Just getting off our main issues of the moment, let's look at robo-calls to your phone [and/or texts]:
1. Close friend call or text or email
Thus these people are not blocked in any way and are part of my mobile phone's address book, the phone only accepting calls from address bookees. That's not difficult to set up.
2. As part of that, disconnect the phone from the wall socket
I have a splitter there so one half goes to my wifi hub, the other would go to my landline, were it connected. Very occasionally, I connect it to authorise something on a on-off basis.
3. Others I've allowed to my text or email
This includes the boiler engineer, the NHS, other branches of govt, those I do need to connect with and prefer it not by phone.
Now, if they call and they're in my address book, e.g. the GP, then they get through, which helps with phone consultations. Some people don't like these but I do, as they allow me to stay away, physically, from the GP and remain isolated.
4. The blog
You all already know how that works.
5. The postbox [mailbox]
Not a lot of control over that, I check every few days and sort it out.
6. Google/Blogger/YouTube
Contrary to popular perception, given the current state of play, I have a good relationship, personally, esp. with YouTube, as I use their products fully and abide by all the rules. It does help with the blog in that they tailor videos, for example, plus advertising I do wish to see. So that actually works well.
Summary
The whole rationale is that I do not wish to be contacted cold. Full stop. Period.
With some people in the close category [N1 above], it's wiser to keep it to email so they cannot be traced otherwise. And even in our conversations, we avoid certain details.
Hope this might be of some use to you.
Long ago, when unwanted callers were actually people, the advice was to keep a loud referee's whistle by the phone and give 'em a blast. My wife tried it once on a sex-pest; he yelped and never called again.
ReplyDeleteProblem. Our surgery replies to phone calls with a call back to reduce our time stuck in a queue. Fine but the call back comes from an unregistered number so blanket call blocking is a dead duck in this case.
ReplyDeleteIn France it was possible to subscribe to a totally ineffective service called BlocTel. All cold caller publicity spivs were supposed not to call subscribers, but they still did.
ReplyDeleteI understand that recently the service was suspended. It has made no difference, I continue receive 15 to 20 calls each week as before, but I do not answer any of them. Friends and family put a message on the answering machine and I call them back.
A caller identifier readout on the phone with a built in answering gizmo and the top part of an old descant recorder by the phone for persistent scammers works here. On average 8 unsolicited calls per day. Just 6 today. Withholding numbers is supposed to be verboten in these parts but occasionally one slips through, usually from abroad.
ReplyDeleteWe had a to-do with the telephone co which escalated up to the ombudsman who was still under the illusion that there was a nuisance-blocking service. Had to disabuse him of that myth!