cold calling

Youngest worked at a telesales job during holidays to earn a crust and came home with all sorts of tales - asking for one chap, the lady who answered said his funeral was just about to leave and could he ring back later; another said, oh no dear, I couldn't possibly, my son's a homosexual! and all he was trying to do was sell double glazing.

I usually say, I'm sorry to say it because you are so nice, but I am completely uninterested - before they get into stride.

I never pick up unless my phone displays a name I know. If it is important they will leave a message & I will call back. Have CPS and so now only international calls that ring in. I am more empathetic to the rare caller that does get through. It is a deadly job and the young people I know who have done this, have been desperate for work & have hated it & got out as soon as they find an alternative. i am always polite but clear i am not interested in whatever they are selling/surveying! Lucky never to have had an unpleasant experience.

Oh, thanks when - I didn't know you had to renew. I think we registered some years ago....

The Mail and Telephone Preference Services are really useful, but you need to renew your registration with them every few months. I remembered to go back and check this morning, and had to re-register. It seems to have lasted for nearly a year and I have had less junk mail, but it started to creep up again in this last month - that explains why.

I don't answer the phone if International is displayed - if it's my daughter , she will leave a message - the other callers never do.. I don't answer the phone if it displays 'withheld' or 'unavailable'. If they want me, they'll soon enough get me through the usual channels. Just after Mr.G died I had a call from a young man asking to speak to him. I replied that no he couldnt 'is there any good reason why I can't?' he said in a very beligerant manner. So I told him - never got rid of anyone so quickly; I like to think he was embarrassed, but don't really expect he was.

These calls which ask for the husband display as 'withheld' rather than 'international', which is annoying as DD1's number is withheld so I have to answer. I am registered with the telephone preference service but still get these calls despite me saying "please remove me from your list". The international ones I just ignore and they stop for a few weeks then start up again. I do have a whistle but haven't been brave enough to use it yet!

I think I heard somewhere that if you continually press the hash button on the phone when you receive one of these calls, they won't call you again. Don't know if this is true. Worth a try?

What I do is a variation on other posters i.e. ask them to hang on, put the phone down on the table and leave the room.

I have telephone caller display on my phone and I was getting fed up with calls showing INTERNATIONAL. I now answer them and when the cold caller speaks I put on my G.P.O. voice and say "This is a B.T. international intercept call, please leave your name, number and reason for the call after the tone". It pleases me to have the sport and it is comical when I hear them say Oh and clear down. I am sure I have had less calls so I am hoping my number has been erased from some of the callers. I've sewn the seed of doubt in their minds as to what is going on.

Gosh Riverwalk, that sounds horrible, not had any that late at night, you poor thing....tis not good to have to turn your phone off!

Hilda I do have caller ID so I know it's cold-calling but I still have to switch off the phone before I go to bed due to the time of the call, always just after midnight, so I don't want it to ring!

It's gone on for months now - am hoping my number will eventually drop off their list.

The telephone companies have a lot to answer for - when I had a new landline number, about 2 years ago, within a minute of it going 'live' I had a cold call.

It really ticks me off when the phone goes , pick up and line dead as they phone several numbers and whoever picks up first gets "spiel" so my time is wasted by going to phone

Riverwalk.....a caller ID enabled phone will show such a call as 'International Withheld' you just let it ring and this seems to eventually reduce the number of times they call.

absentgrana and Barrow, that's terrible! How incredibly insensitive those callers were. Of course you were in no state to take the names of their companies - they should be reported.

About a year ago I registered with the Telephone Preference Service - after about two weeks those pesky cold calls stopped ..... well almost!

About three times a week at exactly two minutes past midnight I get a call, obviously from overseas, there is no-one there. It must be some sort of automated system that just dials. It's a real nuisance because I have to remember to switch off the landline before I go to bed, and to switch it back on in the morning.

I'm assuming that there is no way to control calls from overseas.

Barrow, those calls infuriate me! It implies that only the 'man of the house' can deal with whatever they are selling. Grrrrr!

I received one of these cold calls yesterday which upset me. When I answered the phone someone asked for my husband when I informed them he had passed away instead of saying sorry immediately went into the spiel to try to sell me whatever it was they were selling. I'm afraid I lost it and shouted had they not heard what I had just said and did they have no compassion and slammed the phone down.

I have mentioned this before on another thread. I had a call from what turned out to be a mobile phone company. The guy started with the "How are you today?" I replied, quite truthfully, that my mother and my father-in-law had both just died on the same day, I wasn't feeling too great and didn't want to be bothered with anything that wasn't important. He replied, "Well, I have something to cheer you up..." and went on to start to describe an offer on some odel of mobile phone. I hung up.

Our phone also works as an intercom, so we have handsets in different rooms. DH often rings me from the bedroom when I am in the kitchen. A call a week or two ago was displayed as "bedroom" but DH was in the room with me. Turned out to be someone in India. He did not even seem to have a prepared script to spiel, sounded as surprised as me.

Most modern telephones have a facility which allows you to block a number, only problem is these b*****s get round it by not displaying the number. They are now displaying Number Withheld private caller, which they definitely are not. How can you be considerate to people who are devious in their means of reaching you ? I have received calls to my mobile ( I never give this number to anyone ) and when checking the caller it reads 00000000000

I've just remembered that there is a BT number you can ring to block cold callers - hmmm, not sure but I think you dial 414 but it may be in the front of your telephone book. I know it works because we simply don't get cold calls.

We have been registered for years with the telephone preference service, so if the cold call is from the UK, I have no compunction in dealing with it in a succinct fashion and this "they have to work somewhere" cuts no ice with me.

This is because, over the last year or so, the calls have increased and when I tell the caller I am registered I get some rubbish about "oh you have to register each year or it runs out" - wrong - or "you have done business with us before and that is why you are on our books" - also wrong.

goldengirl - your call sounds a variation on this technique so don't feel guilty.

I had 4 in one day this week. On picking up the last call a young English voice said 'I'm sorry to bother you ..' I interrupted him to retort 'If you are sorry you're bothering me, then why bother me?'. He replied very sadly 'I suppose then you don't want to hear what I've got to say?' I told him he was spot on but I must admit to feeling a little guilty when I put the phone down. Could this be a new tactic to make recipients feel bad?

Youngest earnt uni holiday money doing telesales for a famous double glazing company and his most memorable response was: Oh no dear, I couldn't possibly, my son's a homosexual! Another tricky one when he requested to speak to Mr T he was told - we're just off to the funeral but p'raps call back later.

Lately I seem to be getting a lot of calls doing a "survey". Before they start their "script" I very politely say that I don't do telephone surveys, that I am on the Telephone Preference Service and that it is illegal for them to call me. I then ask that my number be removed from their system and then hang up.

If I have some spare time I sometimes play mind games with them - I let them start their spiel then interrupt and ask a question (this completely throws them because they are working to a script). This usually makes them go back to the beginning and start again, after interrupting them a couple of times I will say that I am interested in whatever it is they are selling and ask them to hold on while I turn off the kettle/take a pan off the stove or whatever and then leave the phone off the hook for half an hour!

Oh dear, it is a hard one.

I too hate being asked "how are you today?" I particularly remember many calls from my (now ex) bank, about the lack of payments on my loan (it was being referred) and the amount of times that they would use my name (NO it is NOT building rapport, it is just bloody annoying) and at the end of the call being wished "enjoy the rest of your day" or something similar!

When you are trying to set up either a debt management plan or similar, these "salutations" are just a step too far, but unfortunately for the drones on the phones, that is what they are trained to do.