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Frank Kemp was working on his computer when his cellphone let out the sound of Mario — from Super Mario Bros. — collecting a coin. That signaled he had a new voice mail message, yet his phone had never rung.
"At first, I thought I was crazy," said Mr. Kemp, a video editor in Dover, Del. "When I checked my voice mail, it made me really angry. It was literally a telemarketing voice mail to try to sell telemarketing systems."
Mr. Kemp had just experienced a technology gaining traction called ringless voice mail, the latest attempt by telemarketers and debt collectors to reach the masses. The calls are quietly deposited through a back door, directly into a voice mail box — to the surprise and (presumably) irritation of the recipient, who cannot do anything to block them.
Regulators are considering whether to ban these messages. They have been hearing from ringless voice mail providers and pro-business groups, which argue that these messages should not qualify as calls and, therefore, should be exempt from consumer protection laws that ban similar types of telephone marketing.
But consumer advocates, technology experts, people who have been inundated with these calls and the lawyers representing them say such an exemption would open the floodgates. Consumers' voice mail boxes would be clogged with automated messages, they say, making it challenging to unearth important calls, whether they are from an elderly mother's nursing home or a child's school.
-- submitted from IRC
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday June 06 2017, @12:11PM (5 children)
Yeah, landline was dropped about 10 years ago, so we're cell only. Used to be the opposite, land full-o-junk and cell was relatively quiet. I remember in 2005 threatening one for calling my cell phone and that shut them up where nothing else had before. Not so much, anymore.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Tuesday June 06 2017, @03:34PM (4 children)
I didn't get a cellphone til 2011 (and I still don't drag it everywhere like most folks do) but yeah, even in this relatively short span ... the junk calls accelerated about 2 years ago. Suspect Verizon is filtering known bad numbers as I'll get spasms, then nothing for a long time. (I'd block them myself, but my $12 retard phone lacks the feature.)
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday June 06 2017, @04:32PM (3 children)
Be tempted by the dark side: check out GoogleFi with their $199 Nexus5x, $0.01/MB pay for usage data, and all the privacy invasion you can stand to configure.
Verizon marketing acts like they are staffed by convicted rapists.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Tuesday June 06 2017, @06:43PM (2 children)
Last time I bought a Real Phone, Virgin Mobile basically hijacked my bought-and-paid-for hardware. (Original provider bought by Virgin, and my phone's ID is lost in a crack somewhere so I can't transfer it to another provider. Virgin is all roaming here at $60/hour.) I only want it as a phone that's not used much, don't need data and other crap, so went with the cheapest, dumbest one I could find. $12 phone, $15/mo. Prefer the flipphone anyway cuz it's not so susceptible to getting borked in the barn.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday June 06 2017, @07:26PM (1 child)
I was on a flip phone with Verizon, but they were charging me something like $50/month just for "cheapest voice" service I could choose back in 2012. We switched to T-mo and got no-contract, smartphones with data and unlimited talk/text for the same price as Verizon. Did that for 2 years, then I cracked my Nexus 5, so when looking for a replacement, I found the 5x through GoogleFi for cheaper still than T-mo and with better service. If I ever manage to keep one of these smartphones for more than 2 years, then the $9/month payment plan will go away and I'll be down around $25/mo for the smartphone.
My flip-phone from 2006 lasted until 2012, but the battery was getting weak and we moved from the "Verizon service only" boonies to a real town, so that's what started me down the slippery slope. It is nice being able to check traffic and weather radar, otherwise, yeah, I wish they still made good flip-phones. When it was new mine would run a week on a charge.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Tuesday June 06 2017, @10:34PM
There's a newfangled flipphone-smartphone hybrid out there -- that'll probably be my next one, by which time the prices will come down (was around $200 so not relatively terrible). IIRC it runs Android, and has a Real Dial Keyboard, tho not a full one.
My first was a $50 TMobile with a $30/mo. for 1500 minutes (more than I used) and I'd probably have kept it, except I moved back to MT and service was at best spotty. Verizon and AT&T have good and fair coverage respectively, but Sprint is mostly worthless.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.