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I’ve only seen it in the movies, where the maid rings the bell and calls the family to dinner.  When our family sits down to dinner, it’s the ring of the phone that sounds.  I’d much rather have a maid.

You can’t keep your sister from dialing at an inopportune time, but you can put an end to pesky telemarketing calls.  It’s free, permanent, and ridiculously simple.  Just go to www.donotcall.gov.  If you click it now, it’s going to take you all of two minutes to register.  Your other option is to call from the phone you want blocked from telemarketers.  The toll-free number is 1-888-382-1222.  I called that number and minutes later, I started my new, telemarketing-free life.

The do not call registry has been around several years.  I never needed it until I got a new cell phone number.  The telemarketing calls were out of hand.  I’d hide from my phone.  Then I remembered the registry.  For some reason I thought you could only register land lines.  Not so.  It doesn’t matter if it’s a land line or cell, business or home.  And if you have second thoughts and decide you look forward to calls from telemarketers, you can remove the block without a problem.

Telemarketing companies tend to take the no-call registry seriously.  Penalties for violations can run into the millions of dollars.  Some robo-calls have snuck through on our phone since its registration.  You can report violations at the website.  I’ve never tried it but I would if I had a repeat offender. 

More than 191 million phone numbers belong to the registry.  If you’ve recently added a line, or maybe your teenager has new phone, it’s worth the couple minutes it takes to add your line to the list.

Take care ~Sarah