SPOILIN’ THE BROTH
Neighbor Grover sez if all the world’s a stage, where is the audience sitting?
Boy, that “no-call list” advocated a few years ago was a real success, right?
That’s a joke.
Isn’t it fun getting all those robocalls that have hit your land lines for years and are now also prolific on your cell?
You’re enjoying a sit-down meal and here one comes. If you’re ever in position to take a nap, one will surely come. The better the book you’re reading or TV program you’re watching, the more they come.
There are far more than enough fund-raising calls (some ligitimate, some not) to keep us on our toes, but add in all the “robocalls” wanting to sell you something or to extract some information and it’s maddening.
No wonder nobody answers their phone any more. We wait and see if we recognize the number, or at least the area code and prefix, but even that is no longer reliable.
These intrusion on our privacy are beyond annoying and the phone companies don’t seem to want to do much about them.
AT&T, whose cell service in our small town is virtually non-existent and its land line service frequently problematic (my opinion), says there’s not much it can do about robocalls. And its web site call-block features are not always successful.
Verizon has said it fears “unintended consequence” of blocking robocalls, such as blocking emergency providers.
It’s all sorta’ like all the junk mail we receive. We call it “junk,” but the postal service calls it “job security.”
According to an article I read the other day, the phone companies have responded recently to provide tools for fewer phone intrusions. Here are a few steps they suggest:
• Join EndRoboCalls.org.
• File a complaint with phone companies. Written letters have less chance of getting lost (or deleted).
• If you have an Internet bundle, sign up for NoMo-Robo.com , a free service that blocks most robocalls immediately.
• Sign up for the national and Texas “do-not-call” lists. You can find them on the Internet. Maybe they’ve improved.
• Hang up on robocalls. Pushing buttons to try and talk to a real person only brings more.
• Don’t trust caller IDdon’t answer.
• Never share any information with phone bandits. Hang up.
And if none of this works, quick-kick on third down, unplug the phones and pop a cold one.
—bc—
For you grammar junkies:
• “i” before “e” except when your foreign neighbor Keith received eight counterfeit beige sleighs from feisty caffeinated weightlifters.
• The past, present and future walk into a bar It was tense.
• Hyphenated. Non-hyphenated. How ironic.
• I’m as useless as the “g” in lasagna.
- Log in or Subscribe to post comments.