Unwanted Phone Calls

This ought to help NanaChuckles. The Telephone Preference Service will help you get rid of those calls in the UK. Market Research seem to be able to continue, but if you read the other thread that discussed these nuisance calls, there's a few good suggestions about dealing with them.

www.mpsonline.org.uk/tps/whatistps.html

I had a call last night, "good evening Mrs harri, this is Peter calling from the UK" Lies and more lies we are with TPS and his Indian accent was so thick I could barely understand him. Somebody phoned in the afternoon to say that they were working in the area and noticed we needed paths doing. The builders have only just left my property after months of work, including front drive. These callers get shirty when I point out they are clearly not working in the area otherwise they would know the work was done. I had only just put the phone down when it rang again, "it is about your Sky subscription, I need your details" I let him waffle on for 5 minutes before telling him I don't have Sky, yet another scam. I am sick of the calls but helpless to stop them from abroad.

For the last week, I`ve had about 4 or 5 of these calls a day. Very annoying to have to leave whatever I`m doing to answer, and hear these Indian voices with so English names. It`s about time something similar to TPS could be sorted, so we could get rid of them.

Do agree that these can be a huge nuisance as they nearly always come when you are busy doing something and have to hunt for the phone. Have to admit that I sometimes take a wicked pleasure in winding them up into knots if I am in the mood to be contrary. Can play the dizzy blond who doesn't understand, or the old biddy who has forgotten her own name - perhaps next time I might see if I can get away with pretending to be about 5 and claim that mummy and daddy have gone to the pub and left me home alone! But sometimes its just f* **f!

My daughter had a cold caller about installing a conservatory onto her home. The usual thing, we were in your area today and noticed that you don't have a conservatory and we are doing a very good deal if you sign up within the next 48 hours etc. My daughter played them along and said she would be delighted to have a conservatory built onto her property. She let the person go on for a good 10 or 15 mins before she asked him if he could confirm that someone had indeed seen her property then could he answer a question? Of course was the answer. Daughter then asked him when they had developed the ability to build a conservatory onto a flat? "You b***h!" was the reply before they hung up. As my daughter said "Well mum it's their money they are wasting and they have wasted enough of my time!"

Sometimes her partner, a former police officer gets the calls. He is always very polite and says "Oh thank you for calling, your just what I need. Can you hold on for a second till I get a chair to sit on?" He then goes about doing what it was before they interrupted him. Make a coffee, read the paper, watch the TV, play with his son etc before he returns to the phone about 5 mins later. If they are still there he quietly puts the phone down again and goes back to it 5 mins later again before hanging up. They very rarely get calls of this nature now and SIL believes that they communicate with each other and are blanking his number from their list.

I know these people need a job but, THEY choose to do this type of job so I am afraid that I don't have a lot of sympathy with them when they get SIL on the phone.

I stopped these calls completely with a system called True Call. We got it via Amazon.

Nana Chuckles, In this financial climate ,I don't
suppose many of them actually choose to do this job. Two of my great nephews had to take a cold -calling job. as that was all they could get. It was very depressing and soul destroying. Now, even though these calls continue to annoy me, I do try to be polite when I say ''no, thank you''

I really don't know anyone who would actually purchase a service/product from a cold caller. I do feel sorry for people who need a job but they are a nuisance.

Hunt, I have tried to be polite because by nature I am a very polite person. However, when you are in a lot of pain and the sheer effort to get to the phone totally exhausts you, and for the 3rd time that week you get the same company offering you the same service, it does get very exhausting and I am sorry but I do tend to be rude after the 2nd call. I have even been overly polite and asked to speak to their line manager so I can ask them to make sure I am taken off of their calling log. This only resulted in the caller hanging up on me. I am truly sorry that this is the only job available to your family. It must be soul destroying for them when they are capable of so much more. I know what it is like to be in a job that is not your calling.

NanaChuckles, I have just looked up this telephone preference on Google. The information is all there and instructions as to what to do. Good luck!( if you haven't already found it) . It really will make a difference.

How do these people get our numbers?
I have just had a very rude phone call for some company of lawyers (yeah, right) called CCI saying that they have my number from a website in the PUBLIC DOMAIN so there is no way I can stop them calling me re (spurious) accident claims. I know I should just hang up, but I gave in to the temptation to try to answer back and the caller (Katie) was really hostile. I know I should have hung up....... but being in grumpy mode today stupidly started to answer back.
But back to original question - how do they get our numbers?

