Thursday, February 21, 2008
I am still a genius
Even though I go through periods of dormancy, I successfully got into LV Pharmacy's voicemail today. If you call them you will hear my voice. The phone number is 404-795-2144.
Friday, September 14, 2007
The Mystery of "Unavailable"
I am being confronted with a new telephonic harasser - "unavailable". "Unavailable" calls me now approximately four times a day, says nothing, and the calls never last more than ten seconds or so. It makes me want to reach through the phone and strangle whoever is responsible for this. My gut tells me that it's not a pharmacy, but since "unavailable" has never actually said anything I can never be sure.
NOT a pleasant experience at 8:00am on a Saturday morning.
At any rate, I decided to call Verizon, and I got a very helpful rep on the phone. I explained the situation to her, and told her how when I used to have Nextel, I could set the phone to accept calls from my address book only. She insisted that my 8300 could do that, and my hopes immediately shot up.
After fishing through the menus for a while, and getting tech support on the line, we determined that it was not possible. This prompted me to complain how my landline had SO many more privacy options. Her defense was, "well, the landline's been around 100 years".
True, but caller ID has not - and not only that, all it takes is a little extra programming to make the phones a little more private.
Please, stupid mobile carriers, SAVE ME FROM UNAVAILABLE! Before my head explodes!
NOT a pleasant experience at 8:00am on a Saturday morning.
At any rate, I decided to call Verizon, and I got a very helpful rep on the phone. I explained the situation to her, and told her how when I used to have Nextel, I could set the phone to accept calls from my address book only. She insisted that my 8300 could do that, and my hopes immediately shot up.
After fishing through the menus for a while, and getting tech support on the line, we determined that it was not possible. This prompted me to complain how my landline had SO many more privacy options. Her defense was, "well, the landline's been around 100 years".
True, but caller ID has not - and not only that, all it takes is a little extra programming to make the phones a little more private.
Please, stupid mobile carriers, SAVE ME FROM UNAVAILABLE! Before my head explodes!
Monday, August 6, 2007
India Seeks Relief... from Indians
Well, isn't this interesting... it appears as if India is going to set up their own Do Not Call registry by September.
Our problem, as victims of international pharmacy telemarketing, cannot be solved by laws, of course. Besides, this law only applies to calls made within India.
I've noted the deficiencies of legislation as a tool to solve the problem of telemarketing harassment many times in this blog. There's just simply no way to enforce any type of law or regulation concerning telemarketing, given the proliferation of VoIP services, and the international nature of these calls.
However, there is one type of law I would like to see on the books. Remember how carriers complained and moaned about the supposedly huge cost of establishing Local Number Portability? For those who may not remember, LNP forced the cell phone carriers to allow you to take your number between providers. As far as I can tell, the carriers are still in business, so it couldn't have hurt that much.
Well, how about a law forcing carriers to give us the ability to block calls from certain numbers? Since the carriers don't feel any obligation to protect the consumers right to privacy, how about we make them do it?
Until then, I'm very interested to see how this plays out on the other side of the globe:
NEW DELHI (Reuters) - The government will set up a "do not call" register by September this year to curb frequent, unsolicited calls from companies offering home loans, credit cards and mobile phone services, the government said on Friday.
The court was acting on a public interest litigation filed by a lawyer who complained that such calls were "inconvenient" and violated an individual's right to privacy.
"Irrespective of the subscriber's location and time, professional and personal engagements, cell phone and telemarketing companies keep calling," his petition said.
Many Indians complain of being harassed by telemarketers who offer them house and car loans, credit cards or a new mobile phone service.
"Those who register in the do-not-call registry will not receive unsolicited calls," government counsel P.P. Malhotra told the court, adding the register would start operating on Sept. 5.
India's booming economy over the past few years has led to a surge in mobile phone users, who make an attractive market for banks, insurance firms and mobile service providers.
"These calls can make your day hell," said Namit Shah, a Kolkata-based businessman. "It's about time the government stops this."
Our problem, as victims of international pharmacy telemarketing, cannot be solved by laws, of course. Besides, this law only applies to calls made within India.
I've noted the deficiencies of legislation as a tool to solve the problem of telemarketing harassment many times in this blog. There's just simply no way to enforce any type of law or regulation concerning telemarketing, given the proliferation of VoIP services, and the international nature of these calls.
However, there is one type of law I would like to see on the books. Remember how carriers complained and moaned about the supposedly huge cost of establishing Local Number Portability? For those who may not remember, LNP forced the cell phone carriers to allow you to take your number between providers. As far as I can tell, the carriers are still in business, so it couldn't have hurt that much.
