A note to those who have chosen to judge me harshly: I am guessing that you have not yet walked a mile in my shoes.
In my case, the primary offender had been a service provider. They provided little service, more than unreliable, and in fact I could rely on zero service with no support. Their billing department was spot-on, requiring immediate payment for service that did not occur.
I switched to a different provider, and I was immediately hounded to switch back to the original non-provider.
Yes, I was on the "no call" list, for what little that was worth. They told me this was not a sales call, that in fact this was a survey to determine why I chose do discontinue their non-service. They informed me of this fact several times every night for days on end, starting at dinner time and trailing off at about 4:00 or 5:00 in the morning.
Blocking their number did no good. They have many numbers from which to call.
I tried turning the phones entirely dead, which was not well received when there was a death in the family and people really needed to contact us.
It is generally agreed that sleep deprivation is a means of torture, and with sufficient application you can get anyone to agree to anything. I didn't want to give the bastards that measure of success. I hope you can respect this position.
They do not respect the "no call" database, so the only thing left to me is to motivate them to take me off of their "must call" database. This is a study in motivation and behavior modification.
Yes, I came to recognize the voices of the offenders. These unusual measures were reserved only for the known offenders.
Yes, of course I treat the new callers with respect and dignity as I politely say "no". We do need some measure of civility, and we absolutely do need to consider the plight of the person on the other end of the line, and some of the time they are doing this as a means to put food on the family table. Yes, on a personal level I have also seen that side of the coin.
We need to draw a line in the sand. There are bounds beyond which Thou Shalt Not Tread.
Don't. Tread. On. Me.
Regarding the original topic, this is a means to get people to pay money to have a virus installed on his/her computer(s).
Yes, it's deplorable. Yes, it's illegal. Yes, the phone operators know that it's deplorable and illegal. They tried that on me, too. I was polite, but it didn't work as they had intended.
Best regards,
- A