Dad Gets Mad At School's Robocall, Gets Even

vansau

Mortician of Love
May 25, 2010
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Dad Gets Mad At School's Robocall, Gets Even



When life gives you an obnoxious automated call, make a satirical one and send it back.

When the phone rings at 4:30 AM, it usually prompts a panicked answer. Such was the case for Aaron Titus, a father in Maryland, who found his phone ringing at that ungodly hour. Instead of an emergency, though, Titus discovered that this was an automated phone call from the local school district. Instead of grumbling about stupid notification procedures and going back to bed, Titus decided to get creative and fight fire with fire.

The School district's message was to let people know that schools would be opening two hours late due to a snow day, something that had already been announced on the Web and via email the night before. It turns out that the wrong time had been put in for the robocall, which meant that a message designed to let people know they could sleep in had the exact opposite effect.

Titus, in turn, found a company that would make robocalls for him and recorded his own message. He arranged for the company to call the numbers of nine school board members, the Superintendent, and the General Counsel at 4:30 AM the next morning. Here's what his message said:

"This is a Prince George's County School District parent, calling to thank you for the robocall yesterday at 4:30 in the morning. I decided to return the favor. While I know the school district wanted to ensure I drop my child off two hours late on a snow day, I already knew that before I went to bed. I hope this call demonstrates why a 4:30 a.m. call does more to annoy than to inform.''

It ended: "Quit robocalling parents at 4:30 in the morning or at least allow us to opt out of these intrusive calls."

Titus's response is both clever and funny. The school board members that the Washington Post talked to about Titus's message seemed to think it was well-done and an effective way to voice his displeasure and noted that a phone call at 4:30 AM shouldn't have happened in the first place.

Source: <a href=http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/13/AR2011011306555.html?hpid=topnews>Washington Post



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Mrsoupcup

New member
Jan 13, 2009
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GOD, those calls are a *****. Every time I get one for being late it reminds of how close we have come to Skynet :(
 

Cowabungaa

New member
Feb 10, 2008
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Clever? Yeah. Funny? I ain't seeing it. There ain't a witty joke in it or something.

Kudo's for mister Titus though, he solved that in an adult, responsible way.
 

Reed Spacer

That guy with the thing.
Jan 11, 2011
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The only thing I hate worse than bot calls are calls from skinjobs (telephone marketers).

They call you up, wait ten seconds to ensure they have someone on the line and then try to sell you stuff.

And they always call when you're having dinner. And call. And call. And call.
 

Harlemura

Ace Defective
May 1, 2009
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I was hoping he'd wake everyone up at 4:30AM and just go...
"Hey! YOU SUCK!"

Short, sweet, funnier.
His was good too though, I guess.
 
Oct 14, 2010
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Perhaps more clever than hilarious, yes, but if he had gone too far to be funny the message probably wouldn't have hit home as well and the school board members less likely to have been receptive. I think he had things just right here.
 

Armored Prayer

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Mar 10, 2009
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*Applauds* Bravo!

Wait this man is from PG county? He needs to do one for us fine folks at neighboring Montgomery county. My family is sick of robocalls we get at Sunday evenings from our school.
 

Avaholic03

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May 11, 2009
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So I guess it isn't just soccer moms that have too much time on their hands. I guess it was kinda funny, but also pretty pointless annoying the school officials over something that was a mistake to begin with.
 

maddawg IAJI

I prefer the term "Zomguard"
Feb 12, 2009
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This man would be a hero to my father, especially since my school board doesn't know how to work a phone. When a big storm was supposedly coming last year, we got 6 phone calls telling us that school would take place the next. They started at 7:30 and kept going until 1:30 in the morning and apparently I wasn't the only case. Some people got calls ranging as late as 9:30 and going to 5:30 in the morning.
 

Fasckira

Dice Tart
Oct 22, 2009
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The man got a phone call by accident, and his response is to do the exact same thing back on purpose? What a dick.
 
Sep 14, 2009
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Tim Latshaw said:
Perhaps more clever than hilarious, yes, but if he had gone too far to be funny the message probably wouldn't have hit home as well and the school board members less likely to have been receptive. I think he had things just right here.
this. his message would have fallen on deaf ears more likely, so for that i applaud. (me personally? i probably would have been more of a smartass asshole)

but still, lawl thats awesome he actually went through the effort to do that.
 

Sn1P3r M98

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May 30, 2010
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Hehe, that's clever. I'm glad he didn't be too much of an asshole in his message too, since the board might have not had the same reaction if he had.
 

maddawg IAJI

I prefer the term "Zomguard"
Feb 12, 2009
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Fasckira said:
The man got a phone call by accident, and his response is to do the exact same thing back on purpose? What a dick.

The man got a call due to incompetence. He makes a valid point when he says that either they get the time to send it correct or they allow parents to opt out of it.
 

Brainst0rm

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Apr 8, 2010
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The idea is clever, but the execution is pretty lame. Effective, obviously, but not really funny enough to be reporting on...