When I got my latest land-line, I was getting (literally) 30-40 calls per day, with about 2/3rds of them leaving voicemails. I would get home everyday and have to sift through the numbers to get my personal VMs. Many of the companies were calling 2-3 times per day.

I had already given this new number to all of my work colleagues and friends/family and did not want to have to change it.

I started writing the numbers down and calling them back... but since most of the numbers did not answer during work hours, I would call back after-hours to get their answering machines and specific names of the companies. Occasionally they would answer and I would tell the person (after asking for a manager) to stop calling my number and that I was on the no-call list and I was also reporting them to the state Attorney General office. When they called again (and most did), I just recorded the time of the call with the number and kept reporting it to the AG's office. After a few weeks of doing this, the calls pretty much stopped overnight.

Unfortunately, one number that was unknown to me called and did not leave a message. I called them back about 8:00 or 9:00 that evening. A woman answered and had no idea what I was talking about. I got a bit stern and asked for her supervisor. A man started talking to me and I told him to stop calling me and I was reporting him to the state AG office. He calmly replied, "is this <my-first-name>?" He then said, "this is <my--new-partner-from-work>. Why did you just yell at my wife?" Oh, crap. My new colleague had called earlier to let me know about a meeting, but didn't leave a message as he sent a text instead. I felt horrible and explained the situation. He kinda accepted the story, but my relationship was never the same again, and he never invited me to his home for dinner, as he usually did with new people. Oops.