Just now I had a phone call from someone who identified himself as representing "GE Life Alert". He was a fast talker who explained that they were running a promotion in our area to introduce this alarm system, and the first question he asked was, "Do you currently have a system?" I have to wonder if a real security company would ever try that stupid question on the phone! I told him it was a very clever question and that we do not EVER respond to any sort of phone solicitation. Seriously, folks: If a stranger on the phone wants to know if you have an alarm system, this can't be a good thing! It should always be a secret whether you have one or not. I suspect this person used "GE" because it's a long standing American company, a name people may tend to trust. Google did not find anything about them in connection to "Life Alert".

Heads up! If we all stopped responding to phone solicitations pretty soon they'd have to give up. We have "do not call", which is another reason to suspect this call was bogus.

Tempting to say -

Yes: Two rottweilers, two German shepherds and a couple of pitbulls.

Thanks for the heads up.

Isn't Life Alert the necklace you wear to summon help? Last I saw on TV it was on your person, not a house alarm.

The moment I hear an unfamiliar voice, and the beginning of a sales pitch (or anything else I don't want to listen to) I tactfully and confidently speak over them "I am not interested, this is a "do not call" number so please remove it from your list, thank you" and I hang up without waiting for a response.

Yes, it is considered rude to speak over someone when they are talking, but in the long run I'm doing them a favor by not wasting their time talking to someone who is not interested in buying ANYTHING over the phone.

I agree. "Do you have an alarm system" is pretty blatant. But I'll bet they catch some folks with it.

I just press any of the keys on the phone and hold it down to blast a long tone into their headset and then slam the phone down on them.

Yes, I noticed that, but he specifically mentioned "home alarm systems". Maybe the use of "Life Alert" was also supposed to boost your faith that it was a legitimate company.

I had a call like that a while back and told them No, we don't have an alarm system, but good luck to anyone making it past the dogs.

Love it! We have a couple of very old dogs who are mostly deaf, but if I wanted to have some fun I could mention deaf dogs who don't bark and don't hear you come in, but will make up for lost time when they see you, which just might be true. They do not like strangers until they've seen us talking to them.

Could be, would raise a red flag for me as they have ads on TV to call them if interested.

And a 12 gauge!

This happened in Philadelphia this summer. Someone called a restaurant asking if they had a security system. After replying they did not need one, they were robbed & the owner of the restaurant & some of his family were killed.

In our area last summer there was some going door to door saying they were selling systems. They approached my husband who was outside and asked him if we had one and he said "Isn't that what the signs in the windows and yard says?" The guy then said " Does it still work if your power goes out?" My husband who is a conceal carrier said "yep, and so does my 357 (he patted his pocket) and so does our 4 dogs that live in the house with us, that's them looking thru the gate now." (2 boxers and 2 random breeds)
The guy said " Guess I'll be on my way." and left.
Later I saw our neighbors son outside and told him, he thanked us and said they thought they were scammers and had already been warned about not having a permit to go door to door. He is our cities assist police chief.
Didn't see them around here anymore!

A few days ago, I was coming home and stopped at our mailbox (live in the country, boxes are at the corner of our road and the main road). There was a car on the side of the road about 50 feet from the boxes. When they saw me, they flashed their lights at me a couple of times and then drove up slowly. They said they had car trouble and it would be 1 1/2 hours for a service truck but the two women ( in the back seat) really needed a bathroom and did I live close.

They looked okay. Older couple with a younger couple. But our place is more than half a mile off the main road which would have meant me transporting the ladies both ways. I said I was uncomfortable with that, and pointed out that they were within 300 feet of 3 other residences. I am sure that I was in no danger--but...

I hate that our world has come to this.

Sometimes we might find such callers funny, most of the times annoying and sometimes entertaining too. But in cases with the <samp id="url"> Life alert</samp> systems, and in similar cases, we must always be very much careful. As in these case, they might be dangerous. Whether they ask or not, we should all have life alert and or medical alert systems in our houses. Accidents never knock before coming.

Thank goodness for caller I'd! I dont answer if irony know!!! Listen to answering machine!!

I think you dodged a bullet on this one. Two women in the house with you sounds like a classic scam - one distracts you while the other rummages around and steals.

I think I would have pointed to the nearest clump of trees and offered some Kleenex. Hey when you gotta go, you gotta go.