Back in February,  I posted here about the ubiquitous and recurring phone-spam from Dish Network. They’re the most persistent telemarketers evah! They have the expiring-automobile-warranty and the problem-with-your-credit-card people beat hollow.

After years of patiently telling the callers that we were on the Do-Not-Call list, I figured I’d get deeper in, and went into the company’s own system to add my phone numbers to their specific DNC list.

I was skeptical then, and rightly so: They called me twice on April 13.

Today they called again. It was a young man with an Indian accent, calling from “Utah.” I suspect it was from Utah, Uttar Pradesh.

It’s beginning to feel like one of those drama gags, maybe from “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum” – where a character keeps popping up irrelevantly in the middle of the action.

I’m frightening these youngsters by bursting into laughter as soon as they say, “Ma’am I’m calling from Dish…”

And that little clown-hat that’s the “i” in Dish evidently represents more reality than the logo designer planned. Rearranging the logo became irresistible. Enjoy.

Edited to add:

• Vikram from “Reseda California” called on May16th.
• And on 23 June 2010, Arjun Singh (from Burbank, California, he said) who had never heard of a Do Not Call list or the FCC, either… and wanted to know what would happen if I posted about it on my blog and on Facebook. (Nothing, I told him, they’ll go after your company, not you.)
• On June 26th, Rajeev from India, but supposed to say “Colorado” called. We had a pleasant conversation as I tried to retrieve my long-unused Hindi… and then I felt bad for wasting his time and told him to go on to the next prospect.
• (And my family tells me that while I was out some time earlier this month, they got two calls, fifteen minutes apart, from the same person.)
• Another call from another Rajeev. Somewhere in California, he said. 25th July 2010.
• After a long break: Vijay, from Atlanta Georgia. He says he’s an actual employee of the actual company, not an affiliate or an outsourcee. I asked – again – to be placed on the DNC list. 22 September 2010.
• Would it have been too much to hope they’d actually Do-Not-Call listed me? This time, it was a baffled-sounding young man who claimed to be from Norwalk, CA. (Or maybe New Delhi?) 6 November 2010.
• A young woman who insisted she was from Georgia, if I recall correctly. Probably Gurgaon. 14 March 2011.
• After a short break: 6 October 2011, two three! calls the same day, maybe 5 hours apart. One from “Nisha,” who assumed we were already using Dish. No. (And, coincidentally, one from a problems-with-credit-card marketer, too. Looks like our phone number’s a hot property with list-sellers!)
• On 8 October 2011, another two calls. Fifteen minutes apart.
• Another call, 24 October 2011. “You are biggest customer of Dish Network, that’s why I am calling you.” Umm, no. I am not any kind of customer, to the best of my knowledge. “There must be an error in the database,” he said.  I have a theory. They have completely merged all their databases, customers, non-customers, and the do-not-call list. I can see it now. All your phone numbers are belong to us…
• Just got a call, 28 December 2011, from Aman in New Jersey. And two other calls in the last few days that I failed to log here. They used a new tactic: “I am calling from Dish Network billing department, because you are a customer of Dish Network.” Well, no. “Would you like to be customer of Dish Network?” No.