WJBC Forum: Government insanity online

People can enter their phone number on the National Do Not Call Registry to avoid telemarketers. (Photo by WJBC's Paul Morello)

I have received a couple of those “robo calls” from a credit card solicitors wanting to reduce my rates. Sunday I got another.

Of course they were not specific as to which company they were with so I just hung up. But I had HAD it and being on the Do Not Call list I went on line to file my complaint.

After locating the section marked “File a Complaint“, and being familiar with the Governments demands for detail I carefully and correctly entered the necessary information and not once but three times the “system” told me to “correct” the spaces marked with an *.

Which I did.  After the third time being of feeling like Curly Joe in the 3 Stooges (which I’m convinced that is exactly what was intended) and double checking to make sure all entries WERE accurate I made a gesture to my screen…. as if someone on the other side would at least understand SOMETHING. Well just like Curly I came back for more punishment.

I went to the site marked “Contact Us” and proceeded to locate an “online” assistant (which turned out to be something-similar to the “robo” caller that started this mess) where I was immediately kicked back to the “File a Complaint” page to report the original robo caller and of course the Government had not altered its opinion of me since my last visit a few moments ago.

Again like Curly I decided to give it one more try. Let’s see now, “Number called” which I entered carefully without using spaces or dashes as demanded by the robo thing. Yes that’s ok now “Enter Date of call” 02 20 12 which was entered according to the guidelines provided by the Head Robo.

Next. Question asked “Was this a recorded message or a call from someone violating your No Call registry? (Yes), (No).  It was actually both but no space was supplied for that so I hit “Yes” then.. “continue“. Once more I was advised to correct the areas marked with an *!!!!!!!

At this point my vision blurred, my hands began to shake, and the dogs who were laying quietly at my side, left the room hurriedly after a not very nice but none the less, appropriate sound left my lips.

The time had come to admit defeat …which I did very gracefully by simply saying in one of the printed spaces, YOUR SYSTEM SUCKS. Only to see that I was being referred to the “system” team member. Then I knew it was over. Turned off the site and quietly left the room.

This is Steve (AKA Curly) Brienen On WJBC’s Forum.

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Steve Brienen retired as Sheriff of McLean County in 1998 after serving on the department for 20 years. Before that, he was a Bloomington police officer for 10 years. Steve taught at Lincoln College for nine years and Illinois Community College in Peoria for six years. He spent nine years hosting a Sunday morning talk show on WJBC before deciding spend more time at home. He is married to his wife Lucerne for 46 years and they have three children.

The opinions expressed within WJBC’s Forum are solely those of the Forum’s author, and are not necessarily those of WJBC or Townsquare Media.