Hi all, For my first post in my first thread I wanted to take an opinion poll of sorts. I'm hoping that if enough of us speak up we can influence the powers that be at Apple to either fix the problem themselves or motivate AT&T to do it on their end. Here's my story and argument:
For more than a decade now, hard line phones have been able to key in a code on their phone such as for my service, Comcast, the code on my phone is *77 to activate it, and from that point on any unknown caller who attempts to reach us is immediately linked to a verbal message that says something like "Sorry, this caller doesn't accept blocked calls, please unblock your number and try again." This service costs nothing extra at all, simply dial in the code for your particular carrier and the service is activated.
Also, as a Father of 2 daughters and a friend to many parents of children with cell phones, the number of stories I have heard regarding ex boyfriends, girlfriends and wannabe's who have refused to take no for an answer are too voluminous to count. Unwanted "unknown callers" is also an issue with me. Even if we ignore the call, that doesn't stop them from using up our minutes by leaving an unwanted message.
The fact is I ported my phone number from T-Mobile when I came to AT&T to own an iPhone and I was with T-Mobile since they were VoiceStream so I have had this phone number going back 13 or 14 years now. People all across America have my number and it would be impossible to contact them all to a number change, nor would I want to change my number because of one jerk who can't take no for an answer.
My reason for raising this issue here and now was caused by asking a group of 25 young people (my daughters friends at a social gathering) who were discussing their phone services; I kind of broke in and asked first, how many of them have received unwanted, unknown and harassing phone calls from people they didn't want to hear from, and secondly, how many changed their phone numbers because of these issues?
Guys and girls alike raised their hands and proceeded to tell horror stories of every conceivable type of harassment, many saying they have changed their phone numbers more than once in order to evade harassment from broken relationships and friendships as well as from unknown and blocked callers. In speaking to AT&T about this issue, even though they admitted no fix exists, they graciously (NOT) said that they will allow ONE number change at no expense to the customer. How generous as they make millions per year from the unwanted minutes burned up because we suffer through calls and messages we don't want to receive in the first place.
As to why I'm here on an Apple forum rather than an AT&T forum? Because I have shown that carriers have a financial incentive to ignore this national problem which is epidemic because the minutes wasted by these unwanted calls line their coffers to the tune of millions of dollars per year. But Apple has no such financial incentive to ignore this universal problem. Their priority is to serve our needs and deal with making our phone experience as pleasant and SAFE as possible so they will care if enough of us speak out and agree with the spirit of this message.
IN CLOSING, MY HOPE IS THAT THOUSANDS OF YOU WILL SIMPLY WRITE AT LEAST A ONE WORD POST "AGREEING" WITH THE SPIRIT OF THIS POST SO THAT THE POWERS THAT BE FROM APPLE WILL EITHER CREATE A CODE VIA AN UPDATE OR FORCE AT&T TO OFFER A FREE FIX FOR US. JUST THINK, THEY WOULD BE THE ONLY COMPANIES IN THIS INDUSTRY WHO HAVE FIXED THIS VERY REAL ISSUE. BUT FEEL FREE TO SHARE PERSONAL STORIES IF YOU HAVE THEM. TALK ABOUT BEING INDUSTRY LEADERS, ISSUES LIKE THIS DEFINE THE TERM FOR THE COMPANIES THAT LEAD THE WAY. SO PLEASE, IF YOU AGREE WITH THE SPIRIT OF THIS COMPLAINT, SAY SO HERE AND LET YOUR VOICE BE HEARD.
Thank you for reading my first post/Thread here, Let's rally the troops and together send a loud and clear message that the powers that be at APPLE and AT&T can't ignore. 10 years into the 21st century it's an abomination that this problem still exists.
For more than a decade now, hard line phones have been able to key in a code on their phone such as for my service, Comcast, the code on my phone is *77 to activate it, and from that point on any unknown caller who attempts to reach us is immediately linked to a verbal message that says something like "Sorry, this caller doesn't accept blocked calls, please unblock your number and try again." This service costs nothing extra at all, simply dial in the code for your particular carrier and the service is activated.
Also, as a Father of 2 daughters and a friend to many parents of children with cell phones, the number of stories I have heard regarding ex boyfriends, girlfriends and wannabe's who have refused to take no for an answer are too voluminous to count. Unwanted "unknown callers" is also an issue with me. Even if we ignore the call, that doesn't stop them from using up our minutes by leaving an unwanted message.
The fact is I ported my phone number from T-Mobile when I came to AT&T to own an iPhone and I was with T-Mobile since they were VoiceStream so I have had this phone number going back 13 or 14 years now. People all across America have my number and it would be impossible to contact them all to a number change, nor would I want to change my number because of one jerk who can't take no for an answer.
My reason for raising this issue here and now was caused by asking a group of 25 young people (my daughters friends at a social gathering) who were discussing their phone services; I kind of broke in and asked first, how many of them have received unwanted, unknown and harassing phone calls from people they didn't want to hear from, and secondly, how many changed their phone numbers because of these issues?
Guys and girls alike raised their hands and proceeded to tell horror stories of every conceivable type of harassment, many saying they have changed their phone numbers more than once in order to evade harassment from broken relationships and friendships as well as from unknown and blocked callers. In speaking to AT&T about this issue, even though they admitted no fix exists, they graciously (NOT) said that they will allow ONE number change at no expense to the customer. How generous as they make millions per year from the unwanted minutes burned up because we suffer through calls and messages we don't want to receive in the first place.
As to why I'm here on an Apple forum rather than an AT&T forum? Because I have shown that carriers have a financial incentive to ignore this national problem which is epidemic because the minutes wasted by these unwanted calls line their coffers to the tune of millions of dollars per year. But Apple has no such financial incentive to ignore this universal problem. Their priority is to serve our needs and deal with making our phone experience as pleasant and SAFE as possible so they will care if enough of us speak out and agree with the spirit of this message.
IN CLOSING, MY HOPE IS THAT THOUSANDS OF YOU WILL SIMPLY WRITE AT LEAST A ONE WORD POST "AGREEING" WITH THE SPIRIT OF THIS POST SO THAT THE POWERS THAT BE FROM APPLE WILL EITHER CREATE A CODE VIA AN UPDATE OR FORCE AT&T TO OFFER A FREE FIX FOR US. JUST THINK, THEY WOULD BE THE ONLY COMPANIES IN THIS INDUSTRY WHO HAVE FIXED THIS VERY REAL ISSUE. BUT FEEL FREE TO SHARE PERSONAL STORIES IF YOU HAVE THEM. TALK ABOUT BEING INDUSTRY LEADERS, ISSUES LIKE THIS DEFINE THE TERM FOR THE COMPANIES THAT LEAD THE WAY. SO PLEASE, IF YOU AGREE WITH THE SPIRIT OF THIS COMPLAINT, SAY SO HERE AND LET YOUR VOICE BE HEARD.
Thank you for reading my first post/Thread here, Let's rally the troops and together send a loud and clear message that the powers that be at APPLE and AT&T can't ignore. 10 years into the 21st century it's an abomination that this problem still exists.