Telephone protocol

[cambeul41]

I am retired and gimpy and am too often at home when junk phone calls come in — and I am not fond of talking on the phone much less to salesmen. If it is a robocall, I put down the phone and let the recording do its thing to increase their phone bill. If it is not immediately identifiable as a robocall, I answer with a greeting such as "Good morning" rather than "Hello."

Rather often, "Good morning" gets no response other another "Hello."

It just occurred to me that there may be no live person on the other end until their machine hears a"Hello" from my end. In other words, a variation of a robocall. Does that sound like a reasonable guess? How do handle robocalls?

[RoadKingLarry]

I have an old fashioned answering machine. Caller ID comes up on the TV if it is on. If I don't recognize the number it goes to the answering machine. If they leave a message and I want to talk to them I call back.

[wmenorr67]

Answering machine on the home phone.  If they leave a message and it is someone I want to talk to I will call them back.  Anyone that is important enough to me has my cell number.

[vaskidmark]

I have some sort of digital answering machine as part of my wireless home phone.  The whole system is set to "silent operation" - no ringer.  I think it holds 50 messages and ten rolls the oldest one out to accept the newest.   All my junk calls come in on that number, and I use that phone to call commercial establishments so they can capture my caller ID, then call me to be ignored.  I never-ever check messages on that system.

I have a cell phone.  If I want you to call me I have given you that number and entered you in my contact list so I can see who is calling.  (I do have a few numbers of folks who somehow found my cell phone - they are entered in the contact list as "Ignore #_" and then the caller/company name.

When I call a business or government office I expect the phone to be answered using the basic formula of "Good (time of day).  Name of company/government agency.  This is (name of person.  How may i help you/direct your call?"  Often I get a "Hello", or even worse "Who is this?"  Depending on just how badly I want to transact business with the place I am calling I will either ask for customer service right then, and lay into them, or call back and lay into them.

stay safe.

PS - does anybody need my home number?

[K Frame]

"It just occurred to me that there may be no live person on the other end until their machine hears a"Hello" from my end. In other words, a variation of a robocall. Does that sound like a reasonable guess? How do handle robocalls?"

That's exactly how it works. Many large telemarketers have machines or computers that call multiple numbers, and when they get an active voice on one line, it drops the others.

I have an answering machine. It answers all of the calls to my house phone. My cell phone is my real phone nowdays.

[Hawkmoon]

It just occurred to me that there may be no live person on the other end until their machine hears a"Hello" from my end. In other words, a variation of a robocall. Does that sound like a reasonable guess? How do handle robocalls?

I think most cold telemarketing calls are robo-dialed. The phone banks have machines endlessly dialing numbers. I don't know if they dial at random or from a list, but they are automated. The system is set up to switch you to an "agent" (sales drone) when you pick up and it hears a voice.

I just tell the drone that my number is on the state and national do not call list and not to bother me again.

[RocketMan]

I get a fair number of robo-calls where the robot picks up on my "hello" too slowly.  After the second "hello", or as soon as I am sure it's a robo-call, I hang up.
Wifey and I only use cell phones.  We have a phone line as part of our cable package, but we don't use it, there is no phone actually connected to it.  It leads to some amusing speculation when the incoming call notification comes up on the TV screen.  We know they are telemarketers as we have not given that number out to anyone.  Heck, we don't even know what it is.

[Monkeyleg]

I usually don't pick up if I don't recognize the number, or if the person's name isn't displayed from my call list. Lately I've taken to just setting the phone on the desk. The telemarketers start talking non-stop right out of the gate, so they don't realize that nobody is responding until they've gone through the entire spiel.

The ones that really bug me aren't telemarketing, or at least I think not. I think they're Skype calls, and there's nobody on the line. I get them at all hours of the day. I turn my cell phone off at bedtime. If I forget, I'll get one of these calls at 3 or 4 am.

[Brad Johnson]

Robo calls have voice recognition capability but don't differentiat between words/phrases (hello vs good morning).  Any vocalization triggers it.

I'm in the "answering machine for home phone calls" camp.  I keep my home phone listed so people can actually find me.  No active ringers on that line, and the answering machine message gives callers my cell number.  It also has a tag line instructing solicitors to remove me from their list.

The setup handily weeds out solicitation calls while maintaining a reasonable degree of findability for folks wanting my number.  Also comes in handy for online account registration.  The organization gets a real way to contact me if a human calls, but effectively filters out robocalls.

Brad

[RocketMan]

I had lots of fun with my old company cell phone in Oregon.  It was the phone I was assigned to provide after-hours engineering support for the facility. Had the thing for ten years.
Toward the end of that ten year stretch, some Chinese college student fraudster had given out that phone's number as his own.  I was getting beaucoup calls from colleges all over the country, plus calls from various businesses and what might have been collection agencies looking for this Chinese person.  Not amusing when the calls would come it at zero-dark-thirty.

And then there were the calls on that phone from Windows Support about the computer I was using.  The computer that I was using as I was walking down the aisle of the plane I was on that had just cozied up to the boarding gate at the airport we had just landed at.  Amusing.