Phone Phobia

I have had the same phone number since I moved into this home in 1978. I still have a home phone. However, I don't use it . The biggest reason I still have the phone is for Internet. I recently found out I don't need to have a home phone for Internet and will be cancelling it. But the biggest of the big reasons I don't use my home phone is it rings night and day, with telemarketers, bill collectors, and for a while, relatives who left nasties as messages. I used to just turn it off and leave the machine on to pick up the messages, but after one fitful night of constant clicking on for every message, I just unplugged it. 

 

Those bill collectors are not calling for me. I have always paid my bills on time and if I had a problem, I would call the business or company reps and explain to them what was holding me back and work something out. No, these collectors and scammers and spammers and even legit companies, are calling for my brother, my sister (dead), my mom (dead), and my dad (dead).  My family and death is in reverse order by age and demise. My brother is still alive and probably working on some scheme to finagle money or some service out of someone, just as he did to the three who died.  The companies he screwed over can figure it out for themselves. I did report him to several and still the lies and cheating went on. They all deserve each other. Sadly we, as consumers get this passed down to us in higher fees. I could write a book on my family and in fact am, for another day.

But my brother  gave MY phone number as the contact number. He gave MY address as the contact address. Thank god he didn't have access to my social security number. I got to the point where my phone ringing put a huge knot in my stomach. I don't even want to keep my cell phone and get that same feeling when it rings. Then that pit in the stomach also comes about when my door bell rings, or a knock tap tap tap on the front glass. Process servers were coming to my home looking for the three dead or the one living. No amount of telling them to go away or explanation on phone or at the door changes anything. The phone still rings, the doorbell still chimes and the letters still pile into my mailbox.

I am registered at the Do Not Call lists, I have returned the letters to the Post Office marked "no such person lives here", I leave a note on the door to leave packages but don't ring the bell, and still it goes on and on. I even went so far as to contact one of the lawyers who was sending mail to my sister and told him to cease and desist...guess what? I got a letter in the box last week that my sister is part of a class action-now get this-for a lawsuit against a phone solicitor! Bwa ha ha! Should that not be ME as the recipient?

So the reason I am writing this tonight is I came across this excellent script for when a telemarketer won't give up and what YOU should do....PRINT THIS OUT and read it and keep it by your phone. Keep a pen and write all the info down with dates etc. Be calm when speaking to the offenders-and don't let them do to you what this whole 2 decade long oppression has done to me.

I never liked phones-growing up I would just as soon have written a letter or made a quick date and hung up. Maybe it's because my sister beat on me for "hogging" the phone for 30 seconds. Maybe it's because the phone always brought bad or sad news. I'd rather talk to people in person so I can see their faces. Nothing has changed in my 50 plus years. I just wish I had parts of MY life back.