AT&T Spammer calls

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1

After many decades of landline service, it’s getting real close to the time to shut it off…

Spammer calls vary from 2-to as many as 6 o7 daily, to where I off-hook, onhook without even saying anything any more… I was having a little fun hitting 0 or 1 to get to a live person, that guy with the odd accent, a variety of names, sometimes ladies, asking why they were lying, no, I am not your Dish or Sperum customer… No I don’t want to save on car repairs, etc…

The main reason initially for keeping the landline was for the E911 service, and that even in power failures, there would still be service. But now, very doubtful as the local cabinet where fiber terminates has a limited batter life…

Very close to dropping off, recycling all the subsets…

weco

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I turned the ringers off on my landline phones years ago. People who actually have business with me leave a message. Some of the scammers leave a message too. The “delete” button on the answering machine works perfectly.

Steve

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Yes, I also have most of the ringers off, left one at a really low volume, but it’s till an irritant… Lately I shut off the answering machine, one less irritant…

Someone mentioned they have a blocking ability, without CallerID, on their phone, but I didn’t get the brand, and if that exists, I’ll jump on one… at&t itself could do it, but don’t…

4

Lately I shut off the answering machine, one less irritant…

I used to have an answering machine that used tapes. I would start to growl when I heard the outgoing message tape start. Now, I have a solid state machine, so, unless the scammer stays on the line long enough to start the inbound recording, I don’t hear a thing.

Steve

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5

So far the blockers I see require CallerID subscriptions… Free on cellular, held hostage by at&t… Already pay too much to begin with, not adding on…

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6

Great topic.

I am not on AT&T for my landline, but I too get all these annoying calls that seem to spoof numbers in my area (sometimes they almost come close to numbers of old friends, which is kind of creepy). When there is a legitimate call, I am always amazed.

I wish I could figure out how to shut the ringer on my landline. I had an old Radio Shack phone system (cordless) for the longest time, then had to get a new, comparable one (I want to say it is the brand that begins with V, forget the full name off hand). For some reason, it always rings twice, then goes to voice mail…I can never answer it. So I always have to check messages, even for legitimate calls. I only have a flip cell for emergencies…I’m really not a phone person. Don’t use it for any smart features (if it even has them) and it is behind in the Gs (stuck at 4; I was sent a new one to replace the 3).

I hate paying my landline bill, but I am going to keep it. I too worry about emergency calling; I want to make sure my address comes up to the service, and although I am sure the digital/cable lines do the same thing, I just don’t have the confidence in it; probably just my ignorance. I should say too just for nostalgic reasons, I’d like to keep it. I am fighting becoming part of the cell phone generation.

I have to say, I did not understand the following:

“But now, very doubtful as the local cabinet where fiber terminates has a limited batter life…”

What does that exactly mean? Do you mean you have a landline that is connected to the web?

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I have to say, I did not understand the following:

“But now, very doubtful as the local cabinet where fiber terminates has a limited batter life…”

What does that exactly mean? Do you mean you have a landline that is connected to the web?

In order for the then Pacific Bell to provide internet access out to about 3 mills from the Central Office (CO), they made fiber optic links to local, to me, terminal cabinets that break the optical signals back down so it’s back on local copper lines. About 2 or 3 blocks away… Those terminal cabinets have to be powered, normally by commercial AC, but with battery backup, but this batteries are fairly limited as far as holding a charge. The CO has very large batteries, backup Generators or Tubings to keep them going, but all the remote terminal cabinets will need temporary generators to keep going more than a day, depending on usage…

The program that added the fiber links was called project Pronto… Initially it was going to replace all the copper with optical fiber to every home, but it ended when local beauocracies, heavy trenching cost made it an impossible task… At the time. in the '90s, my employer, Lucent Tech was the primary contractor for the project, we had acres and acres of equipment, fiber optic cable, NG generators, terminal cabinets, but it was cancelled, scrapped, managers retired, so only portions were done by local PacBell construction folks…

By the time I retired in '02 there wasn’t a sign of any further interest…

weco

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Thanks for that explanation. I now understand and learned something. I’m assuming my landline would not be affected by battery usage as it is the old type from years ago. (I hope, anyway)

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So far the blockers I see require CallerID subscriptions… Free on cellular, held hostage by at&t…

iirc, CallerID is part of the package with my U-Verse comms service, but my phones are so old they don’t support CallerID.

For some reason, it always rings twice, then goes to voice mail.

I am assuming your cordless has the answering machine built into the base unit. It’s probably something in the setup of the system, like setting the number of rings before the machine kicks in.

