Frequent Calls from UNKNOWN ???

[Gadget_guy]

If, by accident, I answer a call from a telemarketer, I try to keep them on the line for as long as I can and use up their operating budget. I once had someone on the line for 25 minutes.

You tell them just to hold on a minute and then carry on with your work...

 

[Amith]

If, by accident, I answer a call from a telemarketer, I try to keep them on the line for as long as I can and use up their operating budget. I once had someone on the line for 25 minutes.

You tell them just to hold on a minute and then carry on with your work...

thats bad karma poor chap is just doing his work

The main issue is not forwarding their number for me.

 

[Syndyre]

If, by accident, I answer a call from a telemarketer, I try to keep them on the line for as long as I can and use up their operating budget. I once had someone on the line for 25 minutes.

You tell them just to hold on a minute and then carry on with your work...

There's that guy in the US that pretends he's a homicide cop at a scene and makes it seem like the telemarketers a suspect.

 

[Zulash]

welcome to south africa people... land of corruption and fat cat CEO's who care more about their ferraris and Beach mansions than the common man.

 

[Gadget_guy]

thats bad karma poor chap is just doing his work

And I am just doing mine

 

[threegee]

Interesting to see everyone's feelings about this and also glad to know it's not just me. I have sent an official complaint through to Vodacom and I am in the throws of preparing an objection directly to ICASA as this matter affects all forms of communication. Once I have that prepared I will post the objection here for others to copy and submit to ICASA. I will also post Vodacoms official reply here.

 

[threegee]

Thank you for your e-mail.

We thank you for your input regarding this matter.

To provide information of customers to a third party is against our privacy policy and not in accordance to our licensing agreement.
Thus, you are right in directing this matter to ICASA as this affects all communication networks in South Africa.

Unless your handset allows you to block certain calls(like certain Sony Ericsson models), you will not be able to restrict private numbers from calling your number.

Should you have any further queries, please contact us via e-mail at [email protected].

Warm Regards

Rashieda Jattiem

Email Contact Centre

 

[MyDummyName]

If, by accident, I answer a call from a telemarketer, I try to keep them on the line for as long as I can and use up their operating budget. I once had someone on the line for 25 minutes.

You tell them just to hold on a minute and then carry on with your work...

i agree with your strategy..

a buddy of mine does a similar thing whenever he gets a wrong number (come on guys it happens a lot! and then they insist you are the person they are looking for!)

he tells them to just hold on quickly, the person is in the toilet, then he goes on with work and 5 minutes later tells them the guy is coming now, just hold on a bit, he does this till they eventually hang up

they are irrittating and they call you at the wierdest of hours too...

 

[threegee]

Thank you for your e-mail.

We thank you for your input regarding this matter.

To provide information of customers to a third party is against our privacy policy and not in accordance to our licensing agreement.
Thus, you are right in directing this matter to ICASA as this affects all communication networks in South Africa.

Unless your handset allows you to block certain calls(like certain Sony Ericsson models), you will not be able to restrict private numbers from calling your number.

Should you have any further queries, please contact us via e-mail at [email protected].

Warm Regards

Rashieda Jattiem

Email Contact Centre

My response:
Thank you for your reply although I find it a kick-in-the-face attitude. I am NOT a Third Party ….. I am a customer of yours and I find these calls harassing and I would expect you as my provider to pay some more serious attention to my complaint and actually give a damn !!!!

This company / person making these unknown calls are annoying me as I now receive them almost daily and it is incredibly annoying to Not know who this person is. If I could answer these calls and know who it is I could tell them to bugger off but obviously as you will read in my original email that is not the case.

As my cell phone provider (since the day you first ever flipped the switch to make your network live in South Africa) I am certainly not impressed. Clearly this company / individual is seeking to procure a list of valid cell phone numbers to use for spamming or sending unsolicited SMS’s. Surely you as my provider should be doing everything in your power to prevent me being harassed????

Blocking unknown calls should be a network feature and not a cell phone feature. The calls should be blocked at the source without ever reaching my cell phone.

