Telephones - Phooey...

I used to like the darned things. They occupied a place of high-tech honor, right alongside the old radio. It was hard to believe what they could do.

"Those were the days" as Archie and Edith Bunker used to sing. But after running to answer the third computer generated call of the day, cutting me off as soon as I said a cheerful "hello", I got to thinking; this thing is urinating me off. This is happening to us every day, mainly when we sit down to dinner.

Getting on the national "do not call" list didn't help much. The signal that tells me who is calling now reveals that it is an "unknown caller" or the "800 service." Some computer want to know when we are at home and available. The follow-ups will come later.

I got to thinking. What do I have to do to make the telephone my servant instead of a live-in irritant? We don't use the thing much. We make a few calls a week. Receive a few calls a week. For this we pay a generous monthly sum. When we miss a call, friends generally leave a message to which we promptly respond. The rest is tedium.

Well, here's a thought. Cancel the telephone service. Completely. No line coming in or going out. Substitute two cell phones, one for each of us. (We have one anyway.) Keep the things turned off except when we want to use them. Have them set to record messages we miss and, without fail, call back quickly. Check several times a day for missed calls. Get the free long-distance service. Carry the things around with you at all times in the event you want to use them. Or to receive an expected call.

Jesus had the most remarkable line that got around the tedious debates about sabbath observance. "The sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath!" Very good.

Same thing applies to the telephone.

What do you think of that?

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Comments

[Chancy]

Those computer generated calls are the pits. We get them all the time and the most recent one was last night at 3:45 AM. So aggravating.

And there is not a number I can call back to be removed from their calling list.

I think many people are getting wise and using their cell phones as their main phones now.

We are also on the national "do not call list" but somehow the computer calls get around that.

[Joy]

I couldn't agree more Roger. I signed up to be on the National Do Not Call list too. It's better than it was that's for sure. It is so irritating to have your evenings interrupted by these calls. I don't know if cell phones are the answer, but they've got to come up with something.

[cassie-b]

How do they always know when you sit down to dinner?

My son and family have switched to cell phones. And it works fine. They almost never answer when I call (not all that often) but usually call back quickly.

[Mike]

After having a problem with BellSouth four years ago, I decided to go only with a cell phone. In that time, I have not received one such call. I say you make the switch.

[Moira Breen]

It's my understanding that automated calls are illegal, period. (See here).

I signed up with the DNC registry when it first became available - pretty much cleaned up the problem for me. (Before that I was inundated by calls, all freakin' day long.)