Hacker News Reader

Comment by thewebcount | Hacker News Reader

> It's become nearly unusable, for example, as a way for businesses to contact customers they have an actual relationship with because of all the spam.

On top of that the telcos are joining in on the fun. I am an AT&T cell phone subscriber and in the last month they’ve started robo-calling me non-stop to sign up for their ailing DirecTV service. Who in their right mind would subscribe to that with all the better streaming options available? But the worst part is that they technically aren’t breaking the rules themselves because we do have an existing business relationship (if you can call paying my bill on time and doing everything in my power not to otherwise interact with them a relationship).

View on HN

I'm not 100% sure, but that may be a scam.

I recently got one of those, and I'm not an AT&T customer.

A scam or a dodgy 3rd party (or both?). DirecTV has a reseller program where anyone can become a “retailer”.

OK, fair enough, but in my book it’s still on AT&T because they have to know this is going on. They must be getting complaints about it.

Oddly enough I remember DirecTV doing this ~20 years ago. It was the first time I was willing to pay for CallerID. DirecTV (or some representative that had that as their outgoing name) called me several hundred days in a row. I ended up making a game out of it, seeing how many times they’d call back if I never answered.

What. You mean AT&T being your carrier is the only relationship between AT&T and spam? And how many unanswered calls they made? Here spammers give up after 6 unanswered calls or so. Not sure why they give up though, but eventually it becomes quiet.

Supposedly, some of these are scams. But DirecTV admitted to hiring Telecel Marketing Solutions to place robocalls. There have been multiple class-action lawsuits against AT&T for such things.

It's bizarre that AT&T would sabotage the usefulness of their own customers' telephone service, but this is a bizarre world.

I'd really like to be able to use my phone for real relationships with natural persons too even if they're not in my contact list.

I recently questioned this when setting up my mother and grandfather with TV and internet for their new house. The internet TV provider either don't have, or charge so much extra for channels they consider "essential" (that's another issue) that it's not worth getting the service, as the price is equivalent or more to a satellite TV provider.

But you’re assuming that the ATT/DirectTV calls are legit and direct from HQ. DirecTV is resold through 3rd parties all the time, I am pretty sure these calls are from a 3rd party or even a scam.

> Who in their right mind would subscribe to that with all the better streaming options available?

Large swaths of the US can't get usable broadband. These people use satellite TV services. Of course that market is already developed so growth requires pestering the people with better choices available.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com