I will no doubt take this matter further with ICASA because it’s obvious to me that ALL the communications providers will carry on doing exactly as they please unless ICASA tells them they cannot do it. Seriously???? Can you guys not step up to the table and do something responsible without having “mommy” telling you to do it. Lead the way and set an example for the rest of the industry to follow instead of just doing what everyone else does.

 

[threegee]

Their second response:

Thank you for your e-mail.

We regret the circumstances under which this mail reaches us. The information given in the previous e-mail is correct. The alternative would be to report this matter to the SAPS as this sort of harassment could be considered a crime.

Should you have any further queries, please contact us via e-mail at [email protected].

 

[threegee]

Official complaint lodged with ICASA. Waiting to hear what the next step is.

 

[vodacom3g]

As my cell phone provider (since the day you first ever flipped the switch to make your network live in South Africa) I am certainly not impressed. Clearly this company / individual is seeking to procure a list of valid cell phone numbers to use for spamming or sending unsolicited SMS’s. Surely you as my provider should be doing everything in your power to prevent me being harassed????

Blocking unknown calls should be a network feature and not a cell phone feature. The calls should be blocked at the source without ever reaching my cell phone.

I will no doubt take this matter further with ICASA because it’s obvious to me that ALL the communications providers will carry on doing exactly as they please unless ICASA tells them they cannot do it. Seriously???? Can you guys not step up to the table and do something responsible without having “mommy” telling you to do it. Lead the way and set an example for the rest of the industry to follow instead of just doing what everyone else does.

threegee, I don't think that's quite fair. Vodacom often take the initiative to try and protect its subscribers. Often as a first, blacklisting handsets for example.

Vodacom stand nothing to gain from not trying to help its subscribers. It's just common good sense.

How would you suggest the network address this problem? Within the legal framework?

 

[threegee]

threegee, I don't think that's quite fair. Vodacom often take the initiative to try and protect its subscribers. Often as a first, blacklisting handsets for example.

Vodacom stand nothing to gain from not trying to help its subscribers. It's just common good sense.

How would you suggest the network address this problem? Within the legal framework?

Hi V3G, I know it may seem unfair, but it is equally unfair to have a valid complaint dismissed with the attitude of we have our hands tied and cannot do anything to help you.

It's not even like the matter is even under discussion, although you are the only person to at least read this and ask for a suggestion which is more than can be said for Vodacom customer care.

First off my complaint with Icasa is NOT against Vodacom, it's a complain in general regarding all Telecoms providers. I do not believe there should be an ability to hide your number, what is there really to hide?

In my case I am bl**dy annoyed by this regular UNKNOWN caller who calls almost daily, sometimes twice a day. If I could answer the call then I would tell them go and jump. But as you will read from earlier posts it is not possible to answer these calls, it just hangs up.

Now ... aside from the other comments on this topic I know of many people, friends, colleagues and family who I have been questioning about this issue over the last 2 weeks and everyone seems to be experiencing it.

Surely that would make this more of an issue that would require Vodacom to investigate?

Surely Vodacom would care about my privacy and look into the issue?

I am NOT asking Vodacom to give the persons details, I simpy want them to STOP it because it is really annnoying. You know if I receive SMS spam and telesales calls I have no problem because I am able to answer it and tell them to stop calling me or I can SMS them back and tell them to remove my address ..... but in this case I am totally unarmed and Vodacom as my provider seems unwilling to help.

I hear what you are saying that Vodacom has nothing to gain from not helping their customers but my first email to them asked a simple question and the response was that I should complain to Icasa. How is that helping me?

I certainly do not have time for all this nonsense but if something annoys me enough I make time. I cannot go down to the SAPS and lay a charge because who do I lay a charge against ..... Mr Unknown? I am not being sarcastic either ... think of the great fun I will have down at my local SAPS.

Hopefully you may have some positive suggestions regarding this ... I am all ears.

 

[vodacom3g]

I've picked this up on e-mail with yourself and some internal people but I'll post some of the points from my mail here for those who followed the thread:

Firstly, South African privacy laws prohibit any service organisation to give out personal details of any kind, unless requested by the courts / SAPS. So the proper routine is for you to lay a harassment charge with SAPS and they will take it further.

