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| Author |
Message |
| 25 new of 365 responses total. |
jerryr
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response 41 of 365:
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Sep 30 14:48 UTC 2000 |
i only answer calls i can identify. "unavailable" calls are handled by my
answer machine. invariably they are computer generated.
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twinkie
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response 42 of 365:
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Sep 30 19:29 UTC 2000 |
Same here, except I took it a step further and got Privacy Manager.
Except for calls coming from my office, or my mom's office, there aren't any
calls I get from unidentified numbers. So when Privacy Manager kicks in, if
it's not a recording of my mom cursing Privacy Manager, I deny the call.
Interestingly enough, Ameritech always seems to get through, when they're
trying to sell me something. The CID comes over as AMERITECH with a phone
number. I always get caught, making sure there isn't any sort of problem. And
every damn time, it's been someone trying to sell me a RangeMax phone.
(Despite the fact that I've already purchased one from them)
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jerryr
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response 43 of 365:
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Oct 1 01:01 UTC 2000 |
that was the rap on privacy manager. i believe if you ask they will take you
off their call list.
what does someone hear when they call you?
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twinkie
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response 44 of 365:
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Oct 1 09:31 UTC 2000 |
<ameritech jingle> The number you are calling has Privacy Manager, a caller
ID service. And your number is not identified. At the tone, say your name,
or the name of the company you represent, and your call will be completed.
<beep>
From there, my phone will ring, and CallerID will say "privacy manager". When
I pick up the phone, it says "Ameritech Privacy Manager. To continue, press
1." (so, I press 1) "You have an incoming call from <recorded name>. To accept
the call, press 1. To deny the call, press 2. To play a sales call refusal,
press 3." The whole time this is happening, the caller hears "Still trying."
every 15 seconds.
If I press 1, the call (obviously) goes through after both parties hear "now
connecting". If I press 2, the caller hears "The number you are calling is
not available. Please try your call later." If I press 3, the caller hears
"This number does not accept sales calls. Please add this number to your 'do
not call' list"
Of course, that's not evil enough for me.
If you have a blocked number, and try to call me, you get the whole Privacy
Manager deal...but if I'm not home, or if I choose not to answer the phone,
you'll get dumped in to voicemail. So...after dealing with Privacy Manager,
it'll say "now connecting to a voice answering system". Then you get "The
number you have reached 2-4-m-y-n-u-m-b-e-r is not available. To leave a
message for (recorded) Kevin Nicholls, press 1. To leave a message for
(recording of my girlfriend's voice), press 2. To leave a message for
2-4-m-y-n-u-m-b-e-r, press 3, or wait for the tone."
Now, assuiming you have patience of steel, and pressed 1, you still have to
hear "Hi, this is Kevin, and you've reached my voicemail. Please leave a brief
message, including your name, phone number, and purpose of your call -- and
I'll get back to you."
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keesan
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response 45 of 365:
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Oct 1 10:34 UTC 2000 |
This setup would presumably still record computer-generated sales pitches.
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jerryr
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response 46 of 365:
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Oct 1 11:46 UTC 2000 |
so, do you get many messages?
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keesan
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response 47 of 365:
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Oct 1 15:32 UTC 2000 |
Only two of these in the past two weeks. They generate random numbers, as
do the auto glass companies, which don't leave messages.
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scg
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response 48 of 365:
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Oct 1 18:34 UTC 2000 |
I'm assuming #46 was a reply to twinkie, not keesan.
The way I look at the privacy manager stuff, it's easier to answer an
unidentified call (or let it go to the answering machine) and tell the sales
critter, if that's who it is, to go away, then to go through a menu system
to get the phone system to tell the sales critter to go away. I'd be far more
interested in it if it kept the sales critter from bothering me in the first
place, but given that some people I do want to talk to come in as "out of
area," that's not a good piece of information to key that blocking from.
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twinkie
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response 49 of 365:
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Oct 1 22:43 UTC 2000 |
re: 45 -- I suppose it could, but the computer would have to know to wait
almost two munites before leaving a message.
re: 46 -- From people who have to go through Privacy Manager? No, not really.
Unless they're legitimate calls for me.
re: 48 -- I forgot to mention that you can give friends/family/work a PIN to
bypass Privacy Manager.
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russ
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response 50 of 365:
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Oct 1 23:08 UTC 2000 |
Ah, "Privacy Manager". This is another scam perpetrated by the
phone companies:
- They still get to allow advertisers to connect to the phone
network with PBX's that do not transmit CLID information,
making the CLID for which their customers are paying useless.
- Because of the previous omission, the phone companies get to
soak some of their CLID subscribers for Yet Another Fee.
If this had been done right, the CLID/ANI information format would
include an "advertising/sales" flag which could be checked either at
the switch or at the subscriber, and the calls dropped. This would
cost nothing, and get rid of the majority of the nuisance calls.
Instead, we got a system set up to screw the public.
This is what we get for letting PHONE COMPANIES design the protocol.
The recent example of the Internet standards committee rejecting demands
by the FBI et al. to incorporate wiretapping features in the basic
workings of the Internet is a much better example.
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drew
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response 51 of 365:
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Oct 2 01:52 UTC 2000 |
Does anybody actually buy anything from these companies on account of the
telemarketing? I can't imagine this sort of thing endearing a company to
anyone enough to make them willing to do business with it.
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n8nxf
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response 52 of 365:
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Oct 2 13:08 UTC 2000 |
No, never.
