Batboard

Sheesh,
They make you jump though 5 hoops just to get an account set up. And they definitely have caller ID tied to a database so they already know its me. Scary!!

Yeah, I too was scared by it.

Might be time to call Nexsmell and add the no caller id info restriction.

also, *67 *SHOULD* prevent them from figuring out who it is.

-Alex

Wait a minute, Alex is using Nextel ?? In all honesty I am too, but only after the local community repeaters pulled their plugs. I've been told
that *67 or any anonymous caller feature gets defeated when calling an
800 number, don't know for sure.

Yes, I use nextel.

I don't pay for it though, so I guess in the end it's the best deal. There's nothing 800 out here that is effected so in that sense...

But, I do have Nextel... Got a pretty good plan too...

750 Daytime
Unlimited Nights / weekends
Unlimited long distance
Nextel Online (the uber one)
Lots of other fun stuff.

Work only pays ~$50/month for my plan. I can't complain. Infact, I even changed my plan recently to save work $10/month as it is. So if I were to even take the phone over myself, you can't find another provider with a similar plan for that price / month, with those features.

I might even be willing to give out my direct connect number... It's nationwide enabled, just waiting for them to "adjust" my area.

If someone is a dealer and wants to go into indirect and make some adjustments for me, I have the SOC's.

-Alex

*67 cannot defeat the passing of ANI information.

ANI = Automatic Number Identification

ANI information is passed, no matter what, in passing data between telephone switches in the phone system.

*67 just defeats the caller ID. I believe Caller ID data isn't passed between phone companies, however, this might not be the case today.

ANI is completely different.

If *67 could defeat ANI, then people would be calling 911 leaving prank calls. And that would be a bad thing.

So, just because you dialed *67, don't expect your call to be completely secret. If you need to be secret, use a payphone.

I dislike "their" reading of one's number. I call for several different accounts and they ( more often than not ) get screwed up. What a mess. You would think with all of /\/\ financial problems, they could save some $$$ and get rid of this invasion of privacy. IMHO, its a pain in the butt. I really dislike having to call them. On-line...forget it. I only have a dialup. It takes forever for each page to load.....wayyyy too much overhead that isn't needed. IMHO, /\/\ never has made ANY decent software thats user friendly or works well.

Tron

I think with tollfree numbers, the feeling is they have the right to know who's calling since they are paying for it. I guess I can see the point. If you don't want them knowing it's you, don't call, or use *67 with the regular non-toll free number. All companies have them too.

Just my opinion, doesn't matter much anyway.

The only reason that you're calling them is to buy their products and services...you have to. Its not like the general population is randomally calling them to buy GE parts for ones' refrigerator.

Tron

they are going to ask you for your number for "billing purposes" anyway. yes?

An interesting read. Not the exact topic but close. Perhaps this is occurring in your area? Pacbell/SBC wonders why they are not fondly regarded. Link follows;

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.c ... U38937.DTL

oh, yeah and with regard to wats numbers, the reason that high profile investigations use wats numbers is not because they want it to be free for you but so they can work the numbers for leads if you try the anonymous type call. I agree use a payphone to a 7 digit number for anonimity.

Regards,
Mike

Try dialing 911 on your nextel with the caller ID defeat turned on via nextel --- the call taker will have no idea who you are. I worked for a county dispatch system that could only get the phone number of Cingular Wireless customers. Otherwise it would come up as "Unavailable".

I can remember countless times we were pranked and given BS. I even remember this suicidal idiot who wanted to kill his family - of course he was calling from a cell that wasn't trackable via anything we had! I just passed him on to the state police once he calmed down b/c he was in their jurisdiction! HAHAHAA....

Wasn't there an increase or a new fed tax to fix this BS? Also, I thought that tax increase or new tax was supposed to allow customers to keep their tx number for as long as they like even if they change providers.

My $0.02