Why Does Verizon permit us to be harassed?
TOSK1
Enthusiast - Level 3

I’m tired of these ridiculous telemarketing calls!

Why does Verizon ring my phone?

Re: Why Does Verizon permit us to be harassed?
Lee_VZ
Contributor - Level 1

We would like to investigate this further with you. I have sent you a private message to your forums inbox.

Lee_vz
Verizon Support

Notice: Content posted by Verizon employees is meant to be informational and does not supersede or change the Verizon Forums User Guidelines or Terms or Service, or your Customer Agreement Terms and Conditions or Plan.

0 Likes
Re: Why Does Verizon permit us to be harassed?
Anthony_VZ
Master - Level 3

There is also a difference between Anonymous calls and calls where caller ID information is unavailable. Anonymous calls are where someone punches in a star code to deliberately hide their caller ID information. These calls should not go through. There are some numbers where there is no caller ID information. In situations where these calls originate out of state, they will come through. I have attached a link that shows the difference circumstances where calls without caller ID information will still ring to your home.

http://www22.verizon.com/ResidentialHelp/Phone/Calling+Features/Anonymous+Call+Block/Anonymous+Call+...

Re: Why Does Verizon permit us to be harassed?
TOSK1
Enthusiast - Level 3

Thanks for your help. I may be an old timer, programming mainframes for 30 years but in my day I would have handled it with a simple IF statement.

If FIOS-Customer-Do-Not-Call = ‘x’ and

    Caller-ID-Number  =  “unavailable”

          Then Do-Not-Ring-their-Phone.

We are also having another strange problem. Its not necessarily a Verizon problem but is a little strange. It’s almost like the caller Id is being spoofed.

Even though we’ve been on the “do not call” list for years we’re starting to get a lot of telemarketer calls. I started recording them in an access database and will be filing a complaint with the FCC in the near future.

When we receive one, I try to instantly call the number back. Most times I hear a recording something like this “You have contacted a telemarketer, press 1 to add your number to our do not call list, it should take 24 hours”

This seems to work for most numbers but is a royal PITA especially when an empty message is left in our voice mail box.  We have been bothered again several times by the same number after 24 hours elapsed.

What really bothers me are the numbers I can’t call because they don’t seem to be valid. I try calling MANY times.

{edited for privacy}

Re: Why Does Verizon permit us to be harassed?
Lee_VZ
Contributor - Level 1

There are some exceptions to who can and can't call when you are on the DoNotCall registry. My home number is also registered and I get numerous unsolicited calls, but in my case they are political organizations, charities, etc which are not restricted. You had mentioned you are collecting the offending numbers, in addition to filing a complaint you can also block the specific number on the FiOS Voice website. That is how I deal with unsolicited numbers that call me more than once.

Lee_vz
Verizon Support

Notice: Content posted by Verizon employees is meant to be informational and does not supersede or change the Verizon Forums User Guidelines or Terms or Service, or your Customer Agreement Terms and Conditions or Plan.

Re: Why Does Verizon permit us to be harassed?
TOSK1
Enthusiast - Level 3

Thanks for the help.

MANY of telemarketers who call are offering a lower interest rate on a credit card.

It would be VERY nice if I could block specific numbers AND unavailable/anonymous calls but I don’t think that is the way it works.

image

And 7 of the phone numbers from my list, I can’t call because the call does not go through for various reasons. How can caller ID provide me with a number that I can't call back? 

Re: Why Does Verizon permit us to be harassed?
TOSK1
Enthusiast - Level 3

I have removed the "Privacy concerns" data from my list. I find it ironic their numbers are protected but mine are not

image

Re: Why Does Verizon permit us to be harassed?
mld53a
Enthusiast - Level 2

I wish there was someone at Verizon who were really looking at these complaints and taking it upstairs. I spent the better part of my work day trying to solve this incessant influx of telemarketing calls. My wife is almost at the point of a nervous breakdown (I am not kidding) and I do not want to change my number but it looks like I have no choice.

Let me explain:

First I find out that the $3.00 I pay every month to have my phone number unpublished is not preventing it from being listed in the Verizon directory. I have to pay $3.50 a month for this so says the customer service person who didn't understand why I was only paying $3/month. Nobody told me this when I first signed up and this explains why I am getting so many spam calls on both my home and home office number. And the timing bears this out, it all started recently after I signed up with FIOS. So it looks like I am going to lose my phone number of 40 years because a Verizon rep (actually it was a commissioned outside company who came door to door who was more interested in getting the commission than making sure the order was correct.) Why Verizon has $3 and $3.50/month options is ridiculous in itself, unlisted is unlisted and not unlisted except!