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jerryr
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response 53 of 365:
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Oct 2 13:51 UTC 2000 |
the markets they hope to mine are the incredibly lonley and confused,
senior citizens, the under-informed young and the terminally gullible.
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keesan
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response 54 of 365:
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Oct 2 15:09 UTC 2000 |
A friend's mother just remortgaged her house to pay off credit card loans she
had taken out to purchase magazine subscriptions that she thought she had to
purchase in order to be eligible for a prize drawing. Her house is full of
plastic trinkets she has 'won'. Lots of gullible people around.
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danr
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response 55 of 365:
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Oct 2 15:54 UTC 2000 |
Instead of a sucker being born every minute, we now have suckers being born
every nanosecond.
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jep
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response 56 of 365:
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Oct 2 16:23 UTC 2000 |
I never buy anything from a telemarketer. In fact, I never listen to
their spiel. If I can detect the 1-3 second delay from an automatic
dialer system, I hang up before I talk to the telemarketer at all.
Other than that, I rudely dismiss them as soon as I detect what they're
calling about. That phone is my phone, it is not a device intended for
telemarketers. I don't want any insurance, vinyl siding, gadgets from
Ronco, movies or CDs, or to donate money to the "police benevolent
fund". I don't want to change phone plans. If I want anything from a
company, I will call one, or more likely visit one, and I will get it.
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keesan
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response 57 of 365:
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Oct 2 16:32 UTC 2000 |
Someone rang my doorbell recently who was much harder to get rid of. First
she asked if I wanted to help disadvantaged youth from Chicago. I asked her
to get to the point. She would not. Finally she showed me some list of
magazines. I said I don't read magazines. She said I did not have to read
magazines, just help her get points. I said I was not buying anything but if
she wanted money she could probably find yardwork this time of year. She said
she was from Chicago and could not work here........ I left. She left.
It is much easier to get rid of people on the phone - just tell them you never
give money to anyone who calls on the phone.
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johnnie
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response 58 of 365:
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Oct 2 17:17 UTC 2000 |
That there is a whole other nasty scam. These kids, often underaged or
street kids or otherwise vulnerable, are rounded up with the promise of
easy money and adventure, driven far from home for weeks and months at a
time, barely fed, sleep wall-to-wall in cheap hotel rooms, used as
practically slave labor to "sell magazines" or "raise funds for (fill
in blank)".
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jerryr
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response 59 of 365:
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Oct 2 20:07 UTC 2000 |
i always ask those kids if they want to call their parents. i attempt to hand
them a cordless phone. they usually don't. then i ask to see their license
to sell door-to-door (one is required in ypsi.) if they cannot produce one
i tell them that i am a neighborhood watch captain and i am calling the police
to report them. and i do.
john, if you have the time, the next time you get a call from a fundraiser
for a police association, ask the caller if they are a sworn police
officer. then, stand by while they sputter that they are not. they are
professionals in a boiler room operation. it's fun.
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keesan
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response 60 of 365:
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Oct 2 21:14 UTC 2000 |
We sometimes get boys from Detroit trying to sell candy. I tell them that
we never buy candy. They don't want to work either. Would someone like to
start a new short answer item as this one has been waylaid?
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beeswing
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response 61 of 365:
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Oct 2 21:27 UTC 2000 |
I know a guy who worked as a telemarketer for a short time. He had all
kinds of stories. He speaks Japanese, and one night he was assigned to
call places in Miami. Oddly enough, he gets ahold of a guy who is from
Japan and has just moved to the US. My friend begins speaking to him in
Japanese. They ended up chatting for a few minutes until my friend
realizes that the guy thinks he is calling from Miami. The Japanese guy
thought he had someone to finally hang out with. my friend felt
horrible and quit shortly thereafter.
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swa
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response 62 of 365:
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Oct 3 05:08 UTC 2000 |
Short question: anyone know anything about dream psychology?
Specifically, what are teeth supposed to symbolize? I had two very odd
dreams last week involving teeth. In one, all my teeth were falling out
because I was living in Victorian times. (I should mention that the area
where I live has a lot of Victorian houses. In the dream, the houses
were inhabited by actual Victorian people, traveling in horse-drawn
carriages, and my teeth fell out in rebellion against a lack of modern
dentistry.) In the other dream, I had to get braces again, even though I
went through the whole orthodontia route in junior high. Here I was
riding in a car rather than a carriage, though.
So, what does this mean? (Other than the fact that I'm *nuts*, that
is...) Aren't teeth supposed to symbolize something-or-other?
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bdh3
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response 63 of 365:
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Oct 3 05:53 UTC 2000 |
You are changing your point of view about a significant other and are
ambivalent about it. Teeth are defensive and thus losing your teeth
means you are more accepting of, but on the other hand, the
'orthodontia' is an artificial modern building up of the defenses thus
you are not sure of your 'mileu' accepting of said.
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carson
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response 64 of 365:
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Oct 3 06:02 UTC 2000 |
(Freud said dreaming about teeth falling out meant the dreamer was
feeling guilty about masturbation. Freud was overcredited anyway, so I'm
sure that piece of information isn't useful in the slightest.)
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bdh3
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response 65 of 365:
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Oct 3 07:46 UTC 2000 |
re#64: I am so sure that is not the case above. I mean come on. She is
not doing a bit about rubbing her buzzer, assuming the above is a she.
She is clearly not doing a bit about 'trains and tunnels'.
And now that you mention it where did Freud say what you claim? I have
most if not all his writings somewhere in my library? Cite!
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