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Refusing to give it to them is different than saying you don't have one. A lot of people will act hostile if you refuse them. But if you just lie about it and s

Refusing to give it to them is different than saying you don't have one. A lot of people will act hostile if you refuse them. But if you just lie about it and say you don't have one, then they seem to be more understanding. That's been my experience anyways. It would be nice if the USG would fix this and force it to be optional. Companies might refuse you credit without a check, but not service. And really, who wants credit? I signed up with Fido (cell) in Canada, and the rep was going on about how since I was new, I'd have only $300 credit, but they'd raise it later. I laughed and said I would like to lower it. He was genuinely confused why I wouldn't want more credit. The fact that my service plan is only $60 a month so anything near $300 is fraud wasn't understood. (Fido charges $6 per kilobyte for US data roaming.)

logfromblammo 11y ago
Lying would be a functional workaround rather than active pushback. I specifically wanted them to justify their reasons for wanting the number, and why it would even be necessary to provide dial tone. Are you administering a government benefit? Are you acting as a tax withholding agent? No? Then you don't need to have my SSN, and it is a significant risk to me for me to give it to you. So I really need some rational justification for it. I already suspected the true reason. It was probably so they could more easily send and receive credit reporting information to the 3 big CRAs. And that's why I offered to pay for a year of service in advance. But they stuck to their "we just need it" and "it's company policy" non-reasons to the end. And when I heard about their data breach in April, I felt so much schadenfreude welling up within me that I just couldn't stop grinning, until I remembered that no one actually cares any more. I can't wait until mainstream businesses and government offices drop their PSTN numbers and start accepting synchronous audio-stream sessions (or "calls") between endpoints identified by a URN or user address. I hate, I hate, I hate "the telephone company".

logfromblammo 11y ago

Lying would be a functional workaround rather than active pushback. I specifically wanted them to justify their reasons for wanting the number, and why it would even be necessary to provide dial tone. Are you administering a government benefit? Are you acting as a tax withholding agent? No? Then you don't need to have my SSN, and it is a significant risk to me for me to give it to you. So I really need some rational justification for it. I already suspected the true reason. It was probably so they could more easily send and receive credit reporting information to the 3 big CRAs. And that's why I offered to pay for a year of service in advance. But they stuck to their "we just need it" and "it's company policy" non-reasons to the end. And when I heard about their data breach in April, I felt so much schadenfreude welling up within me that I just couldn't stop grinning, until I remembered that no one actually cares any more. I can't wait until mainstream businesses and government offices drop their PSTN numbers and start accepting synchronous audio-stream sessions (or "calls") between endpoints identified by a URN or user address. I hate, I hate, I hate "the telephone company".