🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <32a194fe.5295808@nntp.ix.netcom.com>, latakia@ix.netcom.com 
says...
>
>We have Return Call (hit the # sign, then 69).  There have been
>numerous times when we'll get calls and I'll do Return Call and the
>message is "I'm sorry, but this phone number is out of the service
>area."  When I called Bell Atlantic, they said it was either a pay
>phone or a cellular phone.
>
>We were getting these calls at almost the same time every night for
>about a month, then they became random.  We'd pick up, say "Hello?"
>several times.  You could hear someone breathing, but there'd be no
>answer and after a long while, they'd hang up.  That's when we ordered
>Return Call.  We kind of freaked, thinking someone was casing our
>house, but the calls have stopped all of a sudden.
>
>One person said it was telemarketers and another said it was Bell
>Atlantic trying to drum up more business (ha ha). 
>
>Anyone else get these?
>

Yes.  For the first 6 months this year, every Friday night at around 12am,
the phone would ring.  It sounded like a fax machine at the other end, but
we were not sure at first.  It would just beep, beep, beep for a while and
then hang up.  Then 15 minutes later, it would ring again. And again.

I tried the *69 (and as usually happens), I'd get the "not in the service 
area" bullshit.  Tried talking to Bell Atlantic; they put traces on the 
line for two weeks at a time.  Everytime it called, I would immediately
call the number given to me by the Annoying Call office and give the time
and date.  This went on for weeks, and nothing *nothing* ever happened.
They could not find their rear end if they tried!

I ended up getting Call Forwarding.  When it called, I would forward my
calls to my office fax.  30 minutes later, I would cancel the forwarding.
When I got to work on the next Monday, I found out who was faxing me in 
the middle of the night!  I faxed them back with threat of lawsuits.  I
received a call shortly after with an explanation:  they had my number
in their database by accident (off by a digit); their computer faxes data
to customers late at night to save on the rates.

So, we fixed that on our own.  However, now we have been getting calls
recently where there is no one on the other end.  Just silence.

Maybe I'll just cancel Bell Atlantic and start using the pay phone at the 
end of the block.

Dave Jones