801-623-4621

I just switched cellular carriers and have a new phone number. I noticed a missed call at 6:51pm EST from (801) 623-4621. When I returned the call I recevied a message from the Western Wats Center saying they were an independent polling organization. The website they give in the message is: www.westernwats.com. I don't understand how they are able to call mobile telephone numbers. Highly irritating!!!

This number keeps calling insisting that there is someone here by a different name.  Tonight they were swearing and threatening

They just called my cell and didn't leave a message.

these people call my cell up to 5 times a day i am sic of it i answer they just hang up.

Got a call, answered, and all I hear is silence.

Called 3 times today 2 times when we were out and once at 10:30 pm i tracked it to http://www.westernwats.com/ by calling all 3 numbers 801-623-4621 // 801-437-3150 // and 801-373-7735 there all from the same place its a servay compamy.

they called me twice today and did not leave a message.

Here's who is calling on this number.  It is a survey company called Western Wats located in Utah.  They use eleven phone numbers: 801-623-4621 through 801-623-4631.  They do customer research on contract for many companies, notably for Kaiser medical, Time Warner Cable, and various banks.  Also do research for the Democratic National Committee.  In mid-2007 some who have received calls from this company are asked about "temporary" residents of their house, or are asked for a Spanish-speaker in the household... which indicates that they are trying to reach undocumented aliens for a survey, although who would pay for a survey like that is anybody's guess.  

Western Wats is not required to respect the National Do-Not-Call List, because they are conducting legitimate customer research surveys on behalf of their contractees.  If you have an account at a bank which then hires WW, then they have every right to call you and ask how the service from the bank has been.  If you have communications service from Time Warner, then WW has every right to call you on TW's behalf and ask how your service has been.  If you are an American citizen, then WW has every right to call you on behalf of the Democratic National Committee to ask you what you think about politics.  

Now, as to who these callers actually are...

Western Wats has two locations in Provo, Utah (about 20 miles south of Salt Lake City):

290 West Center Street in Provo, UT 84601.  At the corner of South 3rd Street West, two blocks east of Pioneer Park and two blocks west of University Avenue.  This is the business office.  

701 Timpanogos Parkway in Orem, UT 84097.  Orem is on the northern outskirts of Provo, and Western Wats is at the corner of Timpanogos Parkway and Research Way, just across the railroad tracks from Orem Cemetery.  This building is their call center.  

Why don't they answer when you pick up?  Because their automated dialing system calls a batch of numbers at once, and the first one to make a live connection is routed to one of their phonejockeys, and the rest of the calls are dropped.  Yes, this is highly annoying, but it is the most efficient way (in their eyes) to get the maximum number of completed surveys per hour.  

How can you get them to stop calling you?  There are three ways.  First, when you get a call from 801-623-4621 or -4622, -4623, etc. through -4631, you wait until a real person speaks, then just ask them (in your sweetest voice) to "please remove this number from the call list."  If the phonejockey is not a complete [***], they will tap a few keys and remove your number.  

The second way is to go online to their website.  Just add ".com" to the company's name.  On the website, there is a link to a page where you can enter your number and ask that they remove you from their call list.  

The third way is to contact Western Wats directly.  By mail, use the address of the business office in Provo listed above:  

Western Wats
290 West Center St.
Provo, UT 84601

By phone, call them at:

(801) 373-7735  

I hope that helps to clear up the mystery of who is cluttering up your phone's caller log.  Yes it is very annoying that they block their outgoing caller-ID, but that's not the fault of the poor young people working as phonejockeys.  Don't take your frustration out on the people who call, because they're already frustrated themselves.  If they had any career prospects right now, then they wouldn't be slaving away on the phones for a pittance over minimum-wage.  Most are students who couldn't give a darn about what survey they are carrying out, and this type of work makes them develop a pretty thick skin, pretty quickly.  They develop what I call "personality callouses" so any foul language you might hurl at them just washes right off (and your rant will likely be recorded anyway, so don't be a jerk!)  

On a sidenote to Western Wats: why don't you change your outgoing caller-ID to say "survey" instead of "unavailable"?  If I see "unavailable" on an unknown incoming call, there's just Zero Chance that I'm going to pick up.  But if I see "survey" then I get the option to decide whether I'm not too busy to answer a few questions.  I'm betting that you only get a few "hits" per 1,000 placed calls.  If your caller-ID said "survey" then I'd bet that you'll double or triple your number of "hits".

Rec'd ph call from Gretchen Davis, purportedly with Telephony Magazine. I said "hold it, this sounds like a junk marketing phone call, not interested, remove us off your junk call list, got it, goodbye!" on 3/28/08, at 8:45 am, 31 secs.

This place has called my phone number at least 3 times a day - never leave a message. I finally answered the phone and could not understand a word the woman
was saying. I don't know where she was from but English was not her first language. I just told her to take my name and phone number off of her list. We will see how well she understood English.

I am on the DO NOT CALL LIST and received a call from this survey company.

They are using up my cell phone minutes and wich they would stop! It's annoying.

wats mesiter above mentions a page where you can put your phone to be taken off the list. i cannot find the page. could you please post the link here?

thanks for the info wats mesiter

j

If it was legal, then they should open a dialogue, I filed a complaint...
I am tired of businesses openly disregarding privacy rights. There's absolutely no agency to effectively complain to...Does any government agency
works in this country?

They called me at almost 10 pm.  If they would have woken up my baby, they would have been in for it. Jerkos

(801) 623-4621 Called my cell phone a couple of times tonight and also other nights.  When I pick up the phone, the caller says nothing,  I am on the Do Not Call list.  Stop calling my number

I received a call this evening from this number and they hung up on me. Who are these jerks? I did a quick search to learn it is out of provo Utah. How do we stop this intrusion? I too am on the no call list.

I just realized that my question has already been answered by the diligent Wats Meister, thank you! I will pursue the options suggested.

Who is this that wastes our time?

Keeps calling a new cell phone - how to get rid of them