OK, I got a weird phone call tonight.

[Berry Cool]

I have never gotten one like this before. For some reason my machine wasn't picking up and I answered it.

I get a recording of a cheery male voice saying "This call is originating from a correctional institution and may be monitored for quality assurance." Then it goes into a pitch about MCI!

I hung up.

I'm thinking: Huh?!? MCI is now using prisons for originating its prerecorded sales pitches? What's up with that?

Now, I understand from doing a bit of Googling that MCI has a monopoly on collect calls from prisons (at least in certain states) and thus if you know someone in prison and you get a collect call from that person, you will hear a recording (sometimes several times during your conversation) saying it is a call from a correctional institution and may be monitored. But I don't know anyone in prison. Why is someone in prison calling me? Or is MCI making random marketing calls from prisons? What's up with this?

[gkhouston]

1. if there hadn't been a pitch for MCI I would have thought

it was a case of an inmate randomly calling and hoping someone would accept the charges. That's happened to me a few times over the years, usually at inconvenient hours.

[Berry Cool]

2. Maybe that's what it was.

And maybe MCI had just tossed a prerecorded pitch into the thing as well, to attempt to sell the person being called on some means of saving money on the collect calls from prison (which I gather are expensive).

I didn't stay on long enough to learn whether someone from prison was actually trying to call me and get me to accept the charges. Then again, I've had some bizarre calls at this number. I can't tell you how many times since I got it that I have gotten messages left on my machine for the same person...a person who hasn't had this number for nearly two years now. And also calls from other people trying to reach someone else, who just assumed they were reaching that person's phone. Agh!

[WestHoustonDem]

3. One time I almost hung up, but it turned out to be my

ex-husband. I was tempted to hang up anyway but I figured someday my daughter would find out and not forgive me.

[WolverineDG]

4. I got one of those calls before

& I don't know anyone in prison either. However, I came in on the tail-end of the message which said something to the effect of how I was going to be charged for the call anyway. (I"m sorry, since when do you have to pay for collect calls you don't accept?) I immediately contacted the phone company, paid to have the call traced & then to have that number blocked. All for a nominal fee, dontcha know. :grr:

What really frosts my ass is that the phone company will keep your name, number & address out of the phone book when you request that, but not tell you that anyone who calls directory assistance can not only get your number, but also your address! To get off of that list, you likewise have to pay a nominal fee. :grr: Money well spent since it keeps a certain psycho from my doorstep.

dg

[Gogi]

5. When I came home one day there...

was a long message on my answering machine, an elderly woman had dialed the wrong number and thought she was telling relatives about someone's death. She did'nt leave a number so I could'nt call her back to tell her she had called the wrong number. :shrug:

[CC]

6. Many companies use prisons for

telemarketing. Cheap labor force and can say they are helping to reform those incarcerated. If MCI was doing so at least they let you know where it was from, most you would never know were prisoners calling from prison. There have been problems with credit card theft from same inmates keeping numbers from the "work detail."

[Berry Cool]

7. Lovely.

And yes, I get long messages sometimes from people I have never met before in my life calling me by another name, asking why I never call them back, giving me lengthy messages about what's going on with the family, and pleading with me to call them--and then they don't leave a number.

HELLO!?!? Maybe there's a REASON you no longer hear from this person?!?!?