The way to Fend off Unwelcome Callers [Annoyances]

Creepy stalkers, annoying telemarketers, jilted lovers: The list of folks whose calls you don’t want can get long. And you possibly can feel short on options for keeping their profane digits from polluting your sacred caller ID. You’re not.

First off, in the event you’re in a major situation-we’re talking restraining orders and assault charges-your best bet is to call your carrier (or 9-1-1, while you haven’t already). Every major business enterprise deals with extreme issues on a case-by-case basis. But in case you situation threatens your patience more than your physical well-being, parental control features are your dearest friend. Yeah, you’ll probably have got to pay a piece, but what you save on aspirin and liquor will more than make you whole. What follows are your options for blocking calls on every major mobile carrier.

AT&T

For five bucks monthly, AT&T offers a feature called Smart Limits . It’s intended to allow parents to limit how much their little Sally and Timmy can text, call, and surf the internet, nevertheless it also provides the solution to block certain numbers.

The process is straightforward: After adding the feature for your monthly plan, one more little option will appear once you log in in your AT&T account. You’ll have the capacity to add up to 15 numbers which’ll be unable to call or text you. The block is valuable the instant you add the numbers-and you may edit things when you wish to.

There is one downside to Smart Limits, though: It may’t block some phone-specific features. So someone could still try contacting you via BlackBerry Push-to-Talk or attempt initiating iPhone FaceTime calls.

T-Mobile

T-Mobile’s parental control feature, Family Allowances , can be five bucks a month. It lets you block up to ten numbers at a time, and, a bit like AT&T’s Smart Limits, you manage your list on the T-Mobile website.

The weakness of the Family Allowances feature is that calls from numbers in your ” Never Allow” list can plow through if you’re roaming.

If it’s just text messages which might be annoying you, T-Mobile does offer a free-but extremely limited- Message Blocking option. It could actually only be used to either block all text messages or to filter ones originating from email addresses.

Verizon

Verizon offers a very good and free technique to keep unwanted calls and texts away: Spam Controls . The feature permits you to block calls, texts, and film messages from up to five numbers by either going surfing to the Verizon Wireless site or by calling up customer support.

If you should block more numbers than that, you then can add Verizon’s Usage Controls feature for a further five bones a month. That’ll provide you with the power to block up to 20 numbers.

Sprint

If you’re a Sprint customer who is desperately on the lookout for how to block specific phone numbers, I don’t have good news for you simply yet.

After consulting with various representatives I discovered that Sprint briefly offered a method of blocking calls but got rid of it because there were ” too many glitches.” Once you can hold out for an additional month, though, you are OK: A Sprint representative said that the feature should finally re-launch in early November. There aren’t too many details in regards to the feature apart from an unconfirmed suggestion that it’ll be free and make it easier to block up to 50 numbers.

While currently lacking relating to blocking calls, Sprint does offer one of the best ways to block text messages. All you need do is send a message to short code 9999 containing the word ” block” followed by whatever email address, short code, or phone number you would like to block. In case you change your mind about that person, just send a similar kind of message with ” allow” rather than ” block” .

Solutions Not Reliant On Carriers

There are also how you can defend against annoying calls that don’t require any help from the carriers. Generally they’re messy and not entirely satisfying, but they do the trick in a pinch: That you may set silent ringers for specific phonebook entries, third-party applications for Blackberry , Android , and iOS . Or one can be clever and do it yourself: Lifehacker has some very powerful tips on the best way to use Google Voice to keep those evil rings at bay.

How about you? Got any tricks? We’d love to hear about ‘em within the comments.

Original imagery by contributing artist Walter C. Baumann

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This post is tagged: annoying telemarketers, business enterprise, control feature, family allowances, parental control features, restraining orders