Blocking International callers Telus

[exschoice]

Hello everyone,

Although this is my first post I have been a long time lurker and have always seen this forum as the "pulse of the industry". It has guided my decisions many times in the past by simply using the search function, Thanks to all is in order.

Tonight Ive joined the forum to ask a question that has me at my "Wits End",
How to Stop Unsolicited International callers?

WE HAVE BEEN CONTINUOUSLY HOUNDED BY TELEMARKETERS!!! Mainly the windows one from someone with an East Indian Accent claiming to be from the windows technical dept. There are others too the that come from ??? The USA regarding credit ? / Debit consolidation, and still others. Hardly a day goes by without one of these calls coming through.

My wife and I work in the Airline industry. We often need to sleep through the day in order to work all night. Many times we are woken up by needless phone calls.

We have a telus land line, telus dsl and my wife & I have cell phones with Rodgers on a family plan (voice and Data).

We do have caller ID and caller reveal (so a name must appear) in the caller field. Many of these calls appear as "Intl caller" it is usually a different number every time. Our home phone is a panasonic cordless and it does have the ability to block a caller, but the weakness is that the call will ALWAYS ring ONCE, followed by nothing. If you get a new intl caller you can block it but they just switch numbers to defeat it. Some numbers are conventional numbers and some are Voip.

So of course I have called Telus, and have had no luck or support in blocking these callers. I have been told that unless the caller is threatening there's nothing they will do. Try the police they say. I think thats a bigger waste of time than telus. Really those rescources are already strained and I would rather see them putting "real bad people" where they belong.

We have registered with the DO not call website with the Canadian government... bit of a joke as we still get the odd furnace cleaning offer and a repeat offender is "the globe and Mail" solicitations. I am told that because we once had a sub from the calgary herald and it is affiliated with the globe somehow they have The privilege to call you as you were once their client. Ok but More than once Ive asked to be removed from their list. It still hasn't happened.


Really didnt plan on long post like this but Thankyou for hanging in this long.

So guys? This sums it up as I see it. PLEASE offer a solutions if you have one.

1. I would like to keep the land line as our kids arent old enough to have a cell yet.

2. I could go with "Dry dsl connection" and use cell phones as the only way to cover communication needs.

3 Could I somehow "temporarily suspend" the land line for say 3 months. With the idea that maybe the unsolicited callers would loose interest in us. ??

4 Is there some way to put "Telus's feet to the fire" to get them to act on our behalf. I am very very disappointed with the attitude they have regarding this problem. They have no interest in helping. More than once I have asked myself, "If this was happening to the CEO of Telus what would he have done"? There's little doubt in my mind that this crap wouldn't continue like it isn't happening. Freaking mountains would move I'm sure of it.

Man i hope someone is here reading this from telus as I need help and would really appreciate it.

Cheers

[sailmaker]

Do you mean WINDOWS rather than windows in your 3rd paragraph? Not nitpicking because windows replacement companies are one of the worst offenders along with those credit consolidation jerks and duct cleaners. I have two referee Fox40 whistles near our two phones. When I get the credit call (there's nothing wrong with your credit, but ......) I punch 1 or more recently 9 to get a live body. When they say hello I blow the hell out of the whistle and hopefully they get a ringing in their ear for a few hours. sailmaker

[57]

Here's one option thread for blockers (you don't get the first ring):

http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=150132 Post 9, etc.

You could programme your Panasonic for "night mode" if it has that option - no rings at certain times.

Here's the thread on the DNCL, which is useless for international calls and also for many others:

http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=147931

[FuzzyLogic]

This may work for you:

Prevent unwanted callers from reaching you

Program up to 12 phone numbers that you want to screen. Callers on your
list will receive a recording, “The party you are trying to reach is not accepting calls at this time.” Your phone won’t even ring.

Call Screen lets you add or delete numbers whenever you choose.

To program your Call Screen list:

Press *60 and follow the voice prompts
To turn Call Screen ON, press 1 or 3
To turn Call Screen OFF, press 0 or 3.

You may even block “private” callers.

Follow the voice prompts and select the “reject the last calling party” option
after you receive the call.

[3g-gregg]

Try complaining to the CRTC and make sure you let TELUS know that you're taking your complaint 'official'. Subscribe to TELUS 'call block' and add your name to Canada's Do Not Call List. Good Luck we're all bothered by these calls and we can do something about them - exercise your rights! The 'Windows' calls are scams to get access to your personal information - give them nothing! But do ask questions - get lots of evidence and report it to the CRTC and RCMP to investigate it as fraud - links on every website.

[x katt x]

You can add call filters like Call Screen and Caller Reveal, add your number to the Do Not Call list, but there's really not a lot your service provider can do to stop people from dialing that number to call you.

They can change the TN for you, but you're probably better off keeping the one you have and doing what you can to stop the nuisance calls.

Report the scams to Phonebusters, the RCMP team dedicated to phone scams. Report telemarketers to the CRTC for abusing the DNC list.

http://www.phonebusters.com/english/...entitythe.html

[McPatrick]

yes call filters would do good but the problem is most of them block the caller ID

[Cockroach]

Or they can generate fake numbers.

[CrossConnect]

Don't answer them, let them go to message. Call display on your TV is great.