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Are All of Your Phone Numbers Registered on the Do Not Call List?
Do you know if all of your phone numbers are registered on the Do Not Call list? Bet you do not.
Talking on the phone is such an antiquated thing, though.
Yet, that doesn’t stop people from calling and leaving messages. Often, it’s spammers, advertisers and other types of people I don’t want to talk to. This is why I have my phone number registered at the Do Not Call List. I discovered something a few days ago that didn’t initially dawn on me. I run campaigns on Zillow. When I get calls from Zillow, for example, my phone notifies me the caller is from Zillow. That’s because Zillow uses tracking phone numbers.
I get a lot of calls from Zillow, especially, that are telemarketers. Makes me wonder if Zillow is selling their list of real estate agents who advertise or if callers comb Zillow for those phone numbers. The only way to stop some of those calls is to register the tracking phone numbers on the Do Not Call List. And then report the callers. So, if you have other phone numbers out there, make sure you register them on the Do Not Call List. You can register 3 numbers at a time. If your phone number is on the Do Not Call Registry for 31 days, you can file a complain.
Funny how we readily adapt to technology. With a bluetooth device stuck in my ear, I rarely look at my phone anymore when it rings. That’s because my bluetooth device tells me who is calling. However, if I am on the phone already when a call comes in, generally that phone call goes to my voice mail. The problem that I have — and I realize this is probably an isolated situation for most people — is I don’t always remember to check my voice mail. I’m so busy I often forget my phone even rang. There is nothing that nags me to check voice mail unless I actually touch my phone, turn it on and look at it.
Further, the problem with talking to my phone is it doesn’t always understand me. It types weird crap. If you’ve ever received a profane message from me, it’s because my phone did it, not me. Honest. You won’t believe some of the messages it types and to which I accidentally hit send. My assistant has to decipher what I really meant to say. I encourage her to speak the words out loud because that might give her a clue. My text messages go out in code. There or is actually therefore. Who says therefore? I guess I do.
Voice mail is no longer time efficient for me. To retrieve messages from voice mail means I have to first listen to the message. Some callers are pretty long winded. Then I have to write down the phone number, because not everybody calls from the phone number they ask I call, so I can’t just call the number that called me by pressing “call back.” If I’m driving, that’s a problem. Then, when I call the person, there is no answer half the time.
Call Elizabeth Weintraub, Broker, #00697006 with JaCi Wallace at RE/MAX #00773532 at 916.233.6759. We answer the phone.
Hi, Elizabeth, I Am Looking at Your Website . . .
The caller starts out: “Hi, Elizabeth, I am looking at your website,” to which my immediate response lately has been to cut them off at the pass:“Well, get the hell off of it and don’t come back.” You might think whoa, what if that caller was a potential client, but I assure you it is not. It’s a telemarketer who heard Sacramento real estate agents have deep pockets and, trust me, she wasn’t looking at my website, she was staring at a computer screen with thousands of telephone numbers of Sacramento real estate agents.
Because for every phone call like this that I answer, there are also dozens of home buyers calling every day searching homes for sale in Sacramento, and they want to make an appointment to go look at homes or they want to talk about putting their home on the market. Talking to a telemarketer eats up precious moments in my life. I could be talking to a client instead and should be. I’m one of those agents who really doesn’t mind talking on the phone. Here’s a bit of a secret: sometimes, I even call other agents and speak directly to them instead of sending a text or email, imagine that!
Heck, I grew up with a party-line in my house, and I’m not talking about dancing about with lampshades on our heads. This was a 1950’s thing in which more than one household shared the same telephone line. Each had a special ring so you could tell if the call was for you, but you could also just pick up the receiver and listen to your neighbor’s scintillating phone conversation, like, I’m gonna be home late, honey, so put the tuna casserole in the ‘frig. I’m so happy now to have my very own cellphone in 2014 that drops calls left and right.
It’s kinda creepy to get these sort of telemarketing calls, though. What’s next?
“Hi, Elizabeth, I’m standing in your bathroom wearing your panties.”
“Hi, Elizabeth, I’m in your bedroom petting your cat.”
“Hi, Elizabeth, I’m in your kitchen drinking your bourbon.”
Well, that last one will get me home in a jiffy.
I had just listed another home in Elk Grove yesterday, one of those emergency listings that pop up sometimes out of nowhere and require immediate attention. It was really hot by 10:30, and I had arrived at the home in Elk Grove around 9 AM to shoot photos and complete my visual inspection. At first I tried to remove the old listing sign post from the yard, but at my age, I’m likely to throw out my back so I gave up on it. Been there and done that.
Driving down I-5 on my way back to my home office, what do I get but another telemarketer trying to sell me SEO services. I’ve been doing my own SEO for a decade already, just by writing articles that are important to buyers and sellers. You can read some of those on homebuying.about.com. But I also write blogs and contribute in community forums, and it’s kinda hard to go anywhere online and not find this top producer Sacramento real estate agent and her listings.
I’m probably turning into Andy Rooney in my old age. Except he was a bit nicer about his crankiness, I suspect, whereas I tend to really lay it out there. I make other people laugh, too, by it. When I told the caller I was on her Do Not Call list, she said they don’t have that kind of list where she works. Hello? Do you work in America? I suspect the federal government would like to know about this company.
And I’m sorry that these people have to work as a telemarketer. I guess it beats hanging out on the street corner and panhandling or working at McDonald’s, which is the threat I hear that some of these private colleges make to potential suckers, er, students. I get they are just trying to make a living. Maybe they should go into real estate? This is where all of the misfits go.
