off-topic: phone hangups

[Mike Coleman]

"I am Spartacus" <spartacus at home.aafp.org> writes:
> i know this is really off-topic, but i want to see if there are others in the
> kansas city area experiencing the same problem that i am.  about 6 months ago
> i started receiving a couple of calls just about every day from what i believe
> are automated dialers of some sort.  when i picked up the phone and said
> hello, there was a brief 1-second pause (give or take) and then a click and
> the line goes dead.

Some telemarketers use some sort of predialing equipment, which wardials
numbers and then, as each one is answered, hands each call off to a waiting
call center employee.  The catch is that since the hit rate and time it takes
for people to answer their phones varies, sometimes when you answer the phone,
there's no one free at the call center to get the call.  In that case, you get
a dead line.

Probably the parameters on that gizmo are adjustable.  One can just imagine
them making that calculation.  ("Let's see, if I set it conservatively, that's
my employees' time being wasted (bad for me), but if I set it aggressively,
that's a bunch of people I don't know whose time is being wasted (bad for
them).  Decisions, decisions...")

That's what I think is going on, anyway.

If the phone company someday decides they care what you want, they might give
you an economical 976-type option, where telemarketers have to pay to call you
(Heinlein-style).  Don't hold your breath...

Barring that, I like the other poster's advice ("Please take me off your
list.").

Mike