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[telecom] Retired Phone Numbers Unretired

Back in the day...

I seem to recall a general telco policy of retiring used phone numbers a minimum of six months, and much longer if there continued to be hits on the not in service number. I can recall a few exceptions when area codes/exchanges filled up, but for the most part, when you received a number from the phone company it was for all intents an unused number.

I don't know if it's abandonment of that policy, nearly free long distance, debt collection companies who buy up past due accounts or an upsurge in people skipping out, but I'm going nuts dealing with collection company calls.

I recently dropped Vonage as my primary landline service. Nothing wrong with Vonage, but the underlying broadband collection in this rural area is pretty flaky and I was tired of dealing with poor call quality. Previous locations with Vonage worked fine.

Decided to use my Google Voice number as my public number, but needed an underlying line from Qwest as cellular wouldn't meet my needs. My location is in a very rural area, one voice exchange, not a high growth area, area code was split a year or so ago.

The first number Qwest assigned started receiving one to two calls a day almost immediately. Mostly collection calls, but school truancy, school delay/cancellation robo calls, utilities and the occasional personal call. Despite the personal information involved, it was amazing the profile I was able to build up of the previous assignee. I know the full name (including kids names), home address, and a pretty good financial profile.

After about two weeks of this, I had enough, so I called Qwest and asked for a different number. They assigned a new number - same problem.

Citigroup, Barclays and an interesting group called MCM are particular favorites. MCM is apparently what's left of the old Fingerhut Catalog company. Remember them? They apparently fronted as a catalog sales company but made their money going after all the suckers who fell for their "easy terms".

My understanding is that informing these companies that they are not to call any more is all it takes to stop the calls by US law, even if I was the person they were looking for, much less a wrong number. But it's amazing how much they try to grill you when you tell them not to call. They want to know what number they called, how long the number has been reassigned and try asking the same questions in different ways.

Since Google Voice is the public number, changing the underlying physical number isn't a problem other than the hassle factor, but I'm amazed at what a issue this has been.

Reply to
Robert Neville
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Years ago, when I [first] got a phone, I got obscene calls the very first night. At first Bell wanted a service charge to change the number but after some pressure they agreed to change the number at no charge. The new number had no problem.

For your situation I would try to get a hold of a carrier's supervisor and demand a new number (at no charge) that has been idle for a while. Perhaps you should send a Certified Letter to them rather than call them.

As to [how long disconnected numbers are held before reassignment] today, I retired two phone lines a few years ago. One line, which was rarely used, was reassigned after several months. The other line is still forwarding the calls after several years.

Reply to
hancock4

I ran a BBS for 10 years and 5 years after I took it down AT&T still has it on recording, I'm told it still gets 20 or more hits a day,

Reply to
Steven

I had an AT&T cell phone (pre-Cingular days) and gave it up along with the number. A couple of weeks later a friend told me he called my old number and the recipient was FURIOUS as he had been getting calls for me the whole time he had the phone. So my number was recycled anywhere between immediately and two weeks after surrendering the number.

John

Reply to
John Mayson

I got a new phone number over a week ago. I checked with a number of lists and learned it was a number for an electrical contractor. This number is on a lot of calling lists.

The problem is that there are plenty of lists to which newly connected numbers are added, but never receive information about disconnected numbers. The excuse is always that disconnected numbers are never supplied by the various phone companies. But that's the only way to solve the problem.

So a disconnected number remains on a list with the old listing unless or until a new listing is received of a subsequent subscriber. If the next subscriber has a nonpublished number or it's not a primary billing number and doesn't get a listing, then there is plenty of opportunity for calls in error.

Number portability further complicates the issue, because the phone company doesn't even include those numbers on lists of disconnected numbers it would otherwise supply, such as to the official phone book delivery publisher.

Reply to
Adam H. Kerman

My home phone number apparently belonged to a doctor's office at one time. I don't know how long before it was recycled, but I got calls for the doctor at a decreasing rate to this day (20 years later).

***** Moderator's Note *****

There's a sure-fire cure for that problem: tell anyone who asks for the doctor to go straight to the emergency room.

Bill Horne Moderator

Reply to
Michael Moroney

A few years ago a flight attendant started receiving 9-1-1 calls on her home phone. Because of her first aid training she was able to assist a caller. I think it was childbirth, I don't quite remember. This happened in El Paso.

My favorite tale involving hospitals and phones was when I worked for AT&T in suburban Atlanta. At the time all of north Georgia had a single area code, 404. People living in Georgia but near Chattanooga, TN could call Chattanooga by dialing only 7 numbers. My desk phone number happened to be the same as a hospital ER in Chattanooga. Someone in northwest Georgia, but outside the local calling area for Chattanooga, dialed seven digits and got me. I answered the phone only to get a earful of medical history, vital signs, and the whole monologue was peppered with "stat" (short of Latin "statim" as in "RIGHT NOW!"). I finally explained to her she had reached an AT&T office. She assumed I was an operator and demanded I connect her right away to such-and-such hospital. We did quickly figure out what went wrong and once I told her to dial the same number with 1-615 in front of it she was happy.

John

Reply to
John Mayson

We did that to people calling a number for a golf course to set tee times, had about a hundred golfers [whom we told to show up] at the same time, then [we] went over to watch. Problem solved.

Reply to
Steven

IMHO, the way to solve the problem is not to have all these "lists" out there in the first place. This is to reduce the bureaucracy, not add more of it.

Reply to
hancock4

Sheer genyoos. Then there'd be no one to call.

Reply to
Adam H. Kerman

There is a cure for "poisoned" numbers, both those from past use, and adjacent to important ones [one away from the biggest hospital, etc.]

Issue them out as fax numbers. Fax machines never complain about too many wrong numbers.....

- - A host is a host from coast to snipped-for-privacy@nrk.com & no one will talk to a host that's close........[v].(301) 56-LINUX Unless the host (that isn't close).........................pob 1433 is busy, hung or dead....................................20915-1433

***** Moderator's Note *****

One of my brothers-in-law is in the habit of attaching a fax machine to his home phone whenever my sister is out of the house. I started sending him faxes asking him to have her call me, and he got mad. C'est la vie.

Bill Horne Moderator

Reply to
David Lesher

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