Retirement from business issues .001 percent unresolved.

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Retirement from business issues .001 percent unresolved.

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Spouse had a home-based collectible business for 28 years until one year ago and the phone # remains unchanged. I answer the phone on 99 percent of calls. Through me (or so they'd like it), three clients in particular badger him (age 76, getting more confused by the month) to "sell me just one more item, it's only one, and I'll pay highest price, aw come on now." They don't get by me because he's stated to them and to me that he's retired. I can't be home 100 percent of the time; he's resisting changing the phone #. Out of 11 phone calls on this topic last year, about 3 times he's given in to clients he's known for 20 years or more and regretted it.

They're avid collectors from all across the country; many know each other and pass along information among themselves, so they realize he's retired with still a large inventory. What is an effective way to tell them to buzz off? Appeals to their sense of appropriateness or kindness don't cut it with these bozos.

Elder Abuse

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Have thought about listing the items on EBay?

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Thanks for the swift reply. I have considered it; he still wants his inventory and maybe will in future sell out to ebay or a mainstream dealer.

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Can you tell them he gifted the business to a relative? You passed on their phone numbers & if the new owner wants he will contact them. Also how about blocking those persistent phone numbers. I do this on moms phone at no extra charge.

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Excellent idea re blocking - it's likely Comcast can do that if I ask them. The gifting fib could work; what would be first rate is to eliminate the old phone #, but he's clinging to it. Thanks.

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Add a second home phone # (your cell phone?) and set the business phone to automatically go to voice mail so you can more easily monitor calls. But all those items will need to be dealt with eventually so you both should sit down to figure out how you want to go about it and begin the process.

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Fine idea to send the business phone # to my cell; he's slowly working towards the notion of selling out because he's cataloguing everything.

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You can buy a phone which has the capability of blocking numbers. I have one and I can block 15 calls using the phone’s block feature on the device. New home phones are not too expensive (not a smartphone like an IPhone or Galaxy) just a regular phone for your home.
Not sure if Comcast will do this for you but it’s worth a try. If not, buying a new phone with block feature is an option. Be sure to read the box the phone comes in for that feature. I got mine at Walmart.

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Thanks and good idea re the simpler phone - it needs to be simple because he had a nice, rather complex phone that upped the volume so he could hear better which confused him.

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Update: 2019 began with no calls from former clients in January, let's hope that keeps up.

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Great!

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Update: 1 call in the first week of Feb. during business hours, The caller was nice enough and did not get through to Spouse by my screening of the call.

In other news, robocalls at odd hours such as 2:30 a.m. and 10:45 p.m. are back at their old level of 6-8 daily with most of them coming at respectable hours, with the brief respite from Comcast's doing something to the account resulting in maybe 3 days' worth of peace in mid-January. Is this because advertisers know that old poops retain their land lines for no good reason and target us? In the 8 years I've had my cell, only about 6 advert calls have gotten through.

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Robo calls go to both landlines and to cellphones. Had 12 calls one day on the landline from the same boiler room saying that my firewall isn't working yada yada yada, I eventually left the receiver off the hook.

This past year my cellphone has had its fair share of robo calls. No, I don't want a free boat cruise... no I don't need to lower my credit card interest rate.... no, I didn't apply to said college... etc.

Landlines are very important to have. I still have mine. In case I need to call 911 and can't speak from let's say a stroke, the emergency dispatcher will see my home address immediately on his/her screen and send out the EMT's. With a cellphone that doesn't happen, the dispatcher will only see the closest cell tower where the cellphone is pinging.... unless the cellphone has GPS location.

With elders, they don't carry around a cellphone, it's gets placed somewhere in the house. If they need to call 911, they usually can't find the cellphone. With landlines, as cheap as the telephones cost, one could be in every room of the house. And they are sooooo much easier to use because such phones had been part of our lives for since the early 1900's.

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If you want to keep the number, transfer the number to Google Voice. You might have to bounce it off a mobile provider to get Google Voice to accept it. If you keep your land line, then the phone company will issue you a new number. You can then have Google forward your old number to your new number. Or you can simply do VOIP over Google Voice. You can get an adapter so you can even plug in your existing phone. In terms of actual use, you'll forget any of this has even changed. It'll be exactly the same as what you are used to now. Remember to sign up for e-911 if you go the VOIP route so they know where you are if you call 911.

Why do any of this? You get automatic Google Voice spam filtering. They will filter out the majority of spam calls. This is also why your cell phone gets so little. The other benefit is that you will have complete control over who can call you. You can block any number, send them directly to voice mail, etc.

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Thanks for the detailed information - I'll keep it all in mind and try to do this step by step. The screwy calls both in the middle of the night and at more decent times use some technology to eliminate the ability to call them back, because upon hitting redial the "no longer in use" message crops up, which is itself a robovoice!

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Someone please correct me if I'm missing the point or not understanding this completely...but change the number. Problem solved.(?)

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Definitely my choice, too. I would pick my battles, though, and this phone one is low on priorities. More to the point are his losing his driving license and using the Depends effectively. The update on those issues are his upcoming hearing contesting DMV's decision and a more cheerful update that the Depends are being changed more often.

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Update 7 months later: Persistent Client called tonight at 8:30, but before she could ask to speak with Spouse I told her we were just sitting down to dinner. She apologized and I hung up quickly. Spouse overheard and couldn't remember who the person was; I directed him away from discussing her because he has told me he doesn't wish to deal her with any longer due to her habit of ordering things, having them set aside, and promising to pay. The payment doesn't come 50 percent of the time, Spouse dithers over the time spent gathering the items from inventory, and so forth. He doesn't remember he told me he wanted not to deal with her.

