off-topic: phone hangups

[KRFinch at dstsystems.com]

I actually looked into getting a 976 number on a second line into my house.
That way I could just sit there and gab with the telemarketers, and take
$3.99 a minute of their money for their wasting my time.  I decided that it
was just too much trouble.

I did, however, actually get some useful information from a telemarketer
once.  I talked to the MCI guy for about 45 minutes once when I pulled out
and compared every item on my AT&T bill with the services they offered.  My
AT&T "One Rate Off-Peak" was a better deal across the board, so I stuck
with it, and now I feel a lot better about my choice in long distance
because I got to do some live comparison shopping.  The MCI guy was pretty
angry when he realized I wasn't going to buy anything, but he was the one
that encouraged me to compare services in the first place.  As a bonus, MCI
has never called me back.  As another bonus, I told AT&T that I had chose
them over MCI, and they gave me 10 hours of free long distance.

One other thing to remember:  If you get a taped telemarketing message,
write down all of the contact information you can and turn them over to the
feds.  This sort of thing is illegal and readily prosecuted.

- Kev

                                                                                                    
              
                    zscoundrel                                                                      
              
                    <zscoundrel at kc.rr.com>        To:     kclug at kclug.org                           
              
                    Sent by:                      cc:                                               
              
                    owner-kclug at marauder.i        Subject:     Re: off-topic: phone hangups         
              
                    lliana.net                                                                      
              
                                                                                                    
              
                                                                                                    
              
                    05/30/2002 04:43 PM                                                             
              
                                                                                                    
              
                                                                                                    
              

> PS - Don't waste your money on Caller ID. It's gotten
> practically useless.
>

It's pretty sad, we complain about not being able to tell who is
calling, so they charge us for caller-id.  Then they charge the
tele-marketers extra for anonymous lines, then they charge us extra to
weed out the anonymous calls. . . .

I would be willing to pay A LOT extra for the ability to cause an
electric shock to those that make unwanted calls at meal time!!!