Forget Net Neutrality, If the @FCC Wants to Improve My Life, Focus on Fixing the Telephone Caller ID System
I have written before that the caller ID system in the US is totally broken. It is bad enough at home, but there are legal protections against spamming home numbers that mitigate some of the issues. I will tell those of you who complain about spam on your cell phone or home phone that you have not seen anything until you have a business line. The calls are endless, and caller ID is totally useless because every telemarketer seems to spoof the caller ID. I have almost stopped answering by business number (more on that in a minute).
I did answer one call the other day that said it was from something like Loretta Smith. I picked up and answered (thinking it might be a customer) and the person, obviously a male, said "I am calling from Such and Such capital company". I get these all the time - banks won't make cash flow loans to any small business, even one with over $10 million in sales, but everybody and his dog wants to do equipment leasing. So I began calling the person Loretta. After a few times of this he got mad and asked why I kept calling him Loretta. I said the caller ID system said he was Loretta, and that if that is incorrect it likely means his company is spoofing the system and that I was super unlikely to make a major financial transaction with a company whose very first contact with me was based on fraud.
As I said, I have mostly stopped taking calls. I have a voice mail message that tells folks my email and that they are welcome to email me and I will get back to them promptly, which I do. I still encourage front line employees and customers to contact me personally if they are having an issue my local managers can't fix. I used to get these calls by telephone but I just can't answer my phone any more, it wastes too much time dealing with spam.
I have written about my personal frustrations before but what really got me to write this post was a contact with a sales rep for a product I was buying. This person's entire income comes from phone calls from customers wanting to buy this company's product (for which they are the exclusive local distributor). This is a one-time product sale and so typically she does not know her customers, they are all new. When I first called, I got her voice mail. In the middle of leaving a message, the person picked up and said she was sorry but she hesitated to answer her phone due to all the spam. Can you imagine? A salesperson who depends on people calling to buy product that doesn't want to pick up the phone. That is a broken system.
