Great thread!

It seems to me a dirt-simple solution which bypasses all the Bell's
"value-added" junk might be just an answering machine set to answer on the
first ring, and with the OGM set to something like: "Hi, you've reached the
desk of Bruce Cannon.  Who's calling please? [Three second pause] If no one
picks up, please leave a message at the tone."

Or something like that.

Bruce Cannon
Systems Designer
Style Management Systems
1228 Ceres ST
Crockett CA 94525
(510) 787-6870

bcannon@jps.net
http://www.jps.net/bcannon

Remember: electronics is changing your world...for good!

-----Original Message-----
From:   Matt Bonner [SMTP:mbonner@SUNADA.COM]
Sent:   Friday, November 06, 1998 9:51 AM
To:     PICLIST@MITVMA.MIT.EDU
Subject:        Re: Looking for information - telemarketing rejection

Dave VanHorn wrote:
>
> Some perverse people might want to allow unidentified callers at some
> hours, but there are good treatments available for those tendencies now.

I bought caller ID and name display to avoid these unidentified
callers.  Unfortunately, cell calls display no ID information (yet).
Since my company supplies most of us with cell phones, I *have* to
answer even the unidentified numbers in case the call is work-related.

One of these days I'll put up a web page listing companies that use
telemarketers - I wonder how well a boycott would work since nobody
seems to like these calls.

--Matt