For a while I was getting a crazy number of "Rachel with Card Services" calls. Sometimes a couple a day. Usually at least one a week. And I'd block it and report it to the FTC site every time. I'd also use their "press 2 to be put on our do not call list". Then I'd press 1 and ask to be put on, but usually I couldn't even get half the sentence out before they had hung up on me.

Not sure what all these calls were accomplishing.

So I eventually started messing with them. Just wasting their time for a few minutes, acting clueless, until either they hung up or I got tired of it and told them I'd keep wasting their time if they kept calling.

Then in one call after I messed with them a few minutes, they said "Thanks for playing <my phone number>, you will continue to receive phone calls."

Let that sink in.

They knew I was just wasting their time, they knew how many phone calls they had made, they were fine with me wasting their time.

The flaw in their plan was identifying my phone number when they said that. I had 3 or 4 numbers going to my cell phone (Google voice, an old home number via Asterisk). This call came while I was switching from Verizon to Project Fi on my Google Voice number, and they identified that they were calling my Verizon number. I loved Project Fi, so I cancelled my Verizon number.

Pity the foo who got that number assigned to them.

"Lenny" https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=p5IKbFATKLo

And the number of minutes left on your plan would also decrease.

I just realized US is RPP (receiving party pays). In many countries though, receiving calls is free.

Wait, US is still RPP? I was talking about this at the weekend as one possible reason why mobile phones didn't take off in the US as fast as they did in Europe, but assumed that they'd now caught up precisely because the ridiculous RPP setup had been done away with. How on earth does anyone in the US manage to keep their phone bill down?

You actually TALK on the phone? I have one of the smallest voice plans AT&T offers that still has unlimited text and even that has way too many minutes. I think the only number I actually call is my parents' land line. Even my dentist's office texts appointment reminders instead of calling. I'd think one of the biggest reasons for slow adoption is the same as our broadband adoption- It's hard for effectively 2 big companies to reliably provide service for 300 million people spread out over something like 8 million km^2 (for the lower 48 states) and have it still be affordable. For example a friend of mine still didn't have internet access at all in the 2010s because they would have had to pay to have special construction done near their house in addition to the high monthly bill.

Most plans in the US are unlimited voice

I didn't realize that people still had anything but Unlimited Minutes plans.

Really? Why would anyone do that?

To complain later that they're paying $100 per month?

Here's how to have unlimited outbound minutes: call using Google Voice

Paying for incoming calls is ridiculous already, but people really like to shoot themselves in the foot

What? I pay the equivalent of 9 dollars for a plan with unlimited calls, unlimited text messages and 10GB a month of internet bandwidth. I live in Europe. Is it really that much more expensive in the US?

Me and my wife pay $80 per month for unlimited phone and text and 4gb of data with ATT.

$80 each?

In Europe (Ireland) 10Euros on pre-paid gives you 7.5Gb per month and unlimited calls (tax included)

And 20 euro a month gives unlimited 4G and free texts with free weekend calls (free 3-to-3 every day though) and you get to keep your 20 euro to spend in the Play store.

Probably for both. My wife and I pay $75 a month for our 2 lines (Verizon network, via Net10). Unlimited calling and text, plus 3gb of data each.

Tmobile still has 100 minutes plan with unlimited everything else for $30.

I don't think most carriers charge for answered calls in America. Could be wrong

If my girlfriend calls me and we talk for an hour, that "uses up" 60 minutes on each of our phone plans. We're both in the U.S. I'm on Verizon and she's on AT&T but the carriers don't matter, even if we were both on the same one.

Wow. I just learned that there are worse places in regards to telco rip offs then Germany. OK; I had expected that, but having both parties paying for the same phone call is some kind of twisted evil genius's plan - isn't it?

Why? We're just used to it being the other way around, where the initiator always pays. However, in an alternate universe, that could just as well be the norm.

Well for one: If I am the initiator (caller) paying is totally fine, because it is me having a stated wish to reach another person and take some of their time for whatever I wana talk about.

So being the recipient, the initiator intrudes on my time. If I accept this I have (at least in old times, before caller ID) no chance of knowing, if this intrusion has a valid (and for me valuable) reason.

Even today, I have no chance of knowing beforehand, if the caller really is adding value to my day. Therefore if my time used in the call generates added value by whatever the caller tells me (or how I feel after talking to him/her).

So if this intrusion by a caller would additionally be fee-ridden, the risk of taking a call grows exponentially. Therefore I would let go all calls to mailbox and have the person exactly state what they intend to talk about. Even family (I hate social chit-chat calls).

So probably I would not need the phone at all except for mail-checking and in case of an emergency, as after some tries no one would want to call me. The incentive to not take a phone (at least in my case) would lead to that.

Wow! I never realised there were places where both parties payed for a call. That's really rotten.