October 3, 2013
If you use Comcast Voice services, you are allowed to block just 12 unwanted phone numbers. For most of us, those numbers will be telemarketers. This short article shows you how to block an additional 12 numbers, using the online Comcast.net portal.
You may wonder why you get so many unwanted telemarketing phone calls, even though you have signed up your numbers on the Do Not Call Registry (www.donotcall.gov). The reason is that the people hiring the telemarketers and Robo-callers make much more money in commissions than the fees to make these calls and any fines they face if caught and prosecuted. Ditto for the telemarketing boiler rooms.
So, say you subscribe to Comcast for your home phone service and you are pestered by a lot of telemarketers. You can add their phone numbers to a block list, one at a time, as they come in, via a sequence of keystrokes. Or, you can login to your Comcast.net online account and add these phone numbers to a blocked callers list. That is, until 12 phone numbers have been saved. After that you'll have to delete numbers to add new ones to the Blocked Callers list.
Twelve blocked telemarketers ain't nothin' folks! I know it and you know it. Those pesky bastards keep calling from new numbers as the old ones get blocked by major carriers, or due to occasional action by the FTC. But, blocking 24 numbers would be much more effective, at least for a few months. I'll show you how to do this further in this article.
The first thing you need to know is the sequence of steps you must take to get to the web page where unwanted numbers can be blocked. To do this you must have an online account with Comcast.net. All Comcast customers are entitled to an online account where they can manage their voicemail preferences, review calls taken or missed, add numbers to the block list, add email accounts, read, compose and send email, make payments, change service, etc. This all begins with a visit to http://xfinity.comcast.net.
If you haven't already done so, go to http://xfinity.comcast.net/ and look to the left side of the web page, where these words are inside a box, with a Sign In button below them:
"Uh-oh, you're not signed in.
You must sign in to access your account and sync your XFINITY services with your homepage."
Clicking on the "SIGN IN" button takes you to a login page where you must type in either your Comcast email address, if you subscribe to their cable Internet service, or your chosen "username." All Comcast Internet service accounts are assigned a master email account on comcast.net, with a name and password that is chosen when you start your service, or activate the cable modem. This information is included on the original Internet service contract. If you forget what it is and can't find the original contract, call Comcast at 1-877-842-6622. You'll need to prove that you are the account owner to proceed.
There is a place below the login form where you can choose a personal user name for your Comcast online account, whether you use Comcast Internet or not. It is labeled:
"Need Access?"
"Create a Username" (a clickable link).
The page notifies you that you need to list the physical address where the Comcast service you wish to manage is connected, even if you are not at home. Type in the address, including any apartment, unit, suite, or lot number, etc and click Next. If there is already an email account setup for this address, it (or they) will be listed on the page that loads. If not, there is a link below it to "create a username." Follow the steps on the next page, until your username and password has been saved.
Once you have either a Comcast.net email account and password, or a username and password, login, back at http://xfinity.comcast.net/, where there is a Sign in button on the top right corner, as well as a link labeled: My Account, on the left.
The first Dirty Dozen
When you are signed in, click on the left sidebar link labeled: Voice and Text. On the next page, click on the tab labeled Preferences, then on Voice. Find the link labeled "Call Blocking" and click on it. Choose if you want to check the "Block all anonymous calls" option (calls with a blocked Caller ID), then move down and begin adding the area code and phone number of each unwanted caller (from your phone's callers list). There is a page where all received or missed calls are listed and you can add calls from that list to the blocked calls list, by clicking on the Call Screening link. Changes are saved automatically as they are added, or deleted.
Numbers on the Call Blocking list don't ring on your Comcast service phone. They go to a bit-bucket somewhere.
The second Dirty Dozen
To block another 12 numbers, click on the link on the same Voice Preferences page labeled: "Call Forwarding and Rings." It opens a section where the magic happens. Under "Selective Call Forwarding" is a button labeled: "Add." Clicking on it opens a small text box where you can enter a phone number (w/ area code) to forward to a second number. This is where you can list your final 12 unwanted callers, sending them to a different number than yours. I won't tell you what number I forward these telemarketers to, but it belongs to another, very persistent security system telemarketer, whose number is already on my blocked calls list.
The system will not allow you to add certain prefixes to the Selective Call Forwarding list. In those cases I will copy, then delete a normal number from my blocked calls list and add the one that couldn't be forwarded to that list. Then, I'll go back and add the allowable number to the forwarded calls list.
Numbers on the Selective Call Forwarding list will ring just one short ring on your Comcast service phone. You'll hardly notice it.
Eventually, all 24 slots will be filled, between blocked and selectively forwarded calls. At that time you have to remove old numbers to make room for new ones. Or, buy one of the newer landline phones with call blocking
, or a stand alone call blocker device. That is my next step in my war with telemarketers who willfully disregard the numbers listed on the Do Not Call Registry.
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