Bill payer phone reminder looks like SPAM

[fryiii]

I neglected to pay my bill last month. I wrote the amount in the checkbook and filed the bill without first going to home banking to pay it. OK, my mistake.

Verizon kept sending me phone messages to call them. I get at least 5 and up to 20 phishing phone calls every day. I ignore them all. This just looked like another one of them, so I ignored it too.

So, Verizon, here's some advice on how to actually get through:

1) In your phone message, first say the call is simply a reminder about a phone bill payment you haven't received. Say "if you haven't already paid, it's easy to pay at Verizon.com. Just click on the Pay-my-bill link." 

Asking someone to call you at a number for payment is what scammers do. So don't ask, because your message will be completely ignored. Instead, say you can call the number printed on the bill for payment. (You already print a different number on the bill, noting "Fees apply.")

2) If you really have to act like a scammer and ask for someone to call you, get on board with Google so that your number (or other similar numbers of yours) show up on an https://verizon.com web page as the first response. How hard can this be? Put it someplace like https://verizon.com/callback-numbers, with a title like "You can contact us on these phone numbers" and a description like "Pay your bill" for the actual number.

You will, however, be ignored by skeptics like me.

3) You've gotten a little better with your caller ID. At least most (but not all) of these SPAM calls have a SPAM? ID prefix. I thought I had gotten the spam problem under control with a phone that could auto-block a couple of thousand numbers. Maybe you could just block the SPAM so that only real calls get through? Then your call might not have been ignored and we both would be happier.