Hyperdrive Your Caller I.D

The phone is ringing. You drop what you were doing and run for the phone. You pause. You look. Now you are puzzled, maybe perturbed, but you are definitely disturbed. There's a phone number. But the name appears as "Unavailable". You let it ring, until it stops.

Anxiously you continue to watch the console of your phone. If it's a telemarketer, you hope to hear what they're selling, in case you might be interested but without the annoying sales pitch. If it's a bill collector, they can collect dust because you're not squeezing blood from a turnip any time soon.

You watch for the blinking light that indicates "You have a message" but it never comes. These folks seldom leave a message. They intrude. They disturb. They raise the blood pressure of fixed income folks who find themselves overextended.

You take a moment to shake your fists at the unseen creators and proponents of the Do Not Call Registry. You know that they have failed and the gazillion calls will begin again. Day after day they will intrude on your life, liberty and pursuit of happiness once again.

That scenario is a composite of the many, many people participating and utilizing a website I ran across today. I book marked it as 800Notes.

I work in a call center, taking complaint calls for a large public utility company. The phone is hot and seldom stops ringing. I got a number of calls from the same number. Three times in an hour they called! Every time I answered the phone the line would sound dead so I would hang up.

I wanted to find out what telemarketer was dialing a business phone and hanging up just because I answered. I went to Google. In the search bar I typed "###-###-####". One of the top 10 selections was this new 800Notes. website. I clicked, entered the offensive phone number and was looking at a screen filled with personal notes.

The notes had been written and posted by people being annoyed, even terrorized, by the same caller. Their caller I.D. displayed as "Unavailable" on their home phones and they were getting very annoyed, even frightened.

Apparently, no one sitting at home had the courage to pick up the phone and answer. They were posting their concern and their fears on 800Notes in hopes that someone had solved or would solve their mystery.

And, so, I swooped in to save them all!

Being at work, I wasn't afraid of a big-bad-bill-collector. But, before I would consider actually calling that number, I saw it appear on my console caller I.D. I answered and this time the dead air merely intrigued me.

I hung on. The console displayed the message "connected" so I decided to wait as long as I remained "connected".

What did I have to fear? These people had the wrong number. These people had to stop littering my call sheet with their nonsense phone calls. It doesn't help my productivity stats to get "wrong numbers".

Besides, I had to help those poor, frightened people frozen and staring at their ringing phone. I would do what it took for the poor, poor people being terrorized by "Unavailable".

"Cash Call", the automated pitch had begun.

Para Espanol, sprechen zi doitch, "Dos".

I pressed "One", of course. I know that "dos" equals "two".

"Please enter your loan number or your social security number"

Like, Yeah! Right!

I held and pressed nothing.

A live operator answered the phone and greeted me, "Cash Call. May I have your loan number or your social security number, please?"

NO! I don't think so. You are calling a business number. Please delete this number from your call list.

And, in honor of all the frightened folks requesting help at 800Notes, I slammed down the receiver and entered my experience.

I was pleased with my good deed for the day. I went home very happy with myself. I cooked a fine dinner and dined with my husband. We were clearing the dishes and the phone rang.

"Unavailable".

I had no fear.

I let it ring.

I carried the handset to my computer, linked to 800Notes and entered the number displayed.

The most helpful people had left many, many notes on this very abusive telemarketer and instructions on how to proceed.

I am armed.

I am powerful.

I am free, I tell 'ya,

Free from "Unavailable"!

God Bless 800Notes!