What the h**l?

Question

i have my house phone set up to annoymous call blocking but some how people with unknown numbers and private names keep getting through! the sorry a$$e$ wait until my answering machine rings 4 times and then they wait until it starts recording and then they hang up. i know the unknown callers may be bill collectors and i have a pretty good idea who the person is with the blocked name too but how is this person getting through with the block on the phone? optimum voice said they can't do anything about "blocked name". how could this be?

Answer 1

The feature you're talking about will only block calls that would normally come over on the caller ID with the word 'ANONYMOUS' and no phone number. We got the same feature, thinking it would eliminate or at least drastically reduce the number of sales calls we get. When they kept coming, my husband called AT&T and asked why we were still getting all these calls, and he was told that "anonymous" only  means people who have intentionally made their name/number anonymous for the one call...like they dial * and some number and then when they dial your number, they come up as anonymous. But that's the ONLY thing it blocks. And even then they can get through if they want to. When the "anonymous" caller calls, they will get a recording saying that you have anonymous call blocker, and if they want to reach you they can press "1" (or whatever number). They are then asked to speak their name, which is recorded. Your number is dialed by the phone company, and when you pick up you will hear a recording saying that an anonymous caller...and then the recording of the person saying their name...is trying to reach you. You then have the option of pressing a number to accept the call or another number to basically hang up on them.

I wouldn't worry about it. It doesn't sound like a bill collector to me, or they would leave a message. Chances are it's just sales calls. They are on an automatic dialer which will call 3-4 numbers at the same time. When one of the 3-4 numbers picks up, the automatic dialer drops the other 2-3 calls. My best friend has worked in telemarketing for years and told me about this technology when it came out about 15 years ago.

If you think you know who the blocked name is, and you know they are calling from a land line, you can block that one number. Call your phone company and find out how you can do this. You may have to pay an extra monthly fee to get that feature, but if you think it will stop the calls, it might be worth it. Keep in mind however, that you may or may not be able to block the number if it's a cell phone. I don't know what determines what cell numbers can or cannot be blocked, but our AT&T call blocker instructions says we can block up to 5 numbers (not that many if you're trying to stop the sales calls) and only SOME cell phone numbers. Apparently the sales companies have gotten wise to this, as about 50% of the sales calls we are getting now say "cellular call" and the phone number. If it's not an area code we recognize, we let it go to voice mail, and they always hang up.

I know it's frustrating. Hope it works out for you.

Answer 2

Ring the Phone company. Say you want it Stopped.

Answer 3

I'm not sure but there is something I do to avoid the annoying rings. I turn my ringer off and check my voicemail a couple of times a day. If it's someone important, they'll usually leave a message. I suggest calling your phone service provider and asking if anything else can be done. If nothing changes and you are paying extra for this feature, I would definitely ask for a refund. Do this or change your number to an unlisted one. Maybe that would help???