Upside: Tech-savvy Young Tenant helped me to implement Call Blocking on her #; I've known her for 20 years and she'll find another phone # to try to get through, but for tonight the phone hasn't rung and she said she'd call later. If anybody knows of another way to block calls on a landline other than *60 and then enter the number, I'm all ears!

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@needtowashhair I've not done the Google Voice thing. It's an excellent suggestion, but I've been lame about doing it.

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pronker, thank you for the update.

During a rash of unwanted robocalls to my landline, like every 30 minutes.... I called my phone carrier Verizon and asked for help.

I did find a person at Verizon who was able to walk me through the process via my home computer to go into my account, pull up all the incoming calls, and click on those I no longer wanted to ring the house. There were a lot of steps, and the Rep wasn't too sure if this would work as she said 99% of the help calls are for cellphones.

Why does life have to be so complicated tech wise?

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You're welcome! It's a smaller problem than when he nearly gave out bank account #s and the full SS# to a scammer, but still bothersome. It's interesting that your rep was unfamiliar with landlines, which shows how much a thing of the past they're becoming. :/

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Answering machine. Turn off the ringer on the phone. Let the machine pick up all calls.

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Yes to this; unfortunately, Spouse saw the TV announce the name of the caller and wanted to know more because the name rang a small bell with him, but not his bad relationship with her. It was a lucky thing that he was able to be misdirected onto another topic.

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I got caller ID just for that reason. I had a friend who would call at dinner time and we ate the same time every night. Then she would call at 9pm just as I was sitting down to watch TV. Me myself, do not call anyone after 8pm. As soon as I see who it is, I let it go to my VM.

I have had two Android cells and they work differently. First one I could set up that only those on my contacts list would ring thru. The others went to voicemail. The second is a Samsung. This has a blocking feature my other didn't have. I also have the contacts list feature but it has to be in the Do not disturb mode.

I have Comcast/Xfinity. I am able to hit *72 and have my landline calls go to my cell. *73 shuts it off. If u have a cell with a blocking feature, forward ur calls if you can. She will be blocked that way. Round about, I know. But husband doesn't hear a phone ring. Keep it on silent. If u don't have an android, they are inexpensive on Tracfone, which I have. Just make sure they have a blocking feature. You can pay as u go. Meaning you pick the less units and its 60 to 90 days before u need to buy more. This is what I have done for years.

My other suggestion, when the lady calls again explain again that DH is retired because of health issues. And even if he was willing to help, her previous payment history keeps him from doing so.

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Thanks for the suggestions in a tech world I'm not too familiar with! It worries me that he doesn't remember about her issues; he's easily bullied over the phone to be 'nice' and 'helpful' and after all, they share strong interest in collectibles.

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You could probably stop the dead beat customer with your new payment plan. 100% down- nothing left to pay. No exceptions.

Also, I would do a 500% mark up on items that she wants.

Between having to pay up front and through the roof she may get the point and go away.

I found that the least desirable clients are always the hardest to get rid of. We actually funded a large portion of our retirement by implementing the above. Yeah, I am willing to deal with you for 100k profit above and beyond my standard profit margin.

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A good war strategy, I'll think it over! She is polite enough and a stereotypical New York City person in her pushiness. I realize it's not true of all NYC citizens, but she has her goals set in stone.

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There are landline telephones you can purchase that allows you to block a caller. I have a Panasonic phone that has 3 3 phones throughout the house. I can block 15 calls on my phone.
Having calls blocked on a cell phone is very easy (iPhone, anyway).

I wish i had 50 slots to block calls on my home phone. We get a zillion calls a day from various sources and we are already on the “Do Not Call” list.

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I hear you on Do Not Call list not being effective after a short time. After turning 65, the calls multiplied in several areas from "are you in pain and needing a free back brace" and they get mighty tedious, as do "do you want your google listing updated". Thanks for your reply and good luck with blocking intruders on what used to be a friendly way to keep up contact with friends and relations. These calls go far beyond the few wrong number calls of two years ago.

The ex-customer's blocking appears to have worked, because there haven't been calls from her in a few days now. I'm adding the numbers of five more people who simply don't get the message that Spouse is retired.

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For blocking computer generated random calls to our landline, we've discovered nomorobo.com. it blocks a lot of the calls; phone gives a single ring, then blocked. Works for android and iPhones too. It's free, just go to the website and enter the numbers

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Thanks!

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Do not call list is a joke. You are on for five years and have to be added again.

They allow Charities, politicians, people u have done business with you, surveys...everyone u are trying to block.

Robo calls are illegal. Hard to pin down because they are able to show numbers not theirs.

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Yes, it's frustrating.

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Update: Persistent Ex-Client called again with a different # than before. I saw the NYC area code, answered and she said, "Hi, Pronker, this is YZ. Can I speak with Spouse?" I replied, "I believe you have the wrong #," and hung up. She tried 7 more times in 10 minutes. She left no VM.

It seems the Blocked Feature allows the call through for one ring and then blocks further rings? Each time the phone asked via its screen, "Block? Y/N?" while the phone continued ringing. I kept hitting 'Yes', and after the first 'Yes' the phone said, "This # is now on your blocked list," and eventually Persistent Person quit. I was nearly certain she would try again with another #, and she did. The original # I used *60 with and the original # wasn't used this time.

It seems the Blocked Feature allows the call through for one ring and then blocks further rings? Would anyone know if Persistent Caller heard 'your call is being blocked' on her end?

After the episode, I double checked the *60 list of Blocks. It's as far as I can go.

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Retirement from business issues .001 percent unresolved.

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