Harry Gross: Hounded for another's debts, it's time for him to get new phone number
Dear Harry: I have been getting as many as six to 10 calls a day from automated calling devices that are demanding payment of bills that are not mine. It seems that the people who had my phone number before are in a lot of debt trouble. I've had this number for the last three years, and it has been hell on earth. One debt collector harassed me so much on the phone one day that I contacted the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) on the advice of my bank. I registered in the "Don't Call Directory," too. Still no peace. I tried to block the calls through the phone company, but they said they can't do that. Harry, these calls start at 8:55 a.m. and don't stop until 7:55 p.m. Help!
What Harry says: Step one, contact your congressman and have her put her staff to work on getting the FTC to act forcefully. Second, contact the phone company to get a new number without automatic forwarding. I'm particularly sensitive to getting a bad number because it happened to me a while ago when we moved our office. The new number had previously been held by a ticketing agency, and my secretary was inundated with calls the first day after the transfer. On the second day, she had received some 40 wrongly directed calls before 10 a.m. She then called the phone company, had our number changed, and got us a credit for the cost of new stationery. They were very cooperative.
Write Harry Gross c/o the Daily News, 400 N. Broad St., Philadelphia, PA 19130. Harry urges all his readers to give blood - contact the American Red Cross at 800-GIVE LIFE.
