Call Control

[rustynailer]

Hi All,

I was introduced to this great new free service from Telus called Call Control. Basically what it does is help block the robo-dialers that call with some message about reporting in to the Tax Agency of your country, reporting to the court system for being in violation of some BS misdemeanor, or someone yammering in a foreign language that you don't understand.

When I was calling family friends on Christmas, I was asked to press 2 on the phone to let my call go through. Robo-dialers can't do this so their calls can't come through.

I want Fido to adopt this service as well. I get far too many of these stupid horrible calls which are simply efforts to steal identity. Also, since Telus offers it for free, so should Fido to prevent people from jumping to different service providers as I don't really want to go to Telus, but I would to get these darn dialers to stop calling!

[MX13]

%100 agree

[SaraDav]

I asked Fido this and they said it's in the works, this was months ago. 

[Chancekj]

I'm disappointed that it's 2023 and this still isn't a feature on Fido. I have been a customer since 2006. In fact we have 4 fido lines in our household. Lack of Call control and Apple Watch functionality has become a dealbreaker for us, even with our amazing rates and data plans. Fido doesn't seem to understand that these are now basic features they need to fight Rogers to have. Their inability to use the customer feedback on these forums is a key example of how either their hands are tied or they don't care. Out of spite to that to the Rogers powers that be I'm switching to a competitor. I don't care if it costs me more at this point.  

one thing I know: with number porting and unlocking rules, loyalty in the cellular space is dead. Every one of them has promoters and detractors. Go with who offers you the best value based on your needs. Full stop. 

[lukej]

I second that Fido/Rogers creates their own Call Control feature. I too miss this Telus feature. With Telus Call Control on, when a caller phones you for the first time, they’ll be prompted to enter a number on their keypad. If they enter it successfully, the call will go through to you and if they call again they won’t be prompted again if they are one of your 25 most recent callers and they answered the prompt correctly the last time they called. You can also add 25 of your friends and critical callers to the list so they don't get prompted the first time they call you. 

I must say it worked amazingly. Since switching back to Fido I have gotten 3 or 4 Robocalls a day! Argggh. But I guess I'll put up with it for 80 dollars of savings per month. 

I just came to Fido from Telus as Telus jacked up their plans by 7 dollars a month. I decided to switch because of Fido's internet and mobile phone bundle. They are now saving me 85 dollars a month. Definitely not too shabby. The Fido employee said if you contact Fido before the one-year anniversary each year you can get the discount reapplied as they have been offering this discount for the past 5 years. 

[FidoNajat]

Hey @lukej! Although discounts are limited in time and may not be extended, feel free to reach out to us so we can verify the best options available. 

As for filtering the calls, Spam Call Detect, also known as Nuisance Call Filtering, is the latest advancement in our fight against frustrating spam and fraud callers! You can find more information about this here.

[Eugene7A]

Hello there,

I just switched to Fido from Rogers and neither has the Call Control feature. This simple and free feature is avaliable in other companies (introduced in 2020) allows you to easily block unwanted robocalls and voice mails.

People have asked for this feature a number of times earlier in the community, but it hasn't been added yet. This is almost the only public channel of communication with the company, so I will create another topic here again as a reminder that people really need this feature asap due to an insane number of scam calls and auto-voice mails everyone is receiving.

[Cawtau]

Hello Eugene7A,

  Welcome to the community!

  I think everyone is fed up with SPAM/SCAM calls. I appreciate that system can be beneficial for some customers. However, it is not a solution to the problem. There are many legitimate automated calls which would also get blocked by that system (ie Pharmacies, doctor's offices, libraries, delivery notices, etc). Fido, and other providers, are likely focussing their efforts on options which can benefit all of their customers, not just some of them.

Hope this helps 😀

Cheers

[mpowers]

I appreciate that you believe it would block legitimate calls. However, I don't get any of those so-called 'legitimate' calls that are robo-dialed. I want this service so that I can get rid of the 9/10 calls that are just spam. There are too many, they clog my voice-mail if I don't answer them and occasionally I miss good calls because my voice-mail is full of spam that I haven't had the time to go delete. The feature we're asking for is a voluntary opt-in feature to limit who can get through on a mobile phone. Is this really all that different from the 'private number' option we had in the days of landlines?

[billybob333]

Im leaving FIDO for TELUS to get call control

[FidoAnthony]

Hey @billybob333,

Welcome to the Community.

We definitely do not want to see you go. Feel free to get in contact with us and we'll be happy to make things right. 

To get started, you can reach out to us on these channels and we'll take it from there! 

[lastamakc]

Planning to switch carriers if this feature isn't added by the end of this year. It's so awesome. Too bad Fido won't do what other carriers do for their customers.

[PaulBain]

Yes!!! Fido needs to offer Call Control like Telus does.... way to many robo calls!!! I am planning to switch to Telus unless this feature is offered ASAP.

[Rajjairath]

Fido plz implement the bandit solution it still helps out. Hate getting cbsa and cra calls. If not you will loosing another customer to compition 

[FidoPhilippe]

Thanks for your suggestion @Rajjairath! We're always looking for practical ways we can reduce the number of these calls.

[Ellkay]

Yes please. A long standing FIDO customer    Since 1997 but receiving these calls is annoying enough to consider leaving. Pleeeeeeeeease implement! 

[ArmanK]

My wife is with Telus and she loves it so much that when I found a nice deal for Iphone12, she refused the offer as the other carrier does not provide this service. She was receiving more than 10 calls every day and after the call control, it dropped to zero. Such peace of mind!

My contract with Fido is almost over and I am contemplating switching from Fido to Telus. Not sure why Fido is not interested to offer call control.

That STIR/SHAKEN technology was supposed to be ready in September 2020 but then pushed back to June 2021 and now is August 2021. Any news?

[plinka66]

I just experienced this when calling a Telus person so it made me look this up and found this discussion.  It was very easy to understand and get past.  Also she reported that it works great because she never gets spam calls.

I think the negative nellies are just being negative.  It is not going to solve every issue, but sure seems like a neat feature and I think Fido should implement this as wel.  I got 3 calls yesterday from "Service Canada" telling me my "Social insurance number has been locked".  One came in at 7am.  Anything to prevent those robocalls would be appreciated.

[FidoJulien]

Hey @rustynailer

Thanks for the suggestion! 

[cmane]

When will this be implemented? I've been getting 2-3 calls a day from spammers. If not I will need to switch to Telus as this is really annoying.

[FidoAnthonyZ]

Hello @cmane,

Welcome to the community!

We don't offer call control at this time, but we do have universal call blocking!
You can find more info here: https://www.fido.ca/support/accounts/faqs-about-universal-call-blocking