Venting: Bad Phone Reps.

I do a lot of phone shops to toll-free numbers every month. Since these are toll-free numbers, I can't hide my phone number. I used to use different burner numbers but it was a pain trying to generate a unique burner number for every call. This month, I switched to a phone spoofing app. It is much easier/quicker but I have to buy app credits for the calls. The longer a call, the more credits it uses.

I hate it when I have to talk to a phone rep. who is terrible at their job and wastes my time. Some of the reps. are great and I only have to spend about 4 minutes with them on each call. Others take 10 minutes or longer to give me the same information. A few are so aggravating that I actually give up after being on the phone with them for way too long to take my chance with a fresh call and another rep. When the same rep. answers, I just hang up immediately and call again, hoping to get someone else.

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I don't know if this would help but I use a burner app, I think it's called burner phone, and for a monthly fee you get a certain amount of burner lines to use that are unlimited that include voice mail and texting. I pay 10.99 a month for three lines, I usually pick three different locations to use for the month. You can also decide when you want to burn a number as well or roll it from month to month. I hate having to pay but I have not had good luck with any free ones.

Thanks. I have an Android phone and have used pretty much every burner app available that has a good rating. My favorite was Burner. I have an annual, 3-line subscription but will not be renewing it because the app changed. Now, each line can be changed only once a month. I need at least 20 unique numbers in a slow month and about 60-80 unique numbers in a busy month. I haven't found any app that would let me have an unlimited number of burns for a flat fee yet.

@Bookgirl141 wrote:

I don't know if this would help but I use a burner app, I think it's called burner phone, and for a monthly fee you get a certain amount of burner lines to use that are unlimited that include voice mail and texting. I pay 10.99 a month for three lines, I usually pick three different locations to use for the month. You can also decide when you want to burn a number as well or roll it from month to month. I hate having to pay but I have not had good luck with any free ones.

Yes, that app is the one I use. If it had a feature where you could change numbers more than once a month, I would gladly pay extra for it. I tried using TextNow when I first started shopping and the quality was horrible, so I try to stay away from the free ones.

When I first got the Burner app, I could change each of my three lines an unlimited number of times. I don't know if it was a bug and I was just lucky.

I downloaded the Fake Caller app several days ago and used it for most of my phone call assignments this month. The call quality was fine. So far, the call quality appears to depend on the quality of my wi-fi since I am using wi-fi calling. I usually do not use the voice change feature. I love their call recording feature, though. The recordings are very clear.

The problem with the app is it costs 1 credit per minute. You have to buy credits. I bought the biggest credit package because it gave me the highest credits per dollar.

I think I'll have to give it a try next month! The call recording feature would come in handy for me, I do take detailed notes in my notebook when I'm doing a shop but sometimes I forget the exact phrasing that employees use. It feels like the shops that don't give access to the recording after the call always want exact phrasing.

The app comes with 2 free credits. That means you have 2 free minutes. You could make a test call and see if you like the app and the quality of the recording before you buy any credits. Hope this works for you.

Recently I have needed to do calls on my cell phone and afterward do a screenshot to show the length of the call. I realized that Burner shows the start time, but not the call duration. Luckily, I checked in time to use Hushed instead. Both have roughly the same voice quality and both of them record incoming calls and have text messaging. Does anyone know how to display call length using Burner? I have used both of them for about 2 years, and periodically get upset with one and switch to the other for a while.

Shopping Southeast Pennsylvania, Delaware above the canal, and South Jersey since 2008

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/15/2022 10:46PM by myst4au.

I just uninstalled Burned yesterday so I can't check it right now. I had a 3-line subscription. IIRC, I could choose which number to use by going to that tab, and a list of phone calls I made using that number would be listed. I don't recall whether it was possible to see the length of each call.

I have the same problem with Burner. I've had to use my own cell phone number for certain shops that require the call length.

I have an Android phone, and it has capability to hide my phone number. I cannot help you if you are using an iPhone.
1. Open phone as if preparing to make a call.
2. Click the 3 dots upper right for pop-up window.
3. Click Settings.
4. Scroll down and click Suplementary services.
5. On the next screen, click "Show your caller ID.:
6. In pop-up window click "Never."
The only drawback is that it will not show your number ever again until you undo this change.

I have used an app called Talkatone, which is free. I think the number expires if you don't make a call at least every 7 days. Otherwise, you can pay for a subscription. Call quality has been fine making wifi calls. I don't change the number often, b/c I have several GV numbers I can use and I don't do a ton of phone shops where I need to get a new number regularly.

