Update.

I am Livid!

My phone is always updating, and in the past, it will say things like, it will be updated tonight, or after the failure of the update, it would say, you need to delete, as you don’t have enough storage for the update. I try to ignore it, as I don’t care about updates, then because of the brand of the phone, it slowly starts to ‘fail’ and I have to eventually give in, and remove some storage. I have hundreds of pictures and videos on my phone, it is difficult which pictures of the 6 cats to delete. Nothing is saved on my phone, as I refuse to pay for it, on the cloud! My co-worker recently lost all the photos and videos on his phone, it was dreadful, and it did scare me. I did mean to with Meghan’s help upload them all onto my laptop, but that still hasn’t happened, my fault, not Meghan’s.

So, over the years I have had a love hate with updates. I hate changes, I like things to stay what I know and like. But as it is, over the years, I get used to the update and embrace it. And with Meghan’s help, she will teach me more about the new things, so I have learnt some things. Towards the end of last year, my phone updated itself, without me removing anything, and there was a Vast difference of improvement, to aid me. I was shocked, at how much it helped me.

For over 6 years I have been plagued, with spam callers from abroad, my telephone provider has told me, “They are all from the same country, so if it shows up on your phone, that you are getting a phone call from Bristol, Lytham St Annes, or London, for example, it is not, they are all from that same country.” They told me the name of the country. I have been inundated with phone calls from, Holland, USA, France, Spain, and all over the UK! They are all from that same country. Blocking the numbers makes no difference, as there are billions of them!

I have over the years, tried everything, going along with them, stringing them along, have handed the phone to those in the office, they have sworn at them, when they hear Paul’s voice, they some of them still carry on, like they are talking to me, a woman, some put the phone down. One of our favourites is when they ring, and Meghan is sitting next to me, when I answer and put it on speaker, she will play from her phone, “The laughter of a Crazy witch,” It makes us laugh SO much, but we have to hold it in quietly until they put the phone down, our other favourite is, a Les Dawson, type person, who is not on the piano but playing a flute badly, and finally the third one is, a person with the same accent as them, saying, “Your call is not important to us, please hold.” These three and more have had us in stitches. I used to have 6 of these phone calls every day, but they have gone down significantly, now I might get 6 a month. They are very annoying, for I will be doing something, and my phone rings but because I am a carer for my Mum, and my brothers too, I have to answer the phone, or at least run to get it, before it rings off, only to find it is them! I do not like them at all!!! That is putting it mildly!

Late last year, my phone updated, and something fabulous happened, it took me a few days to cotton on what had happened, but finally my phone made their calls from abroad, completely silent, so nothing vibrated on my phone or watch, even when it was set to full volume. It would only be when I looked on my phone did I see, that they had rang me, without success; I loved it. If I happened to be looking at my phone when they rang, for one second, it will show their number, and let me know they are been screened before it comes to me, and the phone would automatically cancel them. I was chuffed to bits. At last, real progress in the fight against the Pests!! For that is what they are, scammers.

Yesterday, while I was in Sainsbury’s my phone rang, the woman wanted to ask me some questions about my life insurance, I said, “I am in Sainsbury’s,” She said, “I only need to ask you a few quick questions,” I repeated myself and said, “I am in Sainsbury’s the shop,” She said, “When can I ring you back?” I said, “Tomorrow at 11am.” When I got to my Mum’s, it was then that I had seen on my phone, No Caller ID, all ten of them. I had no intention of answering the phone call today, now I know it was about my Life Insurance, which it is all set up and paid for by direct debit each month.

I ignored the first four No Caller ID, but then it showed up on my new up dated voicemail, the words, “Hi my name is Amanda, I hope that you remembered that I spoke to you yesterday, and I said that I would ring you today at 11am,” It seemed harmless enough, and I felt comfortable to take the quick call.

I answered it next time it rang. The lady with the very strong accent from the country my telephone provider told me about answered, I said, “Are you Amanda?” She said yes.” She then went on to ask me lots of questions, they seem to go on and on, she asked me to write three details of information down, so I did, it was the name of my specific policy, the amount that we were paying each month and finally how old I would be when the policy would end. She had already spoke far too long for a short quick call, then she said, “I am going to pass you to another person,” I said, “Why?” ‘Amanda’ said, “He is an independent person, he will offer you the best deal,” I was then speaking to a man, he said to me, “What is the name of your policy?” I told him what ‘Amanda’ told me to say, he then said, “How much are you paying each month?” Again, I told him what ‘Amanda’ had told me to write down, and finally he said, “What age will you be when your policy ends?” I told him what I had written down. He then went on to say, “After that age, if you don’t extend your policy today, and something should happen to you, you and Paul would not get anything,” I said, “So what do you want me to do today? Do you want me to extend it?” He said, “Yes, do you want to extend it to age 80 or 90?” I said, “Will it cost me more money?” He said, “Yes.” I had said several times during the conversations with ‘Amanda’ and him, that “I want everything to stay the same.” So that was what I said to him, he then said, “I will put you through to my co-worker…. I said, “I don’t want to be put through to another person!” He said, “He will tell you the next step,” I said, “No, for after him, there will be another person!” I then put the phone down on the sofa, and left the room. When I returned a minute later, my phone was ringing, No Caller ID.

I didn’t answer the phone, I didn’t need to my lovely new voicemail had screened the calls for me and I read what he spoke, “Hi you **** what happened? You not answer the call, you don’t have any words to say you stupid **** lady,” In the next voicemail, the phone has said to them, “Hi if you record your name and reason for calling, I will see if this person is available,” He then repeated his insults, and in his third message he said, “I can promise you I will call you, until you die!” My voicemail said to him, “Thanks. Please stay on the line.” And finally, the voicemail said to him, “I am sorry this person is not available, if you would like to leave an additional message, please reply after the tone.” I was shaking after his psycho rant, what a horrible man! I didn’t know what to do next, for he and ‘Amanda’ had asked me lots of questions which I had answered. I thought, shall I go to the bank, to stop them taking money out of our account? I knew where my Life Insurance policy was, it was with my Will, I looked at the amount that Paul was paying each month and that was the exact amount that she had told me to write down! I wondered, if she must have access to our bank account, it unnerved me. I heart rate had gone Up and my stress levels too. This was a classic example of why I don’t like answering my phone! These two people, seemed to have ruined my day. After I looked on line for my Life Insurance company,” I decided against ringing the number on there, for how did I know that was their real number? I rang the number on the paper insurance, and got straight through, I, asked Samuel, “Do you want my policy number?” Samuel said, “There is no need, I have all your details here in front of me.” I told him all that had happened yesterday and today, he explained, “They are a real independent company, third party,” He gave me the company name, and said, “They would had the exact amount that you are paying, as in the past you would have told them that.” I asked, “Are they scammers?” Samuel said, “No, but he has not acted professional with his voicemails, if they ring back, you should tell them, if they don’t leave you alone, you will make a complaint to the company, about their behaviour today.” I thanked Samuel, and let him know, “You have put my mind at rest.”

I told Daniel, our son all about it, he said, “That only happens to old people, there is no way, I would speak to anyone on the phone, about life insurance!”