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Also caused me to completely miss an appliance delivery because the driver called me from his personal cell, I forgot I had "unknown callers" filtered, and he g

Also caused me to completely miss an appliance delivery because the driver called me from his personal cell, I forgot I had "unknown callers" filtered, and he gave up when he couldn't reach me. Even though I get way more spam calls than legitimate calls, I realized that fully half of the legitimate calls I get are from numbers not in my contacts: delivery drivers, doctors offices, restaurants confirming reservations, etc. The collateral damage of this setting was worse than the scam calls for me.

wetpaws 4y ago
There is a solution for this and it's called SMS
- notahacker 4y ago
  I'm not convinced the solution to the problem "I'm not able to deliver this item because you're not answering the door or phone" is to expect delivery drivers to use asynchronous communication methods and plan their day around making deliveries when people that can't or won't respond immediately get around to replying. I receive more spam SMS than scam calls too. Some of them are even asking me to provide information for the benefit of fake deliveries...
deadbunny 4y ago
It's a delivery. Couldn't he have knocked on your door?
- alistairSH 4y ago
  They often call at dispatch time to ensure you’re there to accept delivery. They don’t want to drive out, only to have to return the appliance because nobody was home.
  - ninkendo 4y ago
    I’ve had several occurrences where a delivery person would get all the way to my house, park on my street, call my phone, and if I didn’t answer, just drive away. I don’t think it’s always about the mileage, sometimes the driver is just lazy and wants any excuse to not have to do their job. (It’s happened with a package delivery, as well as a washing machine installation. In the latter case it was Home Depot, when I finally got ahold of them they said it was my fault for not answering the phone and that I had to reschedule for 2 weeks out, meanwhile I didn’t have a working washing machine. I cancelled the order instead, went to Lowe’s and had a washer in a few hours.)
- Operyl 4y ago
  Drivers I have had in the past just don't want to waste the mileage and gas if they can't guarantee that someone will be there, which to some extent I can understand even if it has caused me to miss delivery windows..
- bluedino 4y ago
  If you're home working with noise cancelling headphones on chances are you might not hear it
  - techwizard81 4y ago
    if you are expecting a delivery, it might be common sense to not wear noise cancelling headphones!
phaedrus 4y ago
I just accept the collateral damage of never answering calls. Traditional telephone service is dead to anyone under 40.
- evo_9 4y ago
  Exactly, that's why I love this feature. I don't even have to ignore the call, it just silently goes to VM. Worth the occasional missed call IMO; I say on my VM msg if you are calling me and I don't know you leave a message otherwise your call will go to VM without ringing.
- e1g 4y ago
  Anyone under 40, who have no kids, don’t run a business, have no presence in the community, and socialize only with people under 40.
  - ianbutler 4y ago
    Pretty sure that’s actually a significant amount of people.
  - jacobmartin 4y ago
    I have two kids, am self-employed (tutoring) in my community, and have many friends and acquaintances are over 40 (from church, for instance). Sending unknown numbers to voicemail has been completely fine in every case. I've never missed an urgent call that I couldn't call right back after I read the voicemail transcription.
    - e1g 4y ago
      By contrast, in December, I had these time-sensitive calls from unknown numbers: airline lost luggage delivery, Amazon delivery who couldn't get in, my kids' doctors, my pharmacy, someone from my accountant's firm, a bank rep, and a few organizations returning my call. December was a typical month, if a bit slow. In theory, I could get a voicemail and then follow-up, but that would result in significant time wasted for both sides (e.g., calling doctors again or setting up re-delivery), and the total time I spent on dealing with spam calls is ~1 minute (5-10 seconds x 5-10 occurrences).
amelius 4y ago
There must be a technological solution to this problem ...
- jqpabc123 4y ago
  There is --- see my post above. Mobile phones just don't offer it by default --- the best most have is a "Do not disturb" setting. There is a marketing opportunity here for some software developer --- lots of people would actually *pay* for a mobile app that could effectively weed out auto-dialers and/or selectively send only unknown callers directly to voice mail without ringing the phone.
tenebrisalietum 4y ago
Should have had them text you.
- reaperducer 4y ago
  Yes, he should have totally gone to the dispatch warehouse the day before and looked up the delivery driver schedule and called the delivery driver at home to let him know that when he delivers his appliance the next day, he should text instead of call if communication was required the next day. Or even simpler, put on his Beam-a-Thought helmet and sent a message back in time directly into the noggins of every delivery driver at the warehouse. Victim blaming at its most absurd.
jqpabc123 4y ago
Compromise solution --- send unknown callers directly to voice mail. Or better yet, ask them to press a random number to connect the call --- before the phone will even ring or go to voice mail. This effectively weeds out most auto-dialers. I have a Panasonic phone (connected to VOIP) that has this feature built in. It also has text to speech that reads the caller ID out loud. It's amazing how creative these hardware vendors have gotten now that their market is shrinking. Mobile phones have some catching up to do.
oefrha 4y ago
Same problem with physical mail in the U.S. 99% of physical mail I get is commercial garbage, but I still have to sift through them since I don’t want to miss the remaining 1% from IRS.
ghaff 4y ago
And emergency calls of various kinds etc. Fortunately it's not so bad for me that I'm willing to make myself harder to reach for legitimate, and possibly important, purposes.

