I get calls at home asking for my dead name. I get so much mail too. Tonight on a whim, I told a caller that dead name had passed away. She was so apologetic, said she would update the records, and let me off the phone quickly. Did I just happen upon a good way to handle this or can anyone think of why this would be a bad idea? If it gets rid of references to my past life, I'll hold a wake/viewing.
Moni

   My wife does that sometimes when telemarketers call, and her name is still very much alive.

I am still getting calls for my roommate who passed away over 3 years ago. These calls are on my phone which was never in her name. Once they have your address, you never get off their list. I have taken the approach to be rude to them. It's not going to stop the calls but they are wasting my time and being rude to them makes me feel better.

Lol be all like ''who?''

Quote from: HappyMoni on May 23, 2017, 07:37:39 PMcan anyone think of why this would be a bad idea?
Moni

Unlessen you be buddhist, can't see how it matters.

I use my mobile numner for all my personal communication.  My wife insists on having a landline at home.  I do not answer this line  EVER since it is limited to telemarketers, survey calls, etc.  In times past when I would answer the landline, I would do my best to upset, offend or aggressively intimidate agressive offensive callers.   I'd regularly report that I was, in fact dead, dead.  My favorite was the cold calls by investment advisors.  I'd aggressively interrogate them about their own investments and portfolios, demanding to know the annualized rates of return, ta strategies they personally use, make them absolutely crazy with questions such as I assume you are fabuloulsy wealthy yourself using these investing principles you espouse..."

Usually I get them to hang up on me in frustration. 

Good clean fun.  Well deserved caller torture.

At work my boss would receive cold call for investments and they would get past the receptionist by claiming the call was personal. My boss ask the receptionist to find out what the call was about before passing them on. He also added if they refuse to say, the receptionists were to tell the caller that he doesn't do drugs and he doesn't have a mistress so it ain't that personal.

Steph,
There are callers and then their are callers. Some folks I figure are just trying to eek out a living and don't need me to make their life harder by being a jerk. Your investment person is  a  different thing. Can we say, "Fair game!" Still, in my past life I could be a raging jerk sometimes. If someone gets me to the point of acting belligerent, it is too reminiscent of the past and is a defeat for me. I don't like that part of 'me' any more.
Moni

If they are calling for the purpose of telemarketing only, then can tell them to put you on the list to not call you. If you don't want them to be sending mail either, then you must mention that too or you will get mail still. If they are a company that has legitimate business with you and you haven''t given them the update then yes you will have to let them know somehow that you are one and the same. Amazing how many times I would ask who is calling for my dead name and they would tell me that they couldn't tell me because I wasn't my dead name. The result is they would hang up. Hugs
Mariah

Nobody calls asking for my "dead name". However, I get calls for people that had the same number before me. I have had the same number for 6 years. I simply tell them I don't know the people, and to quit calling. Further calls from the same numbers do not get answered.

Once they have your number they NEVER stop.   The only option is to change your number. I did that in 2013 and the number of telemarketing calls I get now has practically dropped off to nothing.

Now if I could just figure out how to get the post office to quit sending junk to my old name.

I haven't had a dead name call in over 20+ years.  Other than my mother, and she stopped doing that when I refused to answer anymore.  Thank goodness too ... I think that names is FINALLY dead!

I have my own version of keeping them at bay: since I have a small PBX which allows to route calls based on caller ID I add their numbers to a blacklist. Next time they call, they get a nice announcement: "All family members are busy assisting other telemarketers. Your call is very important to us. Please stay on the line for the next available family member." Then it plays some music and tells them they are the first caller in line.

Based on call statistics I can see a few have called again immediately.

Those are all folks trying hard to make a living, so being rude is not really what I want to do.

Calls to my cellphone I just put on mute until they hang up. That keeps their systems busy for a bit so they don't call anyone else.

Both strategies have actually cut the number of calls to virtually zero.

Do not call lists are only respected by a few honest companies, all others don't care.

Caller ID filtering is a so so thing, it is way too easy to spoof a caller ID

I pretend to be a kid on the phone. They won't talk for long when I say mom or dad is not home.

Maybe I need to change strategies when I go on T.

QuoteUsually I get them to hang up on me in frustration.

Good clean fun.  Well deserved caller torture.

I have often let them get going on their spiel and then quietly put them on hold.  It's fun to see how long they stay on the line.   

A related situation years ago in the day:  I wanted to really take advantage of an incredible offer joining a book club, you know, the 10 books for $10 up front offer.  It was on exotic technical and scientific books that were insanely expensive at the regular club price once a member but there was only obligation to buy a couple books over the fist year.   I signed up my dog as well, cashed in on the book discount.   Imagine, mail a load of books and book club mailings came to "Fido, 10 Main Street, Anytown..."

Only problem I had not considered was the junk mail that would follow and there was a lot!  It was an interesting experiment since the dog had no other presence in the world outside our home other than the book club.  You could not believe the range of businesses that sent mail, the extent to which names and addresses were sold immediately obvious to me.

I had some fun with a similar situation.  Many years ago when we were really struggling financially, I had a bill collector call for my wife. I very politely asked him who this was and why was he calling my wife.   He told me his name and said he was calling her on a personal matter. Of course I knew why but I decided to have some fun. So I asked him again who he was with and when he said it was a personal matter again. I said "OHHHH, you must be the guy my wife is cheating on me with!!!"  He started to stutter and ramble so I just played it up like "You are the reason I may be getting a divorce" and such....it was mean and funny at the same time.  We never heard back from them again...LOL

Quote from: sarah1972 on May 24, 2017, 02:42:09 AM
Caller ID filtering is a so so thing, it is way too easy to spoof a caller ID

I have this long-term policy of adding caller ID numbers to my list with the name "spam" or something like that, so I immediately recognise them on future calls. Recently I got a UK work phone. From time to time I'll get a call asking whether I've been involved in a car crash. These people manage to call from a different number each time, and I already have 5 entries for them. So yes I guess that caller ID filtering only gets you so far.

I use the 1-second autodialler pause between my picking up and the caller getting connected as a clue that it is someone I don't want to talk to.  No one I want to speak to uses an autodialler!  If I pick up and say "hello" and there's no one there right away, I refuse to say "hello" a second time.  I just hang up. 

It isn't rude to the poor person working in the call centre.  They get the call recorded as a valid attempt with a disconnect, and can quickly move on to the next call. 

Just to make sure it's not a call from a company I have done business with, I Google all the unknown numbers and usually I find they've been calling others as well. Several websites​ will tell you what kind of company is related to the phone number. I have a very long list of blocked numbers on my iPhone and yet the calls continue.

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