withheld caller id

[John Dirks Jr]

I'm getting calls that come up on my caller id as "withheld". I answered one or two of them in the past and there was nobody on the other end. I just ignore them now. There is never a message left.

Do any of you get these types of calls? Where do you think they come from?

[Marc]

I've never gotten one like that. Come to think of it, I've never gotten any at all in the past 49 years. []

Marc

[Mark P]

Call centers wanting to sell you something. If you answer it and wait 10 seconds or so someone will start talking. Anymore I just say "I'm not interested, thanks for calling" and hang up. Sometimes if I'm in the mood I'll answer in the strangest voice I can manage and just talk non-sense or in gibberish, or Japanese, which I speak fairly well until they hang up on me. A few weeks ago my home phone rang, I did not recognize the # and figured it was a call center. I answered in the most ridicules strange voice I could manage and it turned out to be my mother-in-law calling from Japan, who speaks no English. My wife spent 5 minutes explaining that I had not gone off the deep end and everything was okay; it was really pretty funny.

[Erby]

It's an auto dialer from a call center. A few seconds or several before they figure they'll hang up with the person they're talking to, they hit a little button and it starts autodialing numbers until someone answers. Sometimes they get ahead of themselves. Hang in there for several seconds and someone will come on and try to sell you something.

Or you can just hang up.

I answer because occassionally it'll be a person who just doesn't like they're number going out and they want an inspection.

I then hang up (with "I'm not interested, thank you.) on those who want to sell me something and just hang up if there's nothing but dead air.

You can set your phone to with hold the number too! if you want.

-

[Tom Raymond]

You can register your cell phone with the do not call registry and they will stop. All of my numbers are registered.

Tom

[Scottpat]

I have one vendor I think it is Granite Construction that shows up as Caller ID Withheld or Unknown or something like that. I answer all calls regardless of the ID, if I don't like or want the call I just hangup.

I have discovered that with many cell phones, you have to set the phone to show your phone number when you call someone. For the longest time my wife's phone would show up as Caller ID Withheld and we discovered that we had to turn this feature on so the number would be shown.

Really not a big deal in the grand scheme of things.

[gtblum]

Then, there's the "we can lower your credit card rate" people. I try to keep them on the phone as long as I can.

Wasting their time, is about the only way I can think of getting back at them. These calls usually end when I ask how they feel about being jerked around and lied to.

Hanging up on them dosen't bother them. It just gives them time to call your grandmother.

I'd rather piss them off, ruin part of their day, and maybe save another trusting elder from being scammed. At least for that day.

[Nolan Kienitz]

One approach I've been using this past year in dealing with the various soliciting calls is:

I quickly turn the call around and ask them information about the property they are buying so I can provide them with a fee for my inspection.

It catches the caller off guard and I continue indicating that I run an inspection business and I'm sure that they were calling me to book an inspection on a property they are buying. So can you tell me about the property, address, etc., etc.?

In most cases they are virtually speechless.

I continue to push about them calling for an inspection and if indeed they are not then we have nothing further to discuss.

Have a great day!

It's actually kind of fun to catch 'em off guard like that.

[Scottpat]

We have a radio station here WSIX The Big 98; the afternoon DJ's called Big D and Bubba have a syndicated show and they make a game when telemarketers call their back line or any of their 14 phone lines. They have it down to an art at keeping the callers on the phone.

[Tom Raymond]

Nolan, that sounds like a hell of a lot of fun. I wish I'd thought of it.

Tom