Secondly, most companies use least-cost routing where they connect cell routers to their switch boards to ensure mobile numbers are celled from the same network. This is purely to save on call costs. As a rule they turn off caller-id so you cannot dial back on that number as the call won't get answered. This is why you seldom see a company number on your caller-id.

Thirdly, I see the same thing with my TyTn (and previous HTC phones). They're notorious for dropping calls. I don't think it accounts for all your calls, but it might be an option to switch your phone to GSM-only and see if you can answer some of these calls.

To answer some of the points in your previous posts.

- I don't think anyone is dismissing your claim. There are laws that dictate these situations and Vodacom must obviously adhere to them.

- You don't need a name to lay a harassment charge. The police will request the info from Vodacom.

But, as per my mail, let's see what we can do before you might need to go to the men in blue.

 

[kapovski]

I havn't read this whole thread but here are 2cents worth from me...

Some tele-marketing companies have automatic-diallers known as "predictive diallers". The machine dials your number and when you answer it is supposed to connect you to a telesales agent within 1 second. If there is no agent to connect you to it drops the call or you hear nothing ('white noise').

The system is supposed to be clever enough to predict agent availability but sometimes gets it wrong. e.g. It would make 15 calls knowing that 10 agents are available because it would predict that of the 15 only 10 would be answered but if 12 are answered then it is short 2 agents so 2 calls get dropped and dialled again later. If the system is not setup correctly it could also dial after hours and have no agents on duty to connect to.

i think there is a law that says you cant have less agents available than calls made but am not sure.

 

[threegee]

Hi all, well I must say that V3G as always has come to the rescue by putting my query in touch with the TOP and I mean the TOP guys in Vodacom. The issue is not yet resolved but it seems Vodacom and myself are in agreement that this UNKNOWN caller is real fishy. They cannot seem to even trace these calls because the caller drops the calls before a connect is made thereby making it virtually untraceable. My suspicious nature lends me to believe it's something or someone with malicious intent ... but hey .. thats me ... I am super suspicious !!!! Well at least this incident is being taken seriously and I hope to have some resolve to this issue soon.

Thanks again to V3G who ALWAYS seems to kick things into high gear !!!!! .... V3g .... YOU DA MAN !!!!!

Cheers

 

[Badgal]

Hi guys! i'm having the same problem n its really annoying

 

[warwickw]

I for one am opposed to this Unknown numbering system or the ability to hide your number or have private numbers. It seems only those people with something to hide would want such numbers and it opens up a lot of avenues for criminals (mostly) to work freely without ever being known. Definitely an issue worth taking up with ICASA.

Firstly I too am very peeved with marketers selling rubish, insurance and asking for donations. We really need a government gazetted and official "Do not call" list in this country, with stiff penalties if a call centre transgresses the law.

On the above quote from THREEGEE, a lot of companies use leased cost routers, to route calls from their switchboards to cell phones via a cell phone router, the idea being cell to cell call are cheaper. 90% of these cell routers hide the cell number they are calling from, why because they are outbound routers and if anyone calls the number back they are useless as they don't route the call back in to the switchboard. Basically they hide the number so that customers, staff and others don't waste there money or time calling a number back that won't achieve anything.

 

[TiredOfWaiting]

threegee, I don't think that's quite fair. Vodacom often take the initiative to try and protect its subscribers. Often as a first, blacklisting handsets for example.

Vodacom stand nothing to gain from not trying to help its subscribers. It's just common good sense.

How would you suggest the network address this problem? Within the legal framework?

Allow a subscriber to block calls from all "Unknown" numbers or remove the feature that allows you to block your number... take your pick.

 

[warwickw]

Allow a subscriber to block calls from all "Unknown" numbers or remove the feature that allows you to block your number... take your pick.

I think the problem is the current legal framework, is behind the times. We need a consumer bill passed by the government that protects inocent consumers ie the elderly the sick and those that don't want to be bothered by call centres.

My mother-in-law 76 years old, has recently become the target of some characters, unfortunatly old people get to the point where they are too embarresed to ask young people for help or to check things out, and hence they become easy targets for call centres and the like.

We need a government mandated DO NOT CALL list that you can choose to be on, and all elderly people over an age are put on automatically likewise with the sick.