Well, how about a law forcing carriers to give us the ability to block calls from certain numbers? Since the carriers don't feel any obligation to protect the consumers right to privacy, how about we make them do it?
Until then, I'm very interested to see how this plays out on the other side of the globe:
NEW DELHI (Reuters) - The government will set up a "do not call" register by September this year to curb frequent, unsolicited calls from companies offering home loans, credit cards and mobile phone services, the government said on Friday.
The court was acting on a public interest litigation filed by a lawyer who complained that such calls were "inconvenient" and violated an individual's right to privacy.
"Irrespective of the subscriber's location and time, professional and personal engagements, cell phone and telemarketing companies keep calling," his petition said.
Many Indians complain of being harassed by telemarketers who offer them house and car loans, credit cards or a new mobile phone service.
"Those who register in the do-not-call registry will not receive unsolicited calls," government counsel P.P. Malhotra told the court, adding the register would start operating on Sept. 5.
India's booming economy over the past few years has led to a surge in mobile phone users, who make an attractive market for banks, insurance firms and mobile service providers.
"These calls can make your day hell," said Namit Shah, a Kolkata-based businessman. "It's about time the government stops this."
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
The Vigilante in Action: Omaha Steaks Pays the Price
By popular demand, check out this audio file of my vigilante actions against Omaha Steaks!
MP3 audio file (7MB)
MP3 audio file (7MB)
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
Omaha Steaks Will Feel My Wrath
Well, apparently the folks at Omaha Steaks have decided to adopt the tactics of the pharmacy telemarketers. My girlfriend has been receiving calls from them, and despite asking to be taken off their list, they do nothing - and she keeps getting calls.
It's very strange - and troubling - to see a U.S. based, reputable company refuse to stop calling you. It is for that reason that I have decided to add them to my target list. They will feel my wrath next. For the next 48 hours straight, they will be locked into a three way conference with themselves.
Then, I will place my usual phone call... from the pay phone at the mall. It goes something like this...
"I need to speak to your manager. Mr. Manager? Yes, I'm the guy that's been tying up your phones non stop. So, here's the deal. To prove to you that I'm the one making the calls, they will stop. The next call you make to me, I will politely ask to be removed from your list. If you do not comply, you will feel the wrath of my dial bot army, and it will gum up your phone lines for days on end. What's that? No, I won't be giving you my specific phone number to be removed... that defeats the whole purpose. The purpose of my call is to make sure that ANYONE who asks to be removed is removed. This is your final warning. Ignore me at your own peril."
Maybe I should change the name of my blog, as this is my first non-pharmacy target. But, they've earned it. Good job, Omaha Steaks. Way to f*ck up your brand.
It's very strange - and troubling - to see a U.S. based, reputable company refuse to stop calling you. It is for that reason that I have decided to add them to my target list. They will feel my wrath next. For the next 48 hours straight, they will be locked into a three way conference with themselves.
Then, I will place my usual phone call... from the pay phone at the mall. It goes something like this...
"I need to speak to your manager. Mr. Manager? Yes, I'm the guy that's been tying up your phones non stop. So, here's the deal. To prove to you that I'm the one making the calls, they will stop. The next call you make to me, I will politely ask to be removed from your list. If you do not comply, you will feel the wrath of my dial bot army, and it will gum up your phone lines for days on end. What's that? No, I won't be giving you my specific phone number to be removed... that defeats the whole purpose. The purpose of my call is to make sure that ANYONE who asks to be removed is removed. This is your final warning. Ignore me at your own peril."
Maybe I should change the name of my blog, as this is my first non-pharmacy target. But, they've earned it. Good job, Omaha Steaks. Way to f*ck up your brand.
Thursday, July 5, 2007
I am Ming the Merciless
Today I got called from 866-204-9190 and I am auto-dialing them with no mercy. None at all. Occasionally I have pangs of guilt, but those moments are brief.
I've been trying to conference them together with a different pharmacy but that is always a difficult proposition. Sometimes they answer at different times and hang up before they ever start conversing. Worst of all, because the timing has to be right, I have to do it manually.
Which leads me to this thought: I realize that setting up an autodialer is not exactly the easiest proposition in the world, so I'm beginning to wonder if we could create more of a "flash mob" army.
What if we had 10,000 people around the country commit to dialing these pharmacies for just five minutes a day? What if we determined that the call times should be from, say, 8am to 8pm? It could mean as many as 60 or 70 calls a minute by my calculation. That alone would be enough for them to have to consider shutting off their inbound dialing.