Your phone may be a VTech. My aunt had a VTech cordless. I took it out when I installed a Clarity (line of phones designed for people with impaired hearing) cordless set for her. Some time later, she had gotten the answering machine on the Clarity messed up. I was in the attic with her going through her late husband’s (retired career Western Electric guy) stuff, and I heard someone leaving a message on the answering machine. Back in the house, I checked the Clarity answering machine. Nothing on it. Some time later, I noticed the display on the base of the AT&T cordless in the kitchen showing messages waiting. Found several messages on the AT&T. Apparently, the AT&T’s answering machine had been set “on” all along, but was set to answer after a high number of rings, so never tripped before the answering machine on, first, the VTech, then the Clarity, which were set for a lower number of rings, picked up, until my aunt messed up the settings on the Clarity.

Steve

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Old copper lines that were near the Central offices wouldn’t be affected by the fiber links, likely under 2 miles, there was a footage limit, but it would also depend on what your local provider has done to extend their network/services… PacBell was pushing for DSL & TV over their copper lines, but it became too expensive… Last & heard from a field tech was that they wanted to abandon copper and go to local wireless… Voip…

11

(retired career Western Electric guy) stuff

So your Uncle was a WeCo guy! Hopefully a long and enjoyable career, we (WE) had so many factories, plants, Service Centers, field engineering, Installation groups it’s still mind boggling that it’s gone… I had near 40 years, ending in '02 with Lucent Tech, but worked with so many great people over the years, but, sadly, many have left us… There is a Western Electric/Bell Group as well as other Bell System of US & Canada, Alcatel and other telecom Groups that helps link folks together, share stories, Obits… Again, hard to imagine it all came undone…

12

So your Uncle was a WeCo guy!

I have mentioned him before. The guy who kept hand written paperwork for things checked out of the Kalamazoo Michigan Bell toolroom in 48, but didn’t keep any cost basis info for his T stock.

He moved to Cleveland when his wife, my aunt, got a job within her college degree there. He worked at Electro-Motive for a bit, wiring control panels, then moved to WeCo, wiring up switches. He finished as an instructor at the Dublin Ohio training center. They offered him a buyout around 85, when he was about 56.

Steve

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Well, I can’t blame him as far as calculating cost basis on our T, LU shares, in my case, as hourly, each week was variable amount, but the purchase was done monthly, so in the end as we sold off the last of the LU, which had become NOK, it was just a WAG, wild … guess, pick a number, who’s going to spend the time to prove it wrong. Nobody…

WeCo folks did move about, ending at the Training Center in Dublin was good, spent many weeks there off n on, many excellent instructors and a chance to meet fellow telecom/WeCo Installers from around the country…

So many good jobs in so many fields, poof, gone… I held out until I was nearing 62, when they made me an offer, adding to the pension, and seeing how it was going, I saw way more road time, maybe forced moves, so I grabbed it, DW was still working, so while it was a little shut for a while, we made it through… Spent that early retirement time trying to sort out all the bits and pieces of sock splits, mergers, and gathering them all into an EJ account, and simplifying the mess…

Survival!

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14

My saga contued today… I spotted a charge on my bill for SAVER60, $13.99 - Since we dont use Long Distance or InterLATA calling on the remaining wireline, there is no way that should ever have been there…

Spent hours of chasing to get at, see earlier at&t Bills, and as far as I can see, into 2021, they;ve been charging this… Anyway, round and round resetting passwords, verifying userID, but I seem to now have linked to original pacbell,net account to the AT&T wireline billing…

Did an online chat at 10:35 this morning, went through at least 6 chatters, as they handed me off to supervisors, from accounts to billing to concerns and back to the Billing team… #5 says she saw I was billed for an unused service and removed it, I requested a refund of all the prior charges as I never authorized that SAVER60 plan, and as she noted there was no call records as far back as she could see… # 6 fiddled around, dropped off after directing me to the 800-288-2020 line, well that, after the phone tree said they cannot reply as they are out of service doe to Emergency Conditions…

Haven’t given up, haven’t cancelled the wireline yet, but getting close, want to see some documentation that they removed the SAVER60 charge and also are refunding the errant earlier charges… So will call again…

What a fiasco! They make it difficult to see whether the myATT is wireless, internet, or wireline… And then the whole password mess… I looked again at whether I can get the old pacbell.net email to work on MS Outlook, and even that is a messy setup…

As a shareholder, long time customer, once employee, once WeCo vendor, it is really disappointing…

weco

15

Cancel it.

The E911 via a smart phone is creepy accurate and if you fall, the phone is with you not an eternity away from you. The quality of maintenance on the cabinets and the cooper leaving the cabinets is nin existent.

The entire switched network was scheduled for execution 3 years ago. Put your money in a decent smart phone and never look back.

I have an Iphone mini 13. Accidentally went swimming with it for an hour or so. No problems. Actually took some decent underwater pictures.

