Posted by Wolf, a resident of the Palo Verde neighborhood, on Nov 3, 2006 at 12:01 am

I do the same, but just today it hit me that I should instead just place the phone off hook and let the call go through for as long as possible.

This way I will maximize the cost to the calling party and keep their equipment busy to minimize the number of people they can call.

Posted by anonymous, a resident of the College Terrace neighborhood, on Nov 3, 2006 at 8:44 am

Thanks for clearing this up. I thought that phone message from Bill Clinton was for real!

Posted by Tammy, a resident of the Duveneck/St. Francis neighborhood, on Nov 3, 2006 at 9:21 am

No need to stay on the line, Wolf. I hung up on an automated message and when I picked up the telephone a minute later to make a call, the automated message was still running.

Posted by cathy, a resident of the Embarcadero Oaks/Leland neighborhood, on Nov 3, 2006 at 9:55 am

These recorded political statements tend to make me vote against the issue they are in favor of.....just the irritation of running to pick up the phone only to be invaded by a recording sends me over the edge!!

Posted by RS, a resident of the Duveneck/St. Francis neighborhood, on Nov 3, 2006 at 11:48 am

"Thanks for clearing this up. I thought that phone message from Bill Clinton was for real!"

See thats what I thought too. At first, I just chalked up the one way nature of the conversation to them being a typical politician. The real clue for me was they did not ask for money. When they are live on the other end of the phone, they want campaign donations.

;^)

Posted by Carol Brouillet, a resident of the Barron Park neighborhood, on Nov 4, 2006 at 10:37 am
Carol Brouillet is a member (registered user) of Palo Alto Online

I hate them and hang up, too. Worse than that, as a candidate, I am bombarded by people trying to sell the automated call services to me. I tell them that I find them offensive and am more likely to not vote for anyone who bothers me with automated messages, so wouldn't want to inflict them upon voters. Does anyone like them?

Posted by Bill C., a resident of the Fairmeadow neighborhood, on Nov 7, 2006 at 11:42 pm

I'm curious: I used to be a registered democrat. Now I'm a "declined to state" or whatever they call it. When I was officially a "dem," I got a Bill Clinton call, but since I no longer state a party, I have never received another automated call. Do the parties get your number from the state then?

I wouldn't say I really like automated calls, but I do find them kind of entertaining, especially when its Bill Clinton. I felt like saying, "Bill! what's up? C'mon over! I'm making ribs."

Posted by grace, a resident of the Charleston Meadows neighborhood, on Nov 9, 2006 at 11:43 am

I'm a registered Repub and Bill called me. Just he just likes talking to wimmin :-)

I listened to the first few from candidates I support, then I just started hanging up immediately. A rumor going around says that although the do not call list doesn't apply to political calls, political callers are supposed to state at the beginning when their organization is and give a phone number. This never happened. I emailed the FTC asking how to make a complaint but got back a giant email listing all the federal codes covering phone calls, really helpful, not.

Does anyone know how to make a complaint about these? I want to be prepared next time.

Posted by wtf, a resident of the Midtown neighborhood, on Nov 9, 2006 at 3:36 pm

automated calling should be illegal.

Posted by RS, a resident of the Duveneck/St. Francis neighborhood, on Nov 9, 2006 at 6:06 pm

Bill C, I also was registered with a party and switched to "declined to state" about '92. I now avoid all the party based fund raising mailers, but I still get the pre-election automated phone calls.

wtf says "automated calling should be illegal."

As I recall when they made it illegal to call anyone on the "Do no call list", politicians specifically exempted themselves.