Either that, or they're going to need some extra mental health professionals on site to deal with the call center employees. While sometimes I feel sorry for them, as they are probably in some rat-infested third world hellhole just trying to put food on their table, I think in the end it's acceptable to make their world miserable.
After all, if they traded my number around like a cheap whore, but then actually REMOVED me from their list when I asked, I would still be pissed - but I wouldn't be Ming the Merciless.
I've been trying to conference them together with a different pharmacy but that is always a difficult proposition. Sometimes they answer at different times and hang up before they ever start conversing. Worst of all, because the timing has to be right, I have to do it manually.
Which leads me to this thought: I realize that setting up an autodialer is not exactly the easiest proposition in the world, so I'm beginning to wonder if we could create more of a "flash mob" army.
What if we had 10,000 people around the country commit to dialing these pharmacies for just five minutes a day? What if we determined that the call times should be from, say, 8am to 8pm? It could mean as many as 60 or 70 calls a minute by my calculation. That alone would be enough for them to have to consider shutting off their inbound dialing.
Either that, or they're going to need some extra mental health professionals on site to deal with the call center employees. While sometimes I feel sorry for them, as they are probably in some rat-infested third world hellhole just trying to put food on their table, I think in the end it's acceptable to make their world miserable.
After all, if they traded my number around like a cheap whore, but then actually REMOVED me from their list when I asked, I would still be pissed - but I wouldn't be Ming the Merciless.
Friday, June 29, 2007
Congressional Dinosaurs outlaw Spoofing
From this article in Arts Technica:
Today the US Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation has passed S. 704, a bill that would make it a crime to spoof caller ID. Dubbed the "Truth in Caller ID Act of 2007," the bill would outlaw causing "any caller identification service to transmit misleading or inaccurate caller identification information" via "any telecommunications service or IP-enabled voice service." Law enforcement is exempted from the rule.
This will, of course be of no help to us in frazzled pharma-hell. First of all, I've noticed that probably less than a third of pharmacies calling me use a bogus number. Most of the numbers can be called back, which thankfully for me, gives me legitimate targets to harass.
And secondly, these guys are overseas. There's no doubt about it. Even if they were in the country, they obviously don't want to be bothered by the Do Not Call list - so why would this law change anything?
Congress needs to get its head out of you know where regarding consumer privacy. Probably the best thing they've done in the last ten years is LNP - local number portability. Remember how the carriers screamed and hollered about its cost? Well, Congress mandated it - and I would argue that everyone, even the carriers, won.
What we need is a law mandating cell phone carriers to give us the ability to block numbers, kind of like Outlook allows you to "add person to blocked list". Until carriers do this, and it seems they aren't in a big rush - everyone is a potential victim of these pharmacy rats.
Finally, I was enjoying a nice night at the Harborlights Pavilion here in Boston before the Wilco show... and guess who called - a pharmacy. Their number was (866) 838-0738. I tried calling them back but had no luck, even though they are listed in the whocalled.us database.
Today the US Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation has passed S. 704, a bill that would make it a crime to spoof caller ID. Dubbed the "Truth in Caller ID Act of 2007," the bill would outlaw causing "any caller identification service to transmit misleading or inaccurate caller identification information" via "any telecommunications service or IP-enabled voice service." Law enforcement is exempted from the rule.
This will, of course be of no help to us in frazzled pharma-hell. First of all, I've noticed that probably less than a third of pharmacies calling me use a bogus number. Most of the numbers can be called back, which thankfully for me, gives me legitimate targets to harass.
And secondly, these guys are overseas. There's no doubt about it. Even if they were in the country, they obviously don't want to be bothered by the Do Not Call list - so why would this law change anything?
Congress needs to get its head out of you know where regarding consumer privacy. Probably the best thing they've done in the last ten years is LNP - local number portability. Remember how the carriers screamed and hollered about its cost? Well, Congress mandated it - and I would argue that everyone, even the carriers, won.
What we need is a law mandating cell phone carriers to give us the ability to block numbers, kind of like Outlook allows you to "add person to blocked list". Until carriers do this, and it seems they aren't in a big rush - everyone is a potential victim of these pharmacy rats.
Finally, I was enjoying a nice night at the Harborlights Pavilion here in Boston before the Wilco show... and guess who called - a pharmacy. Their number was (866) 838-0738. I tried calling them back but had no luck, even though they are listed in the whocalled.us database.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
