to think that cold callers are cheating to withhold their numbers?

I would agree with that mcem, DH and I had our mobiles ring at the same time last week and it was the same number.

Strange experience last night. I answered my mobile (a reasonably local number was displayed) and seconds later my visiting son answered his to a very similar number with same std code. We dealt with the calls in our different ways but concluded that callcentre workers were using an alphabetical list and landed on our same surname simultaneously. Odd, but no less irritating!

You may have a point there, harrigran....but the call centres are actually understaffed where it counts. We have had a problem with fuel providers and our house move, needing several phone calls to sort out. Each time we wait about 25 mins for the call to connect with a proper human being.

It's the same with most services - to actually get an answer you have to hold on for a long time.

With call centre operatives working as responders, instead of as cold callers, everyone would win

Our final cold call of the day was at 7.45 last night, we could then finish dinner in peace.
No political party will make laws about cold calling for fear of job losses at call centres.

I was about to start cooking last night when the phone rang, asking for me. I did answer it but said that person, me, was out. It worked a treat.

Two more days and still not one nuisance call....I feel quite evangelical about it all. It shows how this had become a persistent low level irritation for both DH and me. We both get work calls on the landline, and we could not use the 'tell people to leave a message' option, so it works well for us.

I do think legislation should be developed to deal with the whole problem. My solution is no good for any much older person (like my mother, who just finds it hard to learn anything new and who can't see little buttons anyway) or for anyone who doesn't want to buy a new set of phones.

Telephone Preference scheme is useless.

That does sound an excellent solution, elena.

The phone started ringing at 8am, yet another no number and no message left when answer machine cut in. We seem to get days where they bombard us all day alternating between house phone and mobiles. We are on tenterhooks because we had a relative die on Monday and we have a close friend in hospital who is terminally ill and any one of these calls could be important

This is how it works: if a call comes from a delivery person, the phone dies not ring in my house, but the caller hears 'please say your name' and they say their name. The phone then rings and I pick up and I hear 'John from deliveries' is on the line. I press 1 to accept the call and 2 to always allow that number.

The phone notes calls in the call registry and we can see we have had about six calls which have not come through. These are listed as unknown. These are cold calls.

Cold callers won't leave their name.

What happens if, for example, you get a call from DX trying to deliver a parcel and they can't find your house? And you were expecting a delivery from Argos, not a driver from DX? Would it go to voicemail?

I may seem a bit sceptical here, but I am wondering if the reason you haven't had many calls just yet is because you haven't had to pass that number out to any delivery people, shops, double-glazing companies etc..

10 days ago, we got a new set of phones, and we have not had one cold call since....amazing, since despite being registered with the telephone preference thingy we could easily get 4-5 a day, and as dh and I both work from home, it got annoying. My poor old mum is plagued by them.

The phones have Call Guardian installed, and I think it's only these particular phones (from BT) which have it. You have to set it up, and it only lets in people willing to give their name, at which point you can 'approve' them and their call goes through unimpeded.

It's easy to operate (though I think it might be too complex for my mother, and unfortunately the phones are not Big Button, which she needs) and I feel liberated from this whole nuisance!

They usually aim for that time though, don't they. Mealtimes when you might be expected to be in. Or back from taking kids to school. Soon after 9am, around 12- 1pm and between 4pm and 6.30pm seem to be commonest here. I've just had two, one international and the other 01375642837, so TPS had no effect on that caller. I looked it up and they are computer scammers.

Apart from the interruption, octet a slight feeling of stress in case it's mum's home or gp and there is a problem. Added to which, I'm usually cooking too!!

It's not that I can't face it, it's that I can't be bothered with so many interruptions to what I am doing. The doorbell ringing every quarter-hour would be just as annoying. And I don't want to ignore it, I want people to stop demanding my attention by using it.

I have a "No uninvited tradesmen" notice on the front door, which keeps out the tarmackers who are working in my area and just happen to have made twice as much as they need, and the blokes hefting bags of teatowels that are twice as much as I need.

I have the Telephone Preference System, that should stop unwanted telephone calls, but by calling from "out of area" or "private caller" they still get through. That is what annoys me.

Isn't it dreadful that so many of us can't face answering our own phones

Oh dear. that must be tough.

We had a number withheld call at 8.30 tonight - no message. It's just rude.

My grandson picked the phone up on Friday night before I could stop him to hear someone asking to speak to his grandad. He said, "He's dead now. How did you not know?"
When I took the phone off him there was nobody there.
My grandson thinks everybody knows everything.

I don't answer witheld numbers either. I also get calls which come up in the phone window as "out of area" and "unobtainable" and I don't answer those. None of them ever leave a message. DH answers an occasional one but they only try to sell him things or offer new boilers and solar panels to which we are not entitled.

These days I don't answer a withheld number, but when DH was terminally ill it was very often one of the medical team ringing on their mobile. They didn't give out the number as it was private one. If I had ignored that, I could have missed an important message. I could have let it go and then chacked whether there was anything on the answerphone, but in that case I was as well to answer the call in the first place.

I don't think that firms touting for business should be able to hide their identity so that it is impossible to complain about them.

I've found that those automated calls leave a message, such as the one listing all the banks that are paying out on missold PPI policies. Easy to just press 'delete' though!

I never answer the phone either. The scammers never leave a message on the answer machine. Family speak and I get back to them or they text and say they are going to ring. I agree that if these cold callers were ringing your doorbell something would be done about it, nowadays they wont risk a backlash from angry residents.

Sorry elegran but I disagree, I tell everyone I know that I won't/don't answer the phone, and to leave a message. Once I have heard it I will call back and all they have to say is 'Jro it's Liz, call me when you get this'. What's so hard about that? After all, they do it when I'm out.

It also means I don't have to speak to MiL twice a day when she gets bored. It's my phone, I like my privacy but if other people choose to hide their identities I don't see why they should expect me to answer and get a cold-caller. I'm convinced my blood pressure has dropped a whole load simply because I am capable of ignoring the phone.

We have little and very spasmodic mobile coverage in our house so I rarely give out my mobile number.

DD's Health Visitor rang last week and, because it was number withheld, DD didn't answer it. She left a message asking DD to call her about an appointment letter which had gone to the old house. DD rang her back but got her answerphone which means that we have to answer all calls now whether we want to or not!

Holly you are quite right and I have on occasions told them they are trespassing but they don't get it!

We have had 3 more this afternoon that were all coldcallers!

I no longer answer the housephone at all - anyone who knows me will ring my mobile instead. I have a couple of friends who live in Ireland that prefer to ring the housephone so they will text saying something like 'ringing in 10 mins' and then I will answer it.

It's about time this cold-calling was stopped. If it was a case of numerous salespeople turning up at your door every day, I'm sure something would be done about that.

I never answer Withheld or International calls - or numbers I recognise as cold callers. If it's urgent or my daughter in Oz they will leave a message. I came home a couple of weeks ago to 15 'messages' 12 of which were cold callers who failed to leave a message. What does annoy me is have the phone ring when I am up a ladder/in the loo/at the bottom of the garden/up to my oxters in washing up water or whatever and rushing to answer only to find it's yet another unwanted call. I really must learn to ignore the ring!