Dedicated land lines are quite expensive in this area, $50 per month. I think the high price is part of the reason they are going away. 25 years ago, maybe $10-15/month. If that rate were still available, land line stats wouldn’t be going down as much, or maybe not at all. Cut rate land line service is available here for low income folks, but if you sign up for that service you’ll likely get on gov’t lists you don’t want to be on. Considering switching my land line to my pay as you go cell phone for all calls; but find the land-line answering machine easier to use to screen unwanted calls than cell-phone voice mail. Good info here on others experiences tho.
If interested in something nearly impossible to understand, you can read about Calif’s low income telephone service. Forewarning, if looking for a simple explanation about a simple to use low cost telephone service for the poor, this is really a hoot! … lol … OMG, totally over-the-top!!!
I phoned the cable tv company, they offer phone service; but I could never get a straight answer on how long the intro rate was guaranteed for, and what the rate was after that, unable to explain what other equipment I needed to buy if didn’t want to rent it from them, if I could maintain the same telephone number, etc, so eventually gave up on that idea.
I considered signing up for a cable or satellite service at one point. It was a two year contract. The first year’s rate was locked in at a very agreeable price. The second year was unrestricted. They told me I could “right size” my package to bring the cost down at that point. I asked them what the cost would be and I never got an answer so decided against it.
As for my parents’ old landline, the service was cheap but the annoyance of endless scam calls convinced them to dump it.
It’s not. I’m used to expect call from numbers I don’t know, often from a government. (“A” government because I’ve dealt with several.) Not picking up this kind of call might mean missing a visa appointment or a big payment verification.
hmmm … It seems like nearly everyone here shares this unwanted phone-call scam problem, yet both the fed & state gov’ts allow it to continue, so there’s not much that can be done other than just living with the problem. Well, there’s the voting-thing, but I doubt that will be of any help.
There are ways to mitigate and live with it. I agree that the government has done too little to protect people from scams. Scams cost a large percentage of global GDP so it is a huge problem. Cybercrime To Cost The World $10.5 Trillion Annually By 2025
Some of the big social media platforms grease the wheels and put the scammers in the fast lane because they profit. This is wrong and nothing is being done, likely because these guys have big bucks and have bought off the politicians so they don’t pass laws to deal with this.
You may not be a Facebook user but it is possible your name and number was sold in an open air black market on the platform. Bloomberg - Are you a robot?
Never used Facebook myself. I hear on the financial news their revenue is in the billions per quarter; wondering where that money that is coming from? Who’s doing the paying to Facebook Corp? It’s not me as far as I know.
We didn’t want to give up our landline number that we’ve had for decades, but we didn’t want to keep paying more and more to keep it.
So last year we switched over to Google Voice, which is free. Then we got a Polycom VoIP adapter ($39) and the Google Voice calls, with our original number, still go to our home phones. We can direct the calls to our emails as well.
Switching to Google Voice requires a little learning to figure out how to do it. But once you figure it out, it goes smoothly.
I dropped my landline years ago mainly because of cost which was around 40 something dollars a month even if a call was never made or received on it.
Also dropped the local TV package when they decided to add 15 dollars to it for access to 4 local channels.
Worst of the lot is the USPS mail which seems to deliver about 10, at a minimum, critical notices to me every week from Mutual of Omaha. I’ve sent them emails telling them my wife has been deceased for almost 4 years and they can kiss off from my point of view. Emails were followed up with phone calls from me and it still persists.
Got 3 today in one shot. They’ve sent enough paper to wipe out half the rain forests on Earth.
My cellular phone displays “Telemarketer” or “Spam Risk” when it rings, a feature of my service provider, I don’t need government assistance.
I discontinued my land line 12 years ago, less than $20 a month without caller ID and without call waiting, a waste of money.
Five years ago my neighbor told me he was paying $120 each month for internet service and land line. I told him that the cable company offers internet service for $45 per month. He replied that if he changed internet provider he could not “bundle” his services. OK, keep bundling and enjoy the savings.
We have a landline. It is a bundle and taking it off doesn’t save any money. I use it to give it to people I don’t want to call, like when test driving a car. The call goes to the VM after the 1st ring, we just delete it.
On my cell, I use it for work and usually have a answer all unusual numbers. When I am driving, I play games with them. I tell them I have 35 cars. I ask them if they can warrant my classic Bentley and start getting a quote. They end up wasting their time and all folks in my car get a laugh.
Alternatives: screen all your calls. If they don’t leave a message, you didn’t need to speak with them. Or, if you do answer all your calls have a nice, loud police whistle handy. If they don’t understand the word “no” give them a toot. It may not stop the calls, but you’ll get a little bit of satisfaction for bothering them more than they bothered you.
I can’t agree with that plan . First of all many of those callers are wearing headsets and while rare a loud whistle could cause hearing problems .
The caller does not have to be a scam artist but just someone who needs a job to pay the rent .
Just say No thanks and hangup . Making some kind of statement will not stop the calls .
I don’t like the calls either but I have had to take jobs that I did not really want also.
I wonder if it is legal to have an announcement on your answering machine that says “Telephone enforcement office, felony violations division!” … lol …
Our big joke was county morgue, you stab em we slab em. It was a better deal for some reason to keep the land line, but now really hooked up to a modem with internet. I just disconnected it for a few months leaving the fax active. Glad I did not start receiving fax junk, Now very few calls. We kept it for fax functionality, but originally kept it for the now deceased parents as that was the only number they would know to call.
Count me as another of the Don’t know the number, don’t answer category. Most of the time I block the number if they don’t leave a message.
Recently I was curious as to what health insurance would cost if I had to pay out of pocket and not through my job, and the led to about 15-20 calls per day for the next week or two until I made some inappropriate comment to the person calling me from the same company that had called and left atleast 2 other VMs that same day. After that, the calls stopped.
I’ve also gotten a couple calls with local numbers I thought I knew, but were spam calls. The computer would pick up that I had answered the call then cut in and out a couple times while asking if I could hear them okay. I figure this is also part of the scam where they record you saying “yes” so they can sign you up for all kinds of junk even if you hang up. I usually answer with a “What?” or “No.” if I decide to answer at all, sometimes I just keep the call connected and not say anything.
The ones I’ve heard are “Roadkill Cafe, you kill 'em we grill 'em” and “Thank you for calling Rusty Jack’s pizza house and abortion clinic, where your loss is our sauce, how can I help you today?”