h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

"It's making real life uses of the telephone unusable"

I disagree. My landline is perfectly usable - I just have almost no use for it, to the point that the only people using it are the scammers. This is of no inconvenience to me though - I don't have to answer and I feel no cultural pressure to be polite to unsolicited callers (your mileage may vary).

(Comparative aside here: I listened today to an interview with Jimmy Carr, who was discussing, among other things, the fact that his latest show will not be coming out on DVD. Instead, it's going on Netflix. The interviewer said it was an interesting choice, and JC responded that it wasn't a choice he'd made, it was a choice the public had made a couple of years ago when they stopped buying DVDs. Physical media are obsolete, and so are landlines.)

Landline isn't quite obsolete here - no mobile signal in the house. But we don't often get unwanted calls and I hang up if I answer one by mistake.

My uncle deals with calls about his 'recent accident' by saying 'was that with the audi in Altrincham? No? The BMW in Birmingham? The corsa in Colchester?' and so on. I think his record is G before they hung up.

Mol

Here's a little ditty from the early interwebs.

http://egbg.home.xs4all.nl/counterscript.html

It's a "reverse script" for telemarketing calls. They work form a script, why shouldn't you?

I confess that some days I feel like taking revenge on some hapless telemarketer who probably earns very little and puts up with a lot of abuse for the little that they do make.

My bride is one of those telemarketers --- and yes, she has learned of more parts of the female anatomy (by explicit names) than she learned from her 54 years of life.

The best part is when someone of extremely broken and difficult language DEMANDS that she go back where she come from and learn Inglitch ! Ummm, she's 5th generation English/French Canadian.

Maybe partly that - but mostly I think it's gangsters.

Sorry, that was a reply to post 20 - doh.

My point was not just regarding landlines but mobiles also - scamming is not restricted to land based phones. I do not answer unknown numbers on either device.

My point was that you might want a call from the shop you're dealing with but if they use a number you don't know they won't call it.
Of course they can text and mail and such now - so yeah there is an obscelescence factor in there - but some people - older people for example (generalising a bit) - don't necessarily have or want email, smartphones etc - kind of cuts them out of things.

I am also quite happy to tell unsolicited callers to naff off if necessary - I have enjoyed taking the piss out of their obvious scams on occasion but it's quicker just to not answer in the end.

'...but if they use a number you don't know they won't call it.'

...but if they use a number you don't know you won't answer it.'

My brother in law is superb at this. He patiently answers their questions with questions, always polite. His record is 23 minutes and he's been cursed, insulted and sworn at when they realise he's at it.

A coworker of my uncle, both of whom were auto-body instructors at a community college, kept a paint supply salesperson on the phone for the better part of the day. It was a cold call directly to the instructors' office. If they salesperson had done a bit of inquiry, he would have learned that all such purchases are done through the administration office, not through the instructors directly.

This instructor kept them on the phone by asking about certain products and feigning great interest in many expensive pearlescent paints and such. He would occasionally put the salesperson on hold for extended periods with various excuses. He actually had little to do that day as the students were taking their tests and he just had to check on them occasionally.

I'm sure that was one hell of an order that the sales rep had written up pending a purchase order that was never to come.

Slightly off topic, but I've just been reading about the "Dial a random Swede" project.

250 years ago Sweden became the first country in the world to introduce a constitutional law to abolish censorship (so maybe this also belongs in the superinjunction thread.)

To mark the anniversary you can dial +46 771 793 336 and get connected to a random Swede, anywhere in Sweden and talk about anything you want. There are local numbers rather than getting charged international rates, in the UK it's 0203 808 9899. All the random Swedes are volunteers, so you're not dialling someone at 5am who doesn't want to talk to you.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtb3f_NAmK0#t=19

http://theswedishnumber.com/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtb3f_NAmK0#t=19

Random Swedes might be a good name for a band.

Blue Swede worked ...

Take a chance, take a chance, take a take a chance chance....

ABBA

Sandi Toksvig dialled a random Swede in QI this week. He was shopping.

Some Swedes are more random than others.

I saw that, Coelecanth, he had a good answer for the question they had prepared, too. Classic QI.

Was that her Randi Scandi? I haven't seen it yet. I must say, so far I'm loving her hosting

Deb