phone-calls

Skype Starts Running Ads, Says You Won't Notice
Looking to dial up another income stream, Skype plans to start running ads on its home tab, and promises they'll be unobtrusive solicitations from the likes of Groupon, Visa and Universal Pictures. More »

Keep Your Small Dog Info To Yourself; The Person Calling You Doesn't Need To Know
Here's a weird possible scam going around. Our reader Chris writes, "Every day for the past week, I've been getting an automated call that asks me, 'This is Survey 2010. Do you have a small dog?'" More »

Video Store Guy Calls Me 8 Times About Overdue Movies
Jon neglected to return a couple DVDs to the rental store on time and had to suffer the telephonic wrath of someone who bombarded him with 8 consecutive calls from both the store phone and his personal cell. More »

Obsessive Debt Collectors Mixed My Roommate Up With Some Other Guy
Curt says his roommate can't shake a pushy debt collector who won't get it through his head that he mixed up his identity with some guy who owes AT&T for DSL service. He contacted AT&T but the company seems unwilling/unable to call off the dogs. More »

Guess What? Your Roommate Called Us About A Potentially Embarrassing Product!
Dawn tells Consumerist that she had a potentially embarrassing experience recently involving a phone call, a celebrity-endorsed beauty product, and a shared phone line. She called to ask some questions about Joan Rivers' Great Hair Day, a special hair powder marketed to women with thinning hair. Much to her horror, even though she didn't provide the company with her phone number, they called back within minutes to talk about the product, without even checking to see whether it was Dawn who answered the phone. Nice. More »

Debt Collection Company Sued Over Racist Voicemails, Must Pay $1.5 Million
Advanced Call Center Technologies tried to collect $200 on a disputed debt from Allen Jones a few years ago. Part of the company's advanced technology is its innovative voicemail strategy, where its employees leave wildly offensive, racist messages for people. Jones sued the company, and last week the jury awarded him $50k for mental anguish and $1.5 million in punitive damages. More »

Verizon Bill Collector Threatens To Blow Up Man's House
A man in New Mexico is suing Verizon Wireless over a series of harassing phone calls made by Verizon bill collectors last year. The man, Al Burrows, says the calls were concerning a relative's unpaid cellphone bill. When he hung up on one of them, the disconnected Verizon rep called back, said she knew where Burrows lived, and added, "I am gonna blow your mother fucking house up." More »

Don't Believe The Phone Call That Says Your Card Has Been Deactivated
Nick received an automated call from some scammy outfit this morning that told him his debit card had been deactivated. The scam looks simple enough, but it's probably worth looking at as a reminder to others. More »

You Can Now Make VOIP Calls On Your iPhone Using 3G
I'll keep this short because it's Apple-related and we all need a break from that company: Apple has removed its ban on using your iPhone's 3G "connection" to place VOIP calls, so now you can use an app like Fring to place overseas calls even when you're not around a Wi-Fi hotspot. Call quality in those moments will naturally depend on AT&T's ability to provide a good 3G connection, so keep your expectations low, but still it's good news for any iPhone/AT&T customers looking to save money on calls. More »

Don't Let An Unknown Caller Talk You Into Downloading Software
In the wide world of scams, this combination of a phone call and computer malware is sort of a novel twist. Jay likes to string phone scammers along to waste their time, so he managed to get quite a few details about how this particular scam works. If you've got naive family members with access to computers, either take away their computers or tell them never to download software from a stranger on the phone. More »

Google Voice Does End Run Around Apple, Launches New Web App
Apple made it clear last year that Google Voice is not welcome on the App Store or your iPhone. "Fine," said Google. "We'll go through the browser!" Today the search engine revealed a new mobile web interface that uses some fancy HTML5 magic to provide voicemail, calling, and text message functionality. If you don't already know, you can turn any page in Mobile Safari into an App icon on your home screen (click the "+" icon in Safari), meaning now you can have a legitimate Google Voice "app." Below is a video tour. Update: There's a down side to this: Cy writes in to let us know that this fancy new version actually breaks functionality for iPod Touch owners—the old web-based version let Touch owners make calls, but this one doesn't. More »

Google Voice Offering Free Calls To Haiti For Two Weeks
If you need an affordable way to reach someone in Haiti for the next two weeks, use Google Voice. The company is making all calls to Haiti temporarily free:

To help those families, we're offering free calling to Haiti through Google Voice for the next two weeks. To place a call using Google Voice, use the Click2Call button on the website, the Google Voice mobile app, or dial your own Google Voice number and press 2 to place an outbound call.

More »

Verizon Won't Verify Calls On My Bill
Brad can't bring himself to drop his landline because he sees it as a security blanket, but Verizon is making it a tough choice for him, because it's charging him more than he thinks he owes on his pay-per-call plan. He's asked Verizon for an itemized bill, but the company refuses and says it would only give up the information if subpoenaed. More »

Robocalls Banned!

—>Today the FTC banned pretty much all telemarketing-based robocalls starting Tuesday, September 1st, 2009. At that point, "violators will face penalties up to $16,000 per call," notes the Los Angeles Times.  More »

AT&T: Sorry Your Finger Slipped, We're Still Charging You $1.99

—>Hey, AT&T customers: be very, very careful when dialing three-digit numbers. If you're trying to dial, say, 211 or 311 (local government information), 611 (AT&T Wireless customer service) or 711 (TTY relay), and you dial 411 for directory assistance by mistake, you'll be charged for it even if you realize the mistake and hang up immediately. And you'll need to live with the consequences of your error, since, according to reader Stephen, AT&T will not refund these charges.  More »

Crazy CSR Loves Spam, You, Hanging Up Abruptly

—>Megan sent us this transcript of a recent phone conversation she had with someone from a mysteriously generic "cardholder services" that called her.   More »

Wave Of Fake Debt Collectors Hints At Possible Data Breach

—>The Better Business Bureau has released a warning to be aware of scammers calling to threaten people with arrest "within the hour" for defaulting on payday loans. What makes them stand out from normal debt collecting scammers is these callers have huge amounts of personal info on their victims, including Social Security and drivers license numbers; old bank account numbers; names of employers, relatives, and friends; and home addresses.  More »

If you're an E*TRADE customer who lives in California, Florida, Maryland, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, or Washington, you may be eligible for a class action settlement regarding the undisclosed recording of phone calls. The deadline to file your claim form is September 25, 2009. [Settlement site]  More »

NY Attorney General Shuts Down Abusive Debt Collection Operation, Puts Owner's Rap Career On Hold

—>The New York Attorney General shut down a network of debt collection agencies today that were run by convicted felon Tobias Boyland, who along with his colleagues impersonated police officers, threatened debtors with arrest, and told them they were being sued in civil court. Boyland is also an author and a musician, and he has an awesome website, bagsofmoney.us, which—warning—launches into a street-friendly rap song as soon as it loads.  More »

This Subway Shop In Virginia Promotes Timeshares

—>Tim thought he was entering an innocent giveaway at his local Subway in Warrenton, Virginia earlier this month. Nope. It was just timeshare bait. We wish the Subway would have known better than to allow the dropbox in their store to begin with, but after reading Tim's story you'll know what to watch out for should you run into a similar contest.  More »