So today my wife starts crying and I am getting real mad. I call the tech support person to ask why I am getting these calls with anonymous call rejection on. He confirms that it is on and when he realizes that the data coming across for the caller ID is ???????? (Yes, that's what the caller ID says, it is either set to question marks or the caller ID info is not in the right format and so my phone displays the question marks. And to make things even worse, this call is not recorded in the history nor reported me via email since I have this option on. So again, I ask why this call is coming thru. "Sir, it is NOT anonymous since there is caller ID data so we don't block it. And we know that telemarketers have figured out that this is a workaround to getting by the anonymous call rejection block.” So I said, this is a simple thing to filter for and you could write some very simple code to block calls with caller ID data that is invalid or all question marks. He explains that Verizon policy is to pass calls with caller ID data since it is not anonymous. I insisted this is stupid, that is not data – there is no company in the world with this name. He then insists that this is Verizon policy. I then ask, well who sets this policy, I want to contact him. He then goes on to say that this is the law; it is not anonymous if it has data even if it is all question marks. So I ask what law is this because I want to write my congressman. I don’t know, it doesn’t state this in our policy.

Now don’t get me wrong, the agent was polite but either he could not see my point on how this policy is stupid and if the telemarketers are exploiting this loophole and Verizon is aware of it, then why don’t they stop it!

(By the way, earlier he told me I could select 6 or so numbers to specifically block since I mentioned that some telemarketers spoof the caller id to be 000 000-0000. I told him that the data entry screen rejects adding this since it considers it an “invalid” number. Of course it is, that’s why they use it, because it keeps them anonymous. And of course you cannot have anonymous call rejection on and also block 6 or so specific numbers.)

We get these calls at all hours of the night as if someone is targeting us. When I mentioned this to the Verizon rep, he said that the harassment call department cannot even help if there is no caller id to identify who is calling. And to make things worse, when I am out of town or even out of the country, it cost me real money to receive these telemarketing  calls wherever I am in the world and, because of the time zone differences, it is usually the middle of the night.

In conclusion, my wife and I are heartbroken that we will be forced to switch our numbers and there is no technical solution that is offered by Verizon such as correcting the issues described earlier or implementing some sort of junk call screening service like Google Voice. (I investigated using Google Voice but forwarding to it doesn’t work as earlier posters pointed out. And, according to Google, I cannot port the number over to Google voice and forward calls to a new number I get from Verizon.) We would gladly pay extra for a spam filtering service.

So here we are, I believe its Verizon’s fault but even if it is not, Verizon offers no technical solution to the problem. And I would write my congressman to get the law changed if indeed the law is actually written this way. I welcome someone from Verizon to discuss this with me privately; obviously you have my phone number to contact me with.

Oh, and please, if someone from Verizon responds to this post to put yourself on the do not call registry, I have been on it for at least ten years and used the process to confirm it.

Frustrated Mike and crying Lori in Buffalo

Re: Why Does Verizon permit us to be harassed?
Hubrisnxs
Legend

Anthony is right,  it's a deficiency in how calls can be blocked, and it's existed since the invention of that feature.  If there is caller ID information being passed to mark the call private then it cna get blocked.  If it's a call that doesn't pass any caller id info and simply says unavailable, or it's an out of area call that has to pass through several phone companies to get to you like a long distance call would then the service doesn't work.  The integrity of the caller id information has been compromised and that system can't block those calls.

the only solution I have found have been hardware solutions.   Look for caller ID manager's, privacy corps offers one and there are others, I am sure, available at amazon.com

Re: Why Does Verizon permit us to be harassed?
mellrocks
Enthusiast - Level 1

I agree on this. Unavailable calls NEED to be stopped! I have anonymous calls blocked, so why should these calls be any different? I'm sick of being harrassed all hours of the day, woken up constantly; and best part-I can't do anything about it, because there is no number to report! PLEASE ALLOW THESE CALLS TO BE BLOCKED! YOU DO NOT DESERVE TO CALL ANYONE IF YOU DO NOT IDENTIFY YOUR NUMBER.