Looking for someone who has an understanding of multi step answering systems.

[EvilPixieWorks]

You know the sort?

As the world becomes more soulless and cold... every place you call has these answering systems in place that are designed to keep you away from talking to a person.

Press 1... press 2... press 3.

Then they end up dumping the call if you try to circumvent the system.

I want one of these systems for my home phone! No joke. Tell friends the right button to push, salesmen, billing offices, annoying people in general... just get frustrated and hang up or get dumped.

Is this a physical machine?
Is this a board that goes into a PC desktop?
Is this an online service?
I can't find anyone that knows anything about this.

Years ago... my father had added a special card in his PC that was able use the system like a caller ID and answering system. The ID would pop up on his PC and he could choose if he wanted to answer it or not. Same when listening to messages. I know this was a card & program. He’s no longer able to answer questions of this nature... thus my reaching out.

Please PM me if you’d prefer.

 

[kamugi]

I want one too. That would be awesome.

 

[Capn Kranky]

My land-line (well, digital phone thru the cable company) went the way of the Dodo a couple years ago for the cell phone totally. I can silence it, set ringtones to tell me if it's work or family or friends calling and I can ignore anything that is the default.

That change dropped about $40/month off the cable bill and a bit of shmoozing with the cell carrier I have a special rate package that dropped overall costs by another $40 for 2 years. With 4 lines it adds up ... and add in a discount plan that AT&T has with my company for 15% off.

 

[EvilPixieWorks]

I really don’t like advertising companies by any small means, but mine will not be the local evil phone company over the phone lines. This will be a hook-up that goes with the internet, not the same massive soulless corporation that handles the internet. I’m just sick of the cell phone company I have and would like to have more control over my own phone vs. having another massive soulless corporation tell me what I can and can not have in my service. Not everyone wants an iPhone... not everyone texts, not everyone has a Twit’er account or wants one. It's like seeing grandmothers with tattoos, running around... makes me laugh, yet I don’t have a tattoo and I’m the odd one out.

I don’t think actual “real” phones are going to vanish any time soon. I loved the cordless phone I had in the late 90’s... and it died. Batteries. The new one I bought makes that one look like a dinosaur, true. Low cost, high tech, high security. Finding a nice mid-range CORDED phone... now that’s hard! Cheap is easy. It seems you get cheap or really high end office like phones when you do a search.

What also kills me... I know for a fact I didn’t throw away my phones when we went from old-school to cell-only... but I can't find them. Ripped up the whole storage looking over the weekend. Why we quit dealing with “the phone company”, with a private listing, they had no problem allowing unauthorized callers have our new phone numbers. Over and over again, supervisor after supervisor. My hope is, this internet way... there will be no way this can happen again or it's back to cells, but a different company. hehe

NOW... I just need this multi-step answering system to act as another line of defense... besides being extremely funny. I wont dare even post the long line of tripwires I’ll set in place to frustrate unwanted callers... but you can easily guess it will be tricky pixie tricks.

 

[Capn Kranky]

There are opt-out programs in the US at least from organizations like Direct Marketing Association and others. You can enter several phone numbers into their database and (they do tell you this) up to 90 days later, calls should not be coming to those phones.

I have had all the cells on the DMA opt-out list for several years. It is renewable and they send a reminder email. I also did an opt-out for NY state and the Feds. My email inbox and my phone are quite free of "chaff".

In all these opt-outs, the main exceptions will be - sales or marketing dialog YOU initiate and political stumping. Read fine print (natch!!) before signing on ... but it's peaceful around the house. Oh, our cordless handsets ALWAYS had the batteries go before anything else.

Good luck ... and I would be very scared to be on the wrong side of the "Evil" Pixie! <chuckle>