Now that we're back on SBC, i'm experiencing the joys of telemarketing calls. Apparently in the year+ they couldnt get through, they didnt give up.
That 'callvantage' VOIP thing had one nice benefit. When you called, I had its 'do not disturb' set so that you heard me say "if you're a friend or family member, press 2 to ring your call through, otherwise leave us a message". Press 2 and the phone rings, if we dont get it, you go back to voicemail. Dont do anything and you got voicemail. About once a month I'd get one of those messages about redoing my mortgage (bet you can imagine how receptive I am about that). Other than that, this system stymied the telemarketers completely.
I spent a couple of hours this morning looking for some technology to simulate this with a regular POTS line. SBC offers some stuff that the telemarketers have figured out how to get by. The old 'telezapper' doesnt work anymore, the telemarketing dialers have been upgraded to ignore its tones. Several hundred dollar products are somewhere in the range, although they require separate telephone and answering machines hooked to different ports, and they dont ring the phone, the box itself rings. I just bought a 4-handset 5.8GHz phone with a built in answering machine, so a no-go on that.
Not even a phone with this sort of thing built right in. I'd think there'd be a HUGE demand for a product that gave an announcement and made you press a digit to ring through, like that callvantage system did. Voicepulse also seems to have it. Didnt see it on any of the other VOIP providers.
I'm afraid I cant conceive of the mindset where a telemarketer says "Hmmm...these people have spent money buying devices and setting up services from the phone company to stop me from calling them...how can I circumvent that so that I can call them anyhow?" without it occurring to them how irritating it is...
The national "Do Not Call List" is all but worthless. Anyone you've done business with or their 'affilliates' are allowed to call you. I think there are 3 businesses in North America that I havent done business with or that someone hasnt 'affilliated' themselves with.