Private number
Sep. 30th, 2014 03:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bktheirregularBack in May, some person got hold of my mobile number and decided to call it on a lark. I don't remember what was going on with my job that day, but I do remember the person calling about seven or eight times that day, ending up with me yelling at him to delete my number from his phone and never call it again.
Needless to say, he didn't. Instead, he kept calling. Not every day, but enough to become annoying, while I was at work, getting ready for bed, in a meeting with partners, out to dinner, what have you. I couldn't block him, because his phone number was "private" - it doesn't go out over caller ID, and I couldn't find a way to simply block private numbers and let other calls come through.
The last straw came at 5:31am today.
Or rather, it came when I woke up at 8:30 and saw that I had two calls, at 5:31 and 5:32, from a "private number" that I had to assume was the same jackass, because anyone who possibly has a reason to call me at that hideous hour also knows my home phone. The only thing that saved me was that I had an app running that monitors my sleep time and movements, and that puts my mobile phone into silent mode when I check in that I'm going to sleep.
Otherwise, instead of annoyed, I'd be completely irate and ready to rip someone's head off.
Over lunch, I went over to OTE (the Greek national phone company) and explained my situation. I was told that while they couldn't block the specific person who'd thought it was a good idea to call me up at 5:31, they could block all "private" numbers, and give them a bounce message announcing that I was blocking private numbers. I figured that'd work for a while.
I'll have to see if it also bounces "unknown" numbers - such as international calls or Skype calls. Pain in the neck, and a sad commentary that some jackass can mess up other people's lives and not get hit with any repercussions, but it's not a perfect world.
Not by a long shot.
Needless to say, he didn't. Instead, he kept calling. Not every day, but enough to become annoying, while I was at work, getting ready for bed, in a meeting with partners, out to dinner, what have you. I couldn't block him, because his phone number was "private" - it doesn't go out over caller ID, and I couldn't find a way to simply block private numbers and let other calls come through.
The last straw came at 5:31am today.
Or rather, it came when I woke up at 8:30 and saw that I had two calls, at 5:31 and 5:32, from a "private number" that I had to assume was the same jackass, because anyone who possibly has a reason to call me at that hideous hour also knows my home phone. The only thing that saved me was that I had an app running that monitors my sleep time and movements, and that puts my mobile phone into silent mode when I check in that I'm going to sleep.
Otherwise, instead of annoyed, I'd be completely irate and ready to rip someone's head off.
Over lunch, I went over to OTE (the Greek national phone company) and explained my situation. I was told that while they couldn't block the specific person who'd thought it was a good idea to call me up at 5:31, they could block all "private" numbers, and give them a bounce message announcing that I was blocking private numbers. I figured that'd work for a while.
I'll have to see if it also bounces "unknown" numbers - such as international calls or Skype calls. Pain in the neck, and a sad commentary that some jackass can mess up other people's lives and not get hit with any repercussions, but it's not a perfect world.
Not by a long shot.