wetpaws 4y ago

There is a solution for this and it's called SMS

notahacker 4y ago
I'm not convinced the solution to the problem "I'm not able to deliver this item because you're not answering the door or phone" is to expect delivery drivers to use asynchronous communication methods and plan their day around making deliveries when people that can't or won't respond immediately get around to replying. I receive more spam SMS than scam calls too. Some of them are even asking me to provide information for the benefit of fake deliveries...

deadbunny 4y ago

It's a delivery. Couldn't he have knocked on your door?

alistairSH 4y ago
They often call at dispatch time to ensure you’re there to accept delivery. They don’t want to drive out, only to have to return the appliance because nobody was home.
- ninkendo 4y ago
  I’ve had several occurrences where a delivery person would get all the way to my house, park on my street, call my phone, and if I didn’t answer, just drive away. I don’t think it’s always about the mileage, sometimes the driver is just lazy and wants any excuse to not have to do their job. (It’s happened with a package delivery, as well as a washing machine installation. In the latter case it was Home Depot, when I finally got ahold of them they said it was my fault for not answering the phone and that I had to reschedule for 2 weeks out, meanwhile I didn’t have a working washing machine. I cancelled the order instead, went to Lowe’s and had a washer in a few hours.)
Operyl 4y ago
Drivers I have had in the past just don't want to waste the mileage and gas if they can't guarantee that someone will be there, which to some extent I can understand even if it has caused me to miss delivery windows..
bluedino 4y ago
If you're home working with noise cancelling headphones on chances are you might not hear it
- techwizard81 4y ago
  if you are expecting a delivery, it might be common sense to not wear noise cancelling headphones!

phaedrus 4y ago

I just accept the collateral damage of never answering calls. Traditional telephone service is dead to anyone under 40.

evo_9 4y ago
Exactly, that's why I love this feature. I don't even have to ignore the call, it just silently goes to VM. Worth the occasional missed call IMO; I say on my VM msg if you are calling me and I don't know you leave a message otherwise your call will go to VM without ringing.
e1g 4y ago
Anyone under 40, who have no kids, don’t run a business, have no presence in the community, and socialize only with people under 40.
- ianbutler 4y ago
  Pretty sure that’s actually a significant amount of people.
- jacobmartin 4y ago
  I have two kids, am self-employed (tutoring) in my community, and have many friends and acquaintances are over 40 (from church, for instance). Sending unknown numbers to voicemail has been completely fine in every case. I've never missed an urgent call that I couldn't call right back after I read the voicemail transcription.
  - e1g 4y ago
    By contrast, in December, I had these time-sensitive calls from unknown numbers: airline lost luggage delivery, Amazon delivery who couldn't get in, my kids' doctors, my pharmacy, someone from my accountant's firm, a bank rep, and a few organizations returning my call. December was a typical month, if a bit slow. In theory, I could get a voicemail and then follow-up, but that would result in significant time wasted for both sides (e.g., calling doctors again or setting up re-delivery), and the total time I spent on dealing with spam calls is ~1 minute (5-10 seconds x 5-10 occurrences).

amelius 4y ago

There must be a technological solution to this problem ...

jqpabc123 4y ago
There is --- see my post above. Mobile phones just don't offer it by default --- the best most have is a "Do not disturb" setting. There is a marketing opportunity here for some software developer --- lots of people would actually *pay* for a mobile app that could effectively weed out auto-dialers and/or selectively send only unknown callers directly to voice mail without ringing the phone.

tenebrisalietum 4y ago

Should have had them text you.

reaperducer 4y ago
Yes, he should have totally gone to the dispatch warehouse the day before and looked up the delivery driver schedule and called the delivery driver at home to let him know that when he delivers his appliance the next day, he should text instead of call if communication was required the next day. Or even simpler, put on his Beam-a-Thought helmet and sent a message back in time directly into the noggins of every delivery driver at the warehouse. Victim blaming at its most absurd.

jqpabc123 4y ago

Compromise solution --- send unknown callers directly to voice mail. Or better yet, ask them to press a random number to connect the call --- before the phone will even ring or go to voice mail. This effectively weeds out most auto-dialers. I have a Panasonic phone (connected to VOIP) that has this feature built in. It also has text to speech that reads the caller ID out loud. It's amazing how creative these hardware vendors have gotten now that their market is shrinking. Mobile phones have some catching up to do.

oefrha 4y ago

Same problem with physical mail in the U.S. 99% of physical mail I get is commercial garbage, but I still have to sift through them since I don’t want to miss the remaining 1% from IRS.

ghaff 4y ago

And emergency calls of various kinds etc. Fortunately it's not so bad for me that I'm willing to make myself harder to reach for legitimate, and possibly important, purposes.