[pianotech] Seeking Off Topic Advise

[Rob & Helen Goodale]

 >>OFF TOPIC>>
Seeking off topic advice:

Fellow piano techers-

We have been absolutely smothered in telephone solicitation calls to the 
extreme.  At present the phone rings at least once an hour, sometimes 
much more, and there is no end in sight.  We signed up on the infamous 
government "Do Not Call List" quite some time ago and it does little to 
improve he situation.  My guess is that there are so many violators that 
it is overwhelming the capacity to police it.  If it were actually doing 
what it was intended to do there would be regular stories in the news 
about boiler room phone banks being raided and massive fines being 
collected.  I don't recall hearing that happening for a long time.  In 
part this surprises me because it seems like collecting millions in 
fines would be a great source of government revenue.  On the other hand 
it may cost more to police it and prosecute then it would collect.  Just 
a guess, I don't know.  The law exempts political groups, charities, and 
municipal groups so there is no remedy there.

The phone company offers a service that will block anonymous calls, 
(calls in which the number ID has been blocked).  You have to pay extra 
for this which we did and the phone keeps ringing.  We didn't subscribe 
to caller ID so I added that and then ran out and bought a caller ID 
box.  Guess what- most of the incoming calls are from toll-free 
numbers.  1-800, 1-888, and so on.  Apparently the phone company, 
(Embarq), can not block these numbers, only the anonymous numbers.  
Occasionally a number comes up from out of state, for example one 
yesterday from Wyoming.  No, we don't know anyone in Wyoming.  You can 
use what is called "selective blocking", meaning that you can program 
the phone to reject whatever numbers you tell it to, but the solicitors 
know this and continually use different numbers.  Any attempt to block a 
number will only result in their using another.  So the phone keeps 
ringing, far more then we get normal calls.  They start at around 7:00 
am, reduce in frequency by about 8:00 pm, and stop all together by 
around 10:00.  Then it starts over the next day.  We don't even answer 
the phone anymore, we just let it go to voice mail.  If no one answers 
the solicitors don't leave a message they just automatically hang up, 
but that doesn't stop the phone from ringing all day.  Most of the time 
these calls are made by computer random-dialer bots.

Okay, so "Do not call" is basically useless, Embarq is limited in what 
they can offer, and the phone keeps ringing.  The tempting solution is 
to change our number but I'm afraid sooner or later they will figure 
that out and it will start over again.  That would be costly, a pain in 
the butt, there are no guarantees it won't start up again, and it isn't 
fair to us anyway.  There should be a way to give us power over this.  
Sooooooooo.....    Is there anyone else on this list who has experienced 
this problem and if so what was your solution?  I think there are 
external devices that can be connected to your line and programmed to 
block numbers but I haven't heard any reports on if they work or which 
brand/model is best.  Has anyone tried this?

PLEASE: Useful information only, I don't have time to read a string of 
speculations or stories about how your great uncle's neighbor got 
scammed from a solicitation call.  I need to work the problem and fix it.

Thanks


Rob Goodale, RPT
Las Vegas, NV