Letter: No-call strategy

To the editor:

Back in the day, how did my late buddy, Jack, get telemarketers off his back? So that they would never call again, especially during dinner? He asked, “What’s your home phone number?” Pause. “What do you want that for, sir?” “So that I can call you at home and bug you, just like you’re bugging me now.” Slam!

This was before the days of random and multiple robo calls from outfits like the one directing my wife and me to call about a possible credit problem. We were to press 1 if we wanted off the call list, 3 to speak to a person. So, day after day, we pressed 1. But for months the calls kept coming. Our moods soured accordingly.

Desperate, I turned to the Kansas attorney general’s web site. The site said this type of call was in violation of the Kansas No-Call Act.

Then I studied our directory of the latest 50 calls. Which unnamed company had used multiple numbers, times, dates, and calling locations? Then I called those numbers. In each case, I got the same recorded announcement from the familiar recorded voice that had called us for the last few months: “If you want off our call list, press 1.” So I did. Haven’t had a call since from this telemarketer.

My wife and I now have more quiet and privacy, enough to think I hear Jack proclaiming, “Craiger, I’m proud of you.”