They buy them from other companies. If you've ever had to give a phone number for an order you've made or even a general enquiry, it'll be on some firm's list!

I worked as an 'independent' financial advisor to expats in Brussels for nine months and hated every minute. We had to cold call everybody with an English/American/Australian sounding name and go through a script. I was just too honest and often advised people to avoid investments and put their money in the best off-shore bank account they could find (I got no commission for this!)
Just once I rang a man who worked for the EC and he said 'I was waiting for someone to ring from your company -I have £25,000 I would like to invest for five years'. I went to see him and realised it really would be a good deal for him so we went ahead.
Only one man was rude to me - it turned out he had been telephoned by three other people from my company as we were not given any area/alphabetical demarcations.
It is the only job I have ever done where I woke up with a heavy weight in my stomach every morning.
I get the odd call in France even though I have signed up for the call-limiting service but I just say 'Je ne parle pas francais' in my best English accent and they give up.

Once a number is shown to be a valid one, with a live person to answer it, it is marked to be used again and added to the lists that circulate.

Often they don't even have our specific numbers, Their phones automatically call EVERY possible number, several at once. If it not a valid number, or if no-one answers within a set time, it just moves on to the next. That is why a call sometimes goes annoyingly dead just as you lift the receiver - the computer doing the dialling at the other end has decided that you are a dead loss and moved on to some other busy person.

If your phone system can put a ban on callers you don't want, you can block someone who has already rung you, or whose number you know, but if they are following a list it has probably been sold on and passed round the cold-calling industry. The next time the list is used it is a different caller - even if it is for the same company it will be a different number.

So there's no way round it? I tend to give my mobile number these days as I can see who is calling, but being innocent (gullible) assumed that there would be a genuine reason to give a phone number if ordering online, such as contacting me re delivery or availability. Duh!

I've been with TPS for a few years now and although they may work for some calls I still get the usual calls from India and several from the UK. My biggest hate is the call about my computer having a virus, as I've said on here before I just tell them I don't have a computer. It hasn't stopped the calls though I still get at least one a week.

As I've said before on here, I have Caller Display and it is wonderful. I never answer o800 calls or withheld numbers and I can see peoples' names and decide if I wish to speak to them!
My answer phone is always on, so if it is important the caller can leave a message.

Simples!

Having caller ID has helped enormously. When I see the 'International - number withheld' we just let it ring!

Ordinary 'Number withheld' can be a government dept or similar so we answer those.

I just had one 2 minutes ago - listened to the start of their spiel and just put phone down on them.

Sometimes, I have a go .. but I think making an excuse to get a chair etc, and leave them hanging on for a while, is a good idea. I do answer overseas calls as I have family abroad, and never know where they are ringing from. Its really annoying when you rush downstairs or in from garden, then its just a sales call.

Two nights ago we had a call from a young lady with a foreign accent asking for a Mrs Hunter and I told her she had the wrong number she then went on to ask for my name (not given ) and offered all sorts of advice to rid my PC of a very nasty virus !!! phone down sharpish must think I'm daft.

We have just had two calls in an hour, one to mobile of DH and another to house phone, I answered because display showed Withheld private number. Of course it was not a private number it was someone about PPIs, I told him I was with TPS and he kept saying " hello, are you there I can't hear" I could cheerfully throttle the nuisances.

We get all the calls as above, but the ones that probably annoy me the most are the ones I get every month or so from my bank, asking if I have 'a few moments to spare' to discuss my account.
All the household outgoings are taken from OH's bank account, mine has my part-time income paid in and is used for groceries and online shopping etc. I'm fed up of telling them I don't need any insurance, thank you, and no, there is no way you could 'save me money'!
When yet another young man phoned yesterday, I said that nothing had changed since the last call, and I really didn't see the point as they can see from my account what goes in and out.
He seemed to take that on board, but we shall see......

I used to get wound up by the calls, but now I thoroughly enjoy play acting. My favorite one is pretending to be an very old lady who is not very bright. I am VERY polite and keep thanking them over and over again, and agreeing with everything they say. I find it hard not to get the giggles......

There is a Panorama programme tonight about cold telephone calls made despite people being with Telephone Preference and having ex-directory numbers. A number of enforcement notices are about to be issued and there will be advice about what to do if you get such calls.