin' political, survey, or cold
ml> calls...

 RB> As I mentioned, unsolicited calls are illegal in Germany. 

so that sounds like i can't just look up your number and give you a ring out of
the blue and having never done it before or even asked...

 RB> When the origin phone number has been suppressed, the penalty is 
 RB> greater (the caller will not only be fined and warned, but will 
 RB> lose his phone connection as well) - but of course it's also more 
 RB> difficult to get the details of who's calling to be able to file a 
 RB> complaint.

no caller-id? or is that where it is suppressed? we can easily file complaints
over here and we likely never do know who they are filed against... all we need
to do is hit something like *86 or some such and the call is automatically
logged with the telco... then within 24 hours we need to call the telco and
confirm that we did file the report... after that, it is out of our hands and
into the courts...

we had one, one time, that would call two or three, maybe even four, times a
day and there'd be no one there when we answered... nothing at all... no
humm... no click... absolutely dead silence... finally i dug into the phone
book for the codes or called the operator to ask about reporting... we started
coding those calls every time they happened... at some point, we were told that
the telco needed our permission to tap in elsewhere in the CO on our line and
we gave it... after a few more days of calls like these, during one of our
report confirmation calls we were told that the telco knew who the party was
but they were not going to press harrassment charges against them... they would
not tell us who they were, either... but it didn't take long to finally figure
out that it was MCI making one of those promotional cold calling drives trying
to  bring in new customers to their services... their call center was making
the calls automatedly and then after we answered, the system was supposed to
connect us with a representative... all of this was supposed to appear like
that rep had called us but they obviously didn't have enough representatives...
so anyway, there were not any representatives available to handle us and the
system silently hung up... no relays or such so no clicks when they hung up...
there's been newer stuff added to their coding so that when a representative is
not available, they can do the on-hold thing as if you called them... needless
to say that all of these get reported when we think about it... reporting them
needs to be done as soon as you terminate that call... just pick the phone back
up and hit the code and then confirm it within 24 hours...

 RB> For the extra-cautious, there are systems that will automatically
 RB> reject any calls where the origin phone number is suppressed. But
 RB> normally they aren't required.

if i'm reading this correctly, that's built into our codes... just like setting
call-forwarding and call-blocking, i think this is called call-rejecting...

ml> ...we don't care and don't want that stuff... we even have one
ml> of those devices that makes the "beep beep beep" tones which tells
ml> those computerized dialers that the number is not in service...

 RB> And anyone using a "computerized dialer" for unsolicited calls
 RB> might even get more than a fine. Such stuff is unknown here.

it was unknown over here until it got quite flagrant... there might be some use
of it over there but it is used in a different manner than here... we have
schools using them to send important notices to parents and you can sign up for
the weather groups of your favorite TV station to notify you of bad or severe
weather in your area... churches also use them to notify folks of important
notices or gatherings or cancellations...

ml> this is personal choice and this is how we feel about it and deal with
ml> it... everyone else is quite free to have their number(s) published
ml> all over the place where ever they (don't) want it published...

 RB> I think the real reason behind the problem is the legal system.
 RB> Privacy is a big issue here, and people don't take things such as
 RB> you describe without filing a complaint with the telecommunication
 RB> regulatory agency.

that is possible... so many people don't care until it is much too late :/

)\/(ark

 * Origin:  (1:3634/12)