'extended warranty' insurance policy cold calls just do not seem to end

The vast majority of mine also stop at the answering machine.

But the continual ringing still produces too many interrupts. I occasionally sample some to see what the criminal enterprises are up to now. This provides clues for what new things to be wary about.

 

LOL!

ALL of my calls go to google. I screen them as text messages a couple of times a week. If something is urgent I can be emailed. Then response is usually within a few hours. My wife and kids know how to text me; everybody else can go grab a coffee.

 

My house phone is just some outdated legacy thingy that is a requirement of my broadband supplier. I have a cheap phone connected to it and have the ringer switched off. Every now and again the little light flashes as a call comes in. Seeing as nobody I know has the number, I never answer.

My mobile number is secret and only given to friends.

 

Google already as too much on us, I don't want to give them more. We are still facebook refuseniks, the terms of service are simply unacceptable to us. Our old fashioned cell phones are not surgically implanted. The spouse spent too much of her career taking incoming phone calls, so hates them. Thus, she won't turn her cell on unless expecting a call, and even then has it buried so deep in her pack that she can't hear the ring 90% of the time. We don't have smartphones, the wife hardly even texts, so I've texted with her girlfriends far far more than with her.

Dad was a late comer to mobile phones (due to poor rural coverage), but now has it surgically implanted like most people. But at his age and declining health, he will never learn how to text, nor send or receive email on any kind of device. And due to his situation, his calls are now the most important.

So our primary contacts are still the old fashioned voice phone, and non-mobile email.