Well I did it. I finally unplugged from the Phone industry.
No landline, No cell phone. No more robo calls, no spam calls, no scammers. NO one can call me anymore. Not even friends. Oh I still have a cell phone, but its only for calling 911 in case of an emergency. Just about any cell phone will let you call 911 even if it is not an active phone.
Months ago, due to the growing number of robo calls, scam calls, and other annoying calls, I talked with friends about this idea of going phoneless for a while. A trial run so to say. Never did that.
But last week I took the first step and canceled my Verizon account. This is saving me $75 a month.
I notified everyone that needed to know, that I would no longer have access to a valid telephone or cell phone and gave them instructions on how to contact me via email, US postal mail, or to stop in at my home.
People were surprised I did this. Many appeared to be upset or confused. Especially the doctors office and the Veterans Administration. They can still contact me. It just won't be instantly. A few companies told me they would no longer do business with me if I did not have a valid phone contact number. I told them fine, cancel my account then and I will take my business elsewhere.
For the last 8 weeks I kept records of calls made to my phone. Over 75 calls were made to me per week, and only 2 or 3 were people I needed to talk to. The others were Robo calls, spam calls, scam calls, and endless robo text messages.
Walgreens was the worst, Comcast/xfinity was 2nd worst tied with Spectrum health for robo calls.
It got so bad, I let my voice mail fill up so that it would not accept anymore robo recordings. And I changed the out going message to the old fashioned busy signal we used to hear on the old dial up land line phones. I am told it drives people crazy hearing it.
I think I am going to try this for 3 months and see how it goes. I might just like it. I might just end up pulling the plug on comcast internet too, as I can use my tablet or laptop to check email using wifi. I hear other companies are now coming out with 5G wifi internet packages that are far cheaper than the Comcast/Xfinity monopoly we have in this area.
Update. June 2022.. so far so good, and peace and quiet.. Now for phase 2.
I went out and got me a cheap phone. A throw away phone. I gave the number to friends only, and told them DO NOT SHARE their contacts with anyone or any program. I start using it tomorrow, 1 July 2022. Wonder how long before the spam calls start? I am not giving that number out to any one but 3 family members and 6 friends.
We will see