@BusyBeeBuzzBuzzBuzz wrote:

I do a lot of phone shops to toll-free numbers every month. Since these are toll-free numbers, I can't hide my phone number. I used to use different burner numbers but it was a pain trying to generate a unique burner number for every call. This month, I switched to a phone spoofing app. It is much easier/quicker but I have to buy app credits for the calls. The longer a call, the more credits it uses.

I hate it when I have to talk to a phone rep. who is terrible at their job and wastes my time. Some of the reps. are great and I only have to spend about 4 minutes with them on each call. Others take 10 minutes or longer to give me the same information. A few are so aggravating that I actually give up after being on the phone with them for way too long to take my chance with a fresh call and another rep. When the same rep. answers, I just hang up immediately and call again, hoping to get someone else.

Caller ID blocking *67 doesn't work on toll free numbers?

That is correct. If you call a toll-free number, *67 does not work. The company you are calling is paying for the call and they have the legal right to know who is calling them.

From AT&T: "... Unfortunately, you cannot block your number when calling a toll-free number...." [forums.att.com]

"Under FCC guidelines, there are several exceptions to caller ID blocking when you cannot hide your number no matter what. For instance, if you call a toll-free number (such as those that begin with 800, 844, 855, 866, 877, 888 and even 900,) blocking does not work." [www.mightycall.com]

@tstewart3 wrote:

Caller ID blocking *67 doesn't work on toll free numbers?

Shopping Southeast Pennsylvania, Delaware above the canal, and South Jersey since 2008

No, toll-free number can see your phone number anyway because they are paying for the calls.

@tstewart3 wrote:

@BusyBeeBuzzBuzzBuzz wrote:

I do a lot of phone shops to toll-free numbers every month. Since these are toll-free numbers, I can't hide my phone number. I used to use different burner numbers but it was a pain trying to generate a unique burner number for every call. This month, I switched to a phone spoofing app. It is much easier/quicker but I have to buy app credits for the calls. The longer a call, the more credits it uses.

I hate it when I have to talk to a phone rep. who is terrible at their job and wastes my time. Some of the reps. are great and I only have to spend about 4 minutes with them on each call. Others take 10 minutes or longer to give me the same information. A few are so aggravating that I actually give up after being on the phone with them for way too long to take my chance with a fresh call and another rep. When the same rep. answers, I just hang up immediately and call again, hoping to get someone else.

Caller ID blocking *67 doesn't work on toll free numbers?

I use that, too. The problem with a lot of these free apps is they say their phone number will expire but they are really inconsistent with how long they wait before their phone numbers expire. You end up getting a bunch of emails to remind you to use your numbers or lose them. Textfree, for example, has been sending me annoying reminders for well over a month now. I wish the numbers would just expire already. I want new numbers!

@veebeeshops wrote:

I have used an app called Talkatone, which is free. I think the number expires if you don't make a call at least every 7 days. Otherwise, you can pay for a subscription. Call quality has been fine making wifi calls. I don't change the number often, b/c I have several GV numbers I can use and I don't do a ton of phone shops where I need to get a new number regularly.

I have Android phones, too. This won't work with toll-free numbers.

@AZwolfman wrote:

I have an Android phone, and it has capability to hide my phone number. I cannot help you if you are using an iPhone.
1. Open phone as if preparing to make a call.
2. Click the 3 dots upper right for pop-up window.
3. Click Settings.
4. Scroll down and click Suplementary services.
5. On the next screen, click "Show your caller ID.:
6. In pop-up window click "Never."
The only drawback is that it will not show your number ever again until you undo this change.

The reason why you can't get unlimited numbers for free is due to FCC rules and telephone number inventory limitations. I will say I usually do a pretty good job with text now and Google voice. For every Gmail address you have you can have a separate phone number. You can only link one at a time to your cell phone, but you can have multiple numbers active at a time and just switch your cell phone to that number that you want to use during that time.. I have somewhere between 10 to 15 active numbers at a time without having to pay anything.

I, too, have multiple Google Voice numbers but it is getting harder to get new ones. For years, a real phone number could up used up to 5 times to verify new Google accounts such as Gmail and Google Voice. That is no longer true. Now, Google is often disallowing real phone numbers for verification purposes after those numbers were used only once or twice.

@foodluvr wrote:

The reason why you can't get unlimited numbers for free is due to FCC rules and telephone number inventory limitations. I will say I usually do a pretty good job with text now and Google voice. For every Gmail address you have you can have a separate phone number. You can only link one at a time to your cell phone, but you can have multiple numbers active at a time and just switch your cell phone to that number that you want to use during that time.. I have somewhere between 10 to 15 active numbers at a time without having to pay anything.

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Venting: Bad Phone Reps.

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