I will be posting six days a week for the month of April - (with a rest day on Sunday).
Each post will begin with the corresponding letter of the alphabet beginning with A and finishing with the letter Z.
I began participating in this challenge in 2012. With the exception of last year, I believe I completed the challenge each year. Last year I lost steam somewhere around the letter W.
Things I Don't Understand
I don't understand why we get 10 to 12 unwanted and unsolicited phone calls a day. Eleven of those calls are not from humans. Thanks to caller ID, which flashes the name and number of the caller across our TV screen, we almost never answer the phone. Obviously, the robot making the call doesn't get offended or dissuaded from making these calls even though they are never answered.
Do these companies and charities actually find these calls to be effective? I imagine there is some statistical data to support their practice of making these phone calls?
We are still old school and have land lines. We have phone extensions in three rooms of our house. I recently discovered that I could silence the ringers on all of the phones. We do have an answering machine. So, if the call is urgent the caller can leave a message. Also, most people who are important in our lives have our cell phone numbers.
Along those same lines, I don't understand why most of the daily mail we receive contain unsolicited requests for money. I don't understand why many of the charitable organizations send us stuff.
Calendars, labels with our name and address printed on them, note books, pens and even coins are stuffed into envelopes which are stuffed into our mailbox.
Am I supposed to feel obligated to then "pay" for these items in the way of a donation? I don't.
Most of the mail we receive is ripped up without even getting opened.
I have lived a lot of years. There are many things in my life that I don't understand. Sometimes, thinking about inane things like unsolicited phone calls and mail is a good distraction to keep me from thinking about other things that have happened in my life which remain heartbreakingly unexplained.
I have to have a landline for work and I rarely give out that number. It is amazing the amount of calls I still get on it. I answer them sometimes and when it is a solicitor I do ask to be removed from their list. Our phone service supposedly can detect robocalls but I'm not sure how accurate they are in preventing them from coming in. I too don't contribute to an organization that sends me things personalized. If they want to waste that money in that way, so be it. I will use though the address labels they send. Why not?
ReplyDeletebetty
You know, thank you for the suggestion to pick up the phone when the unwanted call and ask them to take me off their call list. I hadn't thought of doing that. I will give that a try. It might at least reduce the number.
DeleteIt's like spam. Why? They must make a profit out of it somehow, yet they keep doing it. My cell has lately started getting so many calls from "local" numbers. No one calls me. I don't want to talk to anyone. So, I ignore. But I'm getting more calls, not less.
ReplyDeleteMy cell has been relatively spam free, but I am starting to get one or two now and then.
DeleteWe have to have a landline so we can have internet. Like you, we never answer it. We added voicemail and it's rarely anything we need to call back. Even our cell phones don't get answered if it's a number we don't know, unless we are expecting a call and don't have the incoming number.
ReplyDeleteBefore we moved to Ecuador, we signed up for a Google Voice number. That is now the number that gets given out to 90% of places asking. We get an email when it's called and a transcription of any voicemail left. Love it!
DB McNicol, author
A to Z Microfiction: Unicorn