Political Robocalls

[TromboneAl]

We've been getting tons of recorded political telephone advertisements this year.

 

[powerplay]

I haven't had any calls. Thinking it is because I got my ballot in early since we vote by mail.

 

[samclem]

Hate 'em.

Interesting that politicians excluded themselves from the Do Not Call law.

 

[ziggy29]

I can at least screw with the human callers. Can't do that with the robots. I'd frankly like to ban them, but the people who benefit from them make the laws....

 

[FUEGO]

I'm ready to robo vote.

 

[Bestwifeever]

Two this morning.

I'm trying to hack into them with * followed by random numbers, just to see if I can.

 

[TromboneAl]

OK, this is the result I expected. Shouldn't politicians know that people hate these things?

 

[FinanceDude]

Hate them!!!

 

[Moemg]

I hate them but I did find it mildly amusing when B Clinton called .I was hoping it was a booty call but no such luck !

 

[samclem]

OK, this is the result I expected. Shouldn't politicians know that people hate these things?

People also hate those annoying commercials with the repetitive jingles, but they work, so we'll keep hearing them.

I wonder if there are reverse robo-calls. Maybe claim to be a call for Candidate X, but make the call very annoying, in the middle of the night, etc. Nothing false, but so inconvenient, annoying, and inconsiderate as to prompt voters to go for Candidate Y.

 

[ERD50]

Hate 'em.

Interesting that politicians excluded themselves from the Do Not Call law.

Yep, just another example of them considering themselves and putting themselves "above the law".

Another thing that really, really bugs me - the really long ones. Not only do they fill up our answering machine so a real person can't leave a message, but they can also tie up a line. One time I tried and tried to "hang up" on one because I had just picked up the phone to make an outgoing call - I couldn't seem to get the line to let go. What if I was trying to make a 911 call?


Oh, and the least they could do (some do - not most) is to have a meaningful CALLER ID, so we know who is calling. Most of the time it is blank or generic.

Arghhhh!

-ERD50

 

[aldo]

We were receiving lots of these too until I realized that our land-line phone package had two features (No solicitation and Call rejection) that we weren't using. Once I enabled those features, no more robocalls--yippee

 

[FIREd]

We haven't received any robocalls this year (I can't stand them). We have received more mass mailings and political survey calls though.

 

[FUEGO]

All the calls I have received have been from the party for which I am presently registered to vote. They are reminding me to vote. Since many folks vote a straight ticket, I figure the number of voters they guilt into showing up at the polls outweighs the number of voters that were going to vote for a candidate or party but got too pissed at the robocalls and decided to abstain from voting for a candidate or party.

Hey, it is marketing and it is cheap. I guess the campaign contributions can be stretched a little further this way. I have yet to receive a phone call from any live candidate or a live volunteer for anyone's campaign. I recall in years past I would have at least 1 live caller asking me to vote for a party or for a candidate.

 

[RonBoyd]

OK, this is the result I expected. Shouldn't politicians know that people hate these things?

They care what we think?

 

[samclem]

They care what we think?

Only for about 28 more hours. Act quickly.

 

[FinanceDude]

I hate them but I did find it mildly amusing when B Clinton called .I was hoping it was a booty call but no such luck !

 

[Purron]

I hate them but I did find it mildly amusing when B Clinton called .I was hoping it was a booty call but no such luck !

I know for a fact Westernskies lives for robo calls from Sarah.....

 

[easysurfer]

Don't care for them. But I screen my calls with a good old answering machine anyhow so it's just more marketing call traffic as far as I'm concerned.

 

[FIRE'd@51]

I'd rather have a robo call than an actual person call, because I don't feel rude hanging up on the robo call without saying anything.

 

[Nords]

We've had our ringers turned off since our houseguests left in August. Now the robocalls are wearing out the RAM in our answering machine.

A few months ago we had an extremely annoying series of robocalls when a Honolulu city council member managed to get elected (he's a Republican) to finish out Abercrombie's term in the House of Representatives. (Abercrombie had to resign from the House to run for governor.) The newbie rep promptly started several weeks of numerous daily phone calls to solicit voter "feedback" and to remind us that he'd like to stay in the house. He also used most of his House franking budget to send out snail-mail "surveys" and "opinion polls" with the same objective. The backlash was so vicious, though, that he's hardly used those techniques at all in this fall campaign.

I think the robocall heirarchy is interesting-- first we heard from all our local politicos, then Bill Clinton, then the CINC, and now from all the local politicos' spouses & parents... or at least that's who they claim to be.

I think the most annoying feature of the robocalls is that we voted two weeks ago. It'd save everyone a lot of time & effort if our phone had some special answer code indicating that we've already voted.

 

[RonBoyd]

I'd rather have a robo call than an actual person call, because I don't feel rude hanging up on the robo call without saying anything.

I am just the opposite. I feel so good when I can disconnect a real, live Weasel -- I can go down to their level with a clear conscience.

 

[Sue J]

No robocalls this year since we switched to Magicjack and had to change from our long term phone number.

The mail has been FULL of political ads. It's amazing what they pay for advertising that comes in the door and goes directly to the trash can.

The TV ads have been constant, brutal and non-stop. I can't believe the nasty things one can find to say about another person. I've decided that if you ran a negative ad I'm voting for your opponent. That leaves me with some very slim options. In some cases I just won't vote for any of them.

The "good guy" vs "bad guy" music that they use in these ads is creepy.

 

[samclem]

The TV ads have been constant, brutal and non-stop. I can't believe the nasty things one can find to say about another person. I've decided that if you ran a negative ad I'm voting for your opponent. That leaves me with some very slim options. In some cases I just won't vote for any of them.

The fact that an ad is "negative" doesn't necessarily bother me. If Senator X voted for a piece of legislation that turned out to be terrible, or was recently censured for malfeasance in office, then that's info that should be highlighted. The objectionable part, to me, is the blatant half-truths and misleading ways that the information (positive and negative) is framed. There's not much way to fix that in a 30 second TV spot.

 

[audreyh1]

No one knows my house number. In fact I don't even know my house number. I hope it stays a big secret.