I need call block. Seriously.
For the last week, my phone — which has an unlisted Virginia number and an unlisted VOIP San Jose number — has been ringing constantly with telemarketers and surveys. Four companies, calling an average of twice a day, for a week solid now. What makes it doubly galling is that my two unlisted, unpublished, unavailable numbers are also on the national Do-Not-Call list, which I always thought was a useless boondoggle.
What I really want is a spam eradication system for my telephone. Think about it: spam clutters up your email inbox, but it doesn’t make bells ring throughout your house at any time of day or night. I curse Alexander Graham Bell for this invention, this idea that anyone in the world can, for a few pennies, punch some numbers into a device and wake you up by making bells ring in your house. I’d love to see some artist create an installation where people on the street can press a button and make horns blow outside some unknown house in another town. I bet that people would press that button incessantly. Strangely, it is a comforting sign of some shred of remaining civility in our society that most people wouldn’t for a moment consider blindly calling strangers to annoy them. Conversely, it is the sign of a crumbling civilization that there are hundreds of companies who make money by doing just that.
I’ve already turned on the call restriction feature on my cell phone — only numbers stored in my address book will be let through — but I don’t have that kind of function available on my regular phone. Oh Vonage, in this day and age, how can you not have a feature as simple as call blocking? Does anyone know of a cordless telephone system that has a call blocking feature?
Here are the companies and number that have been calling me non-stop this week at all hours. Feel free to call them yourself. Often. A dozen times per day. And tell them to leave me the hell alone.
- 877-467-3277 (Sears)
- 480-752-8140 (Some political telemarketer)
- 800-383-0583 or 0118003830583 (Chase)
- 402-952-4444 (Gallup)
The phone which once was a useful device that helped change the world has now morphed into a personal interruption device. I do not want to be at some strangers beck and call (no pun intended) 24 hours a day 7 days a week. I’ll soon rid myself of my phone. It currently lives with the ringer in the off position and is used only when I want to make an outgoing call. The number will shortly be connected to a fax and all incoming calls will be directed to the fax machine. I’ll still be able to pick up the handset and place an outgoing call when needed but I will no longer accept incoming voice calls.