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Possible Warning about 7-11 speak out
March 4, 2009
5:45 pm
mogivite
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This is a deduction on my part so take it for what it's worth. But i still thought people might want to know about this.

I recently (3 months ago) purchased a speak out phone, the sole purpose of this phone was as a buzzer phone for my building as my building requires a phone number for the system to call to allow you to buzz people in to the building.

The only person who knows the phone number is the building manager so he could put it in the system.

No one else was given this phone number by me at all.

From the day i activated the phone i have received 4-5 telemarketing calls (automated) per day. The phone never stops ringing.

There are 4 possibilities as to how these telemarketers got that phone number.

1) The building i live in sold the phone number to telemarketers.

I have spoken to other people in the building and none of them have experienced this problem with their cell phones or home phones that they are using for the buzzer system. so i doubt this is the case.

2)All of these telemarketing companies are connected or somehow randomly came up with my phone number on that phone and started calling it the same day i activated it (unlikely)

3)The phone number was in the database and they were actively calling it even though no one was answering it even before i got the phone and it just continued (possible)

4) Or the most troublesome... 7-11 speak out sells your phone number to telemarketing companies. IF this is the case it is bad enough that the company that supplies you with a phone number then sells it to other companies to telemarket to you. BUT even worse that it is a pay as you go phone. As the telemarketing companies burn up your minutes every time you accidently answer them.

You can come to your own conclusions regarding this, or perhaps speak out can address this and put our minds at ease. while i ask that you remember this is just an educated guess and i hope that i am wrong, it is something that people should certainly think about when considering buying a speak out phone.

It's quite possible that i somehow missed a section of the terms of agreement that allow them to sell my information to telemarketers but i thought i read it all pretty carefully.

March 4, 2009
5:54 pm
bylo
519
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5) Your cell number was recycled and the calls were intended for the previous owner of that number. AFAIK numbers can be reassigned as soon as 90 days after disconnection.

I can disprove 4). I've had a cellphone with my current number for 4 or 5 years, first with Bell and now with SO for the last couple of years. I've had maybe 3 unsolicited telemarketing calls during that period. I get about one "wrong number" a month too where someone leaves me a message that's clearly intended for someone else. If SO sells their customers' numbers then why have I been spared?

March 4, 2009
10:09 pm
Flash
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This is the likely reason. The numbers are recycled.

March 5, 2009
12:04 pm
rrraven
Toronto
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Flash said:

This is the likely reason. The numbers are recycled.


It's not quite that simple. Our family has two speakout phones and a PetroCan Mobility phone. Two of them we've had for a year or more. A few weeks ago, all three phones started getting these annoying calls.

The superstitious paranoid person in me thinks I caused it by slamming down the home phone after getting one and announcing it was time to just eliminate the home phone and go cell-only. (I use the phone seldom enough that even then Speakout would be a reasonable choice for me.) Two days later, my cell phone got the dreaded "second notice to renew my vehicle warantee" call. 🙁

After a few of these, it occurred to me that even though it's a recording the Magic Words might work. So the next time I pushed 1 for a human, and when he answered said "Please put me on your No Call list". He acknowledged doing so. That was just a few days ago, but so far, no more calls on that phone. Hoping it works!

March 5, 2009
1:28 pm
bylo
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I use the phone seldom enough that even then Speakout would be a reasonable choice for me.

As soon as you start giving out your phone number you put yourself at risk of getting spam calls. That doesn't mean that SO sold your number. It means someone you do business with has.

So the next time I pushed 1 for a human, and when he answered said "Please put me on your No Call list". He acknowledged doing so. That was just a few days ago, but so far, no more calls on that phone. Hoping it works!

Even if the telemarketing organization wants to honour the DNC list it can take weeks, if not months, for updates to propagate out. You certainly can't expect calls to stop after a few days.

And to make matters worse there have been reports that some sleazy telemarketeers use the DNC list to get a supply of active phone numbers to call. (Again I'm skeptical. Both of our SO phones went on the DNC list the first day that site opened yet we rarely get spam calls on them.)

March 26, 2009
9:02 pm
mcpm
Guest
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Same thing with my phone.
Avg 3 telemarketing calls made by machines since my phone was activated.
Sometimes fax machine calls.
It is extremely annoying. Wrote to speakout CSR and was told my best option
is to request for a number change.