I have not bothered with a land line since 2010.

Cheers
Qazulight

2 Likes
16

[quote=“wecoguy, post:1, topic:72648, full:true”]
After many decades of landline service, it’s getting real close to the time to shut it off…

Spammer calls vary from 2-to as many as 6 o7 daily, to where I off-hook, onhook without even saying anything any more… I was having a little fun hitting 0 or 1 to get to a live person, that guy with the odd accent, a variety of names, sometimes ladies, asking why they were lying, no, I am not your Dish or Sperum customer… No I don’t want to save on car repairs, etc…

The main reason initially for keeping the landline was for the E911 service, and that even in power failures, there would still be service. But now, very doubtful as the local cabinet where fiber terminates has a limited batter life…

Very close to dropping off, recycling all the subsets…

My grandfather worked for att for his entire career. We received an inheritance that helped to put both my kids through college. Having said that, I harbor a hatred for att that is epic in nature. Their customer service is eight levels below abysmal. Took 90 minutes to update cc info with att, 90 seconds for Netflix. Att services are banned from my life forever, and we are better for it.

17

I know, we have very handy iPhone 11’s, we bought them to hold the monthly fees down, mine a Pro Max, with their own numbers, unrelated to at&t, using Verizon cell service because I know they have the best coverage for our earlier wanderings. I could theoretically add the wireline number to a second SIM in my Pro Max, but I really don’t care to have all the spam calls follow over to my iPhone… I’m also an AAPL investor/user, so no way I’d go o the at&t wireless they seem to be pushing… At least with verizon i can go into the Store and discuss any issues, upgrade, whatever, where the at&t landline services have no such option. Irritating, frustrating.

Later today I was able to login, see my Billing back to 12/2021, but none has any call records, as we never used the line for LD or InterLATA calling! So there was never a reason to ever bill me for the SAVER60 ‘service’. But I, so far have not seen where tht charge has been removed, nir any refund for all the months they’ve charged me, most likely way before 12/2021… They owe me!!

Yes, removal of their connection is next up, but I’d like to see them refund all the months of overcharging…

18

Indeed, there were many, many old friends at PacBell, AT&T in my 40 years at WeCo, Lucent, we were actually AT&T employees for a while, just before spinning off as Lucent Technologies… Many pensions, Benefits, investments, I still hold shares of T, dividends, nit great, but constant… But my pension moved from Lucent to Alcatel/Lucent, and to day is from Nokia, still going on, no COLA, but still OK… Also a VZ investor, dividends there as well…

Anyway, as noted I will keep prodding at&t, I have the transcript of where the support lady said she had remove the charge, but I still don’t see it reflected in the online account…

Yes, logging onto myATT is a miserable mess… Hours lost, where it could be so simple…

I just read through a lot of the at&t Forums, replies are so plastic, leaving a lot of frustrated customers… Pretty sad to see…

19

OK, today’s fun and games at at&t customer Service…

Began by trying the 800 288 2020 residential route again, trying for a Live agent, ended up, once again with the message that they could not connect due to ‘emergency conditions’… tried twice, got zip…

OK, back to signing in on att.com, went to Live Chat, indicated I was looking for Billing Refunds, went round and round, wuth their chatbot sending me to the 800 288 2020 number, tried several ways to tell it that the number was not useful, finally gave up…

Back to the 800#, instead of the residential option, went to the other, maybe business option, and there, finally it did connect me to a live person, Bill, in Missouri, and after explaining that I am not seeing either the cancellation of SAVER60, or a refund, as noted in yesterday’s Chat time… He wrote it up, sent to his manager, while I was still on the line, he came back that he had removed the SAVER60, and that his manager was limited to 60 days as far as the refund. He says it will show as a $40 credit on next month’s billing. Better than none, I guess… So we’ll hang on untill we see next month’s bill, then cancel it all…

Bill, CS, was actually pretty open, as I explained the reason for keeping the wireline, he told me that side of the usiness is collapsing, and actually suggested getting an Apple Watch, and let that handle the E911 service… Interesting, as I’m a long AAPL investor, we both have Apple Watches, iPhones, etc… So at least he did what he could, it would likely take a Small Claims court project to maybe force any additional refunds, not worth the hassle…

So for now, it’s maybe as good as it can get… Until we finally pull the plug…

weco

20

After messing up with a call to an inlaw using the landline, this month’s bill jumped from normally $50 to over $100! For the line I’ve actually turned down/off all the ringers!

So I pulled the plug today, called the 800-288-2020 line and set up the Disconnect order… An offer for $60 to transfer the number to a cell line, declined…

Sad to do it, we’ve had that number for many years, but bye, bye…

Still hold some T shares, so additionally sad to see…

weco