Voice Service and Equipment

[SonsofLiberty]

Hi,

I have a private line set up on my phone. We are receiving "Out of Area" calls on our phone. Is there the capability to have these blocked? What is bothersome about this is that there is no phone number displayed.

Thank in advacne for any help!

[ComcastKeisha]

SonsofLiberty---

Sorry for the inconvenience. Have you answered the calls to see whom it is calling? Unusually these calls are from businesses, collection agencies and sometimes telemarketers. Blocking one phones number will not resolve the issue because they will simply call from another business line they own. I suggest answering the line to see who's calling it could be a wrong number or a telemarketer you can ask to be removed off their call list and not have to worry about them calling you anymore. Sometimes when its an automated call it takes some time for the call to connect so you may have to wait on the line for 30 seconds or so.

[ezdogs]

I get 15 to 20 unwanted calls every day.Some are from the same # and call every 15 minutes at nite.No one answers but it continues.How do I stop this.

[ComcastKeisha]

ezdogs-----

Have you tried calling the number back to get a customer service rep to answer?

I strongly suggest using the Do not call registry because companies are now liable when they call you after you have registry is run by the Federal Trade commission (FTC) The do not call registry does take 31 to 90 days or so for registry to take affect and the calls to stop. As we can not It is a great service and it does work and there are consequences for companies that violate this order. As a company we can not block calls for you, companies you have an existing business relationship with, charities or political organizations.

Here is a summary of the call blocking features that Comcast offers and how they are designed to work:

Anonymous Call Rejection blocks all incoming calls from people who have deliberately blocked their caller ID, either using the Caller ID Block per Call feature (*67) or the Caller ID Block per Line feature.  Typically, their caller ID would show as “Anonymous,” “Private,” or “Private Caller.”  Those inbound callers will instead hear a message that the customer does not want to receive a call from any party that has blocked their caller ID.

Anonymous Call Rejection will not Block any call where the caller ID information is not reported or is incomplete.  For example, calls that either display “Unknown,” just the city and/or state, or just the telephone number are all permitted to ring through.

Call Screening:

If you who do not wish to be disturbed by certain people may use the Call Screening feature to block up to twelve telephone numbers.  Inbound callers from those numbers will hear a polite message indicating that they are not receiving calls at this time.

[sabretooth]

Add your number to the No Call List.

https://www.donotcall.gov/ 

[southernlawyer]

Comcast could block "out of area" callers if it chose to do so.  Stop telling us to contact the FTC.  How can we complain to the FTC when we don't know who is calling?  I got an "out of area" call tonight, and when I asked who was calling a woman gave me her name, but when I asked what company she was with she hung up on me!  COMCAST SHOULD ALLOW US TO BLOCK OUT OF AREA CALLERS. The Comcast "anonymous caller reject" is misnamed and misleading because it does not reject anonymous callers.  Sooner or later a competitor will give us the ability to reject out of area calls, and Comcast subscribers will then leave Comcast in droves.

[SonsofLiberty]

Thank you for the suggestion but we are on all No Call list.

Best from the Sons of Liberty.

"Don't tread on me!"

[fritmuz]

  I couldn't agree more southernlawyer!  Out of Area calls, and Unknown callers are from people who are blocking their numbers so you don't know who they are.  Well, in that case, I WANT TO BLOCK THEM FROM CALLING ME!  Doh!!  Is it that hard for Comcast to figure it out?

[Steve0128]

After the call and before another call, Call comcast call trace at *57 and they will begin to generate a log of information for the local police to access, when you call the police later. I'm going thru that now.

[gdoggs]

It has gotten worse, lately. The first year I had control. But I think Comcast is selling more numbers now, it's totally out of control 5, 6 or more calls a day with no number to call back as its a spoofed # or you call back and it says things you can't understand and hungs up. I'm looking to drop my comcast voice mail after 2 years, going to try something else as the service is not up to par. They all tell canned response which helps no one.It's like when comcast first took over for AT&T and they had no idea how to keep a stable  internet connection. I have been a 30 year cable subscriber so I know canned script when I hear one. They have little to no control over the voice service and it seems they won't care until people leave in droves, just like with everything else.

[bgman59]

I am getting the same thing, in fact, I answered and a lady said my wife had called about lowering our interest rate. I asked when did my wife call, she said she did not know, that is handled by another part of the company. My wife was sitting next to me at the time. I said, my wife has not lived here for years and she does not own any property. I knew this was a scam.

Big Daddy in Suisun

[Scimajor]

I have a criminal calling from Inida claiming "My computer is causing problems on the internet". The way this scam works is that they attempt to get their dupe to turn on Remote Desktop Access at which point they hold your computer hostage for money. I knew immediately it was a ruse but made the mistake of telling the scumbag criminal that he was a "scumbag criminal" and now he has me on his robot dialer for several calls a day. 

The number comes up as "Out of Area". Comcast Security says that it is "Illegal for them to block Out of Area numbers". This is a lie as I checked and there is simply no law that fits that description.

Comcasts suggestion was to use their trace-call "feature" and then file a local police report. This is, of course, completely useless as even the F.B.I. is powerless against calls being spoofed from India.

There are, therefore, only a few possibilities:

1. Get COMCAST to change the telephone number (I'm quite sure they'd want to charge for that).

2. Switch providers AND change the telephone number.

3. Drop the landline entirely and go with cell phones ONLY. 

The top two cases are bad choices as I'd be off the "Do not call list" and have to re-apply for it and even then I'd still have the same issue of being unable to block "Out of Area" calls. The only solution appears to be the cell option as cell companies are forced by federal law to take action against unsoliceted cellphone calls when reported by customers. 

The shame of it is that it's easy for COMCAST to block those calls as it's system actually generates the "Out of Area" message. 

[Dkinpa]

Calls are starting to come in between the hours of 9pm and 5am! Just had one wake me up this morning. Comcast, please provide us a way to stop this or I will drop the service. I cannot have the phone ringing overnight and waking up my kids.

[pudwinker]

Comcast will not block some of the out of area call because they are from charities or political places.

Get a blocker, we got one last month and it has blocked over 100 calls!