Cancel Non-Published Service on landline? [telecom]

Hello,

I'm debating if I should cancel the Non-Published Service on my AT&T landline. I've had this service since I got the landline and it's now $3.45 a month. I get an estimated 12 junk calls on weekdays (if I stay home from work) and six junk calls on Saturdays. I screen all my calls with an answering machine, and most callers don't leave a message.

My number has been exposed in various data breeches. It's also on the second page of Google search results, and I don't know if Google will take it down as I requested.

So I'm wondering if it makes sense to save the $3.45, or if my junk calls will spike if I do so? Thanks in advance for any thoughts from the phone experts here!

(Anonymous)

Reply to
Anonymous Contributor
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In my humble opinion, your junk calls will still increase if you go published. Not by a lot, but it will be easier for them to find you. I can't say whether it would be worth saving the $3.45/month.

Also, IMHO, it is absurd for the carriers to charge that fee these days. It's a leftover from the old days, and really wasn't even justified back then.

Reply to
HAncock4

In article you write:

I would be astonished if junk callers harvested numbers from phone books. These days, telco residential phone books hardly exist.

Also, if you're getting 12 junx a day you're already on the high end. My listed residential phone (which appears in an actual printed phone book) gets maybe one a week.

R's, John

Reply to
John Levine

I have a listed, published number. So far as I can tell, this only has resulted in me being listed in these gigantic website/databases that sell info on everyone in America. It's really irritating but I'm not going to pay extra to be excluded, especially given that I'm listed already.

I get maybe two or three robocalls a day tops, and surveys every few days. At least during the evenings - I work days and don't have an answering machine.

+--------------------------------------------------------------+ Astrid Smith Sent from my Teletype, apologies to the editor for any mailing-list formatting etiquette breaches :) ***** Moderator's Note *****

OK, I usually take formatting problems in stride, but sending a post with "Quoted Printable" encoding is just too much. I sentence you to spend five hours turning "=" and "=20" codes at the ends of lines into normally formatted text.

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Bill Horne Moderator

Reply to
Astrid Smith

Your phone number, no matter whether published or unpublished, *will* get itself called in due course by any autodialer worth its salt, dialling (in sequence) all eligible(*) phone numbers among the 10,000 available for your exchange in your area code.

They're not really searching for "the phone line of Anonymous Contributor", they're just trying to reach every phone line, yours included.

So claw back that $3.45/mo fee, I seriously doubt it can hurt.

Cheers, -- tlvp ========= (*) Eligible: lines *not* known to be fax or data lines, or out of service.

Reply to
tlvp

I've been reading these posts. I am shocked to hear about the telemarketing calls since I almost never get one. It doesn't seem to matter if my number(s) were listed or not.

I've kept my numbers on the national do not call (DNC) lists since the DNC list began. My local number (which is forwarded to my cell phone), my cell number, and even my residential toll-free number are all listed there. I discussed listing the toll-free number with the FTC. They confirmed to me that toll-free numbers may be listed in the DNC database so long as they are residential toll-free numbers. When I get a local number in a new state, I get it added to the DNC list right away. My toll-free number always follows me from state to state. That one has been listed since the DNC list began. I kept it renewed even when renewing it every five years was required. It is my understanding that they no longer remove the numbers from the DNC database unless you cancel the number or your number is disconnected for non-payment. In the case you are disconnected for non-payment and subsequently have your service restored, you have to list it with DNC again.

Though I rarely get a telemarketing call, I just tell them to put me on their do not call list when I do receive one.

When I get surveys, I just tell them that I do not answer surveys and request that they do not call me again. Even so, I rarely get those calls, either. Regretfully, the DNC list does not apply to surveys as long as they aren't making a sales pitch.

I rarely get political fundraising calls. The DNC list doesn't apply here, either. I just tell them not to call me again.

This was true even when I had my numbers listed in directory assistance. To my knowledge, my current numbers are not published there any more. When I moved to New Mexico about ten years ago, DEX (the phone book that was published by a third party) would not accept residential foreign listings (I do use VOIP service for my local numbers so this was how I listed them) even though the local phone companies are required to list them (I had foreign listings through the local phone companies in NC, SC, and GA). I guess DEX got past that rule since they weren't owned by a phone company. They were only a telephone book publisher. When they refused to accept my residential foreign listing, I pursued getting it listed with DEX through both the NM PUC and the FCC [without success]. I lived in Las Cruces, NM for over eight years.

I successfully got my residential VOIP numbers listed in the local phone books and directory assistance in GA, NC, and SC. But I had to make a complaint with each respective PUC to get it as none of the business offices seemed to know what a foreign listing was or how to make a foreign listing. Many of them told me it could not be done yet I subsequently had it done. Each PUC I used on the east coast got someone from the business office [who knew how to make one] call me and get it done for me. The charge for a foreign residential listing was always very nominal.

This is on a tangent, but when I called Centurylink in New Mexico to order ISDN for a customer my company contracted for, Centurylink's CSRs (yes, I did ask to speak to a supervisor who didn't know, either), they didn't know what ISDN was and denied that Centurylink provided it. They told me I would have to find out what company provided it and contact them. I called the ISDN support line for Centurylink and they initially didn't believe me when I told them their business office didn't know what ISDN was or how to order it. They subsequently called their business office and had the same experience. Sad that the Telcos do not train their CSRs better than this. Since our customer was a government agency, we contacted their Centurylink agent who ordered the ISDN service for us.

Back to the original issue. Now I live in Arizona. I still don't have the problem. I haven't tried to get my Arizona number listed since no one uses phone books any more. They always look it up on the Internet.

Since these methods do not appear to work for anyone else, I wonder what is different about my numbers over anyone else's? If anyone can figure it out and post it here, maybe it will help the others stop these calls. No matter where I lived, I did not have this issue.

My experience demonstrates that it doesn't seem to matter whether your number is listed or not.

It certainly has been a blessing to me. Fred

Reply to
Fred Atkinson, WB4AEJ

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