Hello all. I care for my grandma, age 94. No dementia but she does not understand to NOT answer every call on her cell phone, which is becoming a problem. She believes that telling people "she's not interested" will get her number off calling lists and it's just making the problem worse. I blocked all incoming calls from her landline except for specific numbers I input and that was a piece of cake. Her cell phone and carrier is not as simple. It's an AT&T flip phone. She cannot use a touchscreen...that's out. They have no blocking technology for this phone except to input one number at a time which is useless. I'm at a loss. I could 1) forward all her calls to her landline which will block the unwanted calls, but then she has to call everyone back who is legit. 2) Get her a new number, but I'd have to keep her old line open for a while and I'd keep that phone to "screen" the calls myself and give her new number to legit people. (How long will it be before she gets unwanted calls on the new number??) 3) Find a flip phone through another carrier that has blocking options...and by blocking I mean only allowing certain numbers through. All important calls such as doctors, insurance, etc. come to my phone but I'm certainly not going to leave her out in the cold with calls from friends and family! I HAVE to be missing something here! This cannot be this complicated, I'm hardly the only person with this concern. Thank you for any advice, I apologize in advance for overthinking this. I tend to do that and miss the obvious!
AND I might have a solution. I just chatted with the rep from Spectrum (her landline) and described this situation as best as I could, asking if I could forward her cell calls to the landline. In doing so, can I rely on the landline blocking settings to essentially filter her cell phone calls. They said yes, that would work. So, it's something to try. Wish me luck, at least it's worth a shot!
there are some land line phones that allow the cell phone to ring through the handset of the landline but I don’t know if any other landline services (blocking calls) would work.
Be sure to let us know if you find a solution.
Lisa, I briefly checked out the Jitterbug website and looked at the features on the flip phone, it didn't seem to have what I'm needing. I am going to look again, though!
Another thought at this point is to check out changing carriers. Just because AT&T doesn't offer what I'm looking for doesn't mean Sprint, Verizon, etc. won't. I was just hoping for a quick and painless solution.
The reason I have not done it yet is that she has actually ignored a few calls since this happened. I'm hoping that call was creepy enough to make her realize that you just can't answer them. That IS the quick quick and painless solution to this issue!
Thank you all!
Ahmijoy, I posted my question poorly by not providing more details because I was so angry and frustrated with these calls! To try and answer your question, her landline is the number she's had for 40+ years and just doesn't want to give it up. I was able to block all calls on that line except for specific numbers I input. It also provides me peace of mind, knowing that she has numerous phones throughout her house she can call me on in case of emergency. Her cell phone (flip phone) she nearly always has in a pocket to receive calls from friends and family, and to make calls. I went in to AT&T and the only option they gave me was to change her cell number. I then went online and chatted with a rep about the issue, they told me I could pay for a service to block individual numbers that I input. We all know how pointless one number at a time is....! Ideally, she just wouldn't answer the mystery calls. I have tried to explain this to her for several years. Gullible really isn't the word to describe my Ma, more like naive. What blew my top the day I posted this question was a call from someone she believed to be her grandson (who NEVER calls her). She was so excited. This person told her he was in another state, at a friend's wedding and had been in a car accident. Of course, he needed money. I took the phone from her when I realized something was wrong and I kid you not, this person sounded EXACTLY like my cousin!! The voice could have fooled me, if it weren't for the implausible story. I also looked into the voicemail aspect, but got a whole lot of nowhere with that, too. All great ideas you have and I appreciate your time!
What I'm looking for is a BASIC flip phone for seniors that will block these types of calls altogether, where I would not have to change her number (she's had this one for 10 years or so). I had no idea this was such a far-fetched concept. Smartphones have fantastic technology on them to do this, mine has AT&T call protect and it's astounding how many calls it blocks! Why is this not a "thing" for flip phones? I get it, even most seniors use smartphones now but my Ma has just not mastered the art of scrolling on touchscreens, so I cannot give her a phone she won't be able to use. Bottom line here...anyone who will scam our elders out of their money are the scum of the earth!
Still searching for the ideal solution. I hope I am posting this correctly, not familiar with this site yet.