If I am in the mood, I will play with them and string them along. Pretend that I don't understand the instructions and have them repeat, talk louder cause I cannot hear, etc. I have had one of the telemarketers tell me to go "F" myself and then hang up on me. My number must be on their "Do Not Call" list cause the number of calls decreased considerably :)

Besides not answering the calls there are three ways to help with this problem:

If Comcast is your phone provider they have a feature that allows you to block anonymous calls and manually enter up to 25 phone numbers to block.

Nomorobo works pretty good but as noted the phone rings once before being redirected.

If you are using a wireless phone and AT&T is your wireless carrier then download a free app called "AT&T Call Protect".

I have my iphone set to only ring when a call is from someone on my contact list. If the caller isn't on the list, I probably don't need to talk with them and if it's important, they can leave a message. I usually get one or two calls a day that the phone blocks, but hardly ever any messages.

May I know how you do that, please?

Certainly.......

Go to the "Settings" menu and look for "Do Not Disturb". In that menu select "Manual" and swipe the button to turn it on (it will turn green). Then go down to "Allow Calls From" and select "All Contacts" from that menu.

Hope that helps.

It did!

Thanks! :thumbup:

You're welcome.

If "Do Not Disturb" is enabled you should see a "crescent moon" icon near the charge indicator at the top of the screen.

OhioBuckeye
 

Your right! Carla forgets it's a phone & a phone has to ring to get calls from family or friends. If ringing annoy's her she's going to miss a lot of calls that she wants. Sounds like Carla, has to get a new phone, one with caller ID in it, then she'll know who's calling her. She forgets the annoying phone rings even when family & friends call. Sorry Carla, your reasoning doesn't really make sense!

Thanks for the use of the word LEAR --it drove me to a dictionary
and now I know.

Well here is some great news for those who don't want the phone to ring. There is a proposal that just went to the FCC to allow companies, robocallers, political parties, to fill your voice mail in box with messages without ever having your phone ring. So when you check your messages there will be so many great ones and the phone never had to disturb you.

This new service is being called ringless voicemail. It is an attempt to get around the rule against robocalls because according to those pushing this policy, if your phone does not ring then it wasn't a "call" therefore anti robocall rules don't apply.

READ all about it

This letter to the FCC says, and I am sure you'll agree with its reasoning,

" [our organization] supports this clarification, which is consistent with the language of the TCPA. A contrary finding would not only restrict an important form of non-intrusive communication; it would have serious consequences for the First Amendment rights of those engaged in .. communication via telephone. "

I do have caller I.D. Our phone is VOIP through Ooma. Ooma allows the blacklisting of innumerable calls, which I do almost daily. It worked quite well at first but now there are more and more unsolicited calls. By the way, caller I.D. is no guarantee that the person calling is really the person whose I.D. shows up. It's called "spoofing." I guess the only way to stop the ringing is to turn off the phone as I think you are suggesting (or not). My husband gets many calls from members of a club where he volunteers who mostly have cell phones with long distance area codes, so he is reluctant to let a call go unanswered even if he doesn't recognize the number.

Some phones have a setting that if a number is not in your contacts it will not ring.

We ask the caller to put us on their Do Not Call List and then I immediately use the phone's Call Block to block that number from even ringing once in the future.