About 2 weeks ago I took my J−Phone phone in for service because it was often not receiving calls. Several times I had plans to meet somebody and the plan was they would call me a few hours before as they didn't completely know their schedule.

So, I sat at home, watching TV or browsing the net with the phone sitting on the table right infront of the keyboard. It never rang. 20 to 30 minutes past the time they were supposed to call I would call them and they would say they had called at the appointed time. Other times I'd look down and see the message icon lit up even though, like I said, the phone never rang.

So, I took it in. J−Phone said they'd fix it if I sign up for their insurance plan, $3 a month. I did and 3 days later I had a new phone.

Immediately it started ringing with an unlisted #. Japanese phones all have caller ID and most people don't hide their number. I picked up the phone and it immediately hung up. A couple of minutes later it happens again. Now I'm wondering, is somebody playing a prank? Is somebody trying to get through and this phone is broken? It's somebody calling the wrong number? I have no way of knowing. I'm thinking that probably something is wrong with the phone and that my friend who is trying to call will eventually either call my home phone and leave a message or will meet me in person and tell me of their experience.

I check with a couple of friends to have them call me. They have no problems getting through.

This goes on for 2 weeks. Nearly everyday I get a series of unlisted calls and as soon as I press the off−hook button (pickup) the line disconnects. Saturday for example I got over 10 of those calls and I was waiting for someone to call so I pretty worried they were having trouble getting through.

So, today I went to J−Phone and told them about the problem. The guy's only solution was that I could block all unlisted numbers. That's un−acceptable to me. Some of my friends may want their # unlisted and then they won't be able to call me. I told him that around 80% of the calls to me in the last 2 weeks had been these bad calls. They truth is actually higher. More like 90%. Anyway, he offered no help whatsoever, so...I cancelled me service with J−Phone. My phone was becoming un−usable. With 9 out of 10 calls being bogus one starts to ignore their phone. On top of which there's the issue of the phone going off at night or early in the morning getting me out of bed to answer it only to find it's another bogus call.

The moral. Stay away from J−Phone. If you are using J−Phone cancel your service and switch to somebody else. Don't support bad companies.

Now I have to figure out which other company to go with.