Cold calling - what's changed?

How awful Harrigan. Have you or your family thought about contacting the tabloids? A spread about Charity greed may stem the tide? It would be satisfying for you and yours if successful.

Touched by a TV ad my husband rang and gave £xxx. They pestered by snail mail and phone for two years. By chance I answered the phone and using a different dialect, saying *"Those people are moved away."" Then disconnected. It worked.

We've been ex directory for 30 years. Unfortunately telesales companies use sequential diallers.

No it doesn't work like that. Carrying out your duty as executor incurs certain legal responsibilities.

As it sounds as if the estate was quite considerable (house to sell) and the laws of probate kicked in. What part did the solicitor play? Joint executor perhaps?

After funeral expenses have been paid off, the next duty of the executor is to realise any assetts and pay off debts. There was a house to sell. And debts to pay, even if just council tax, utilities, estate agents feed, etc. and anything expended on behalf of the estate. This could include the cost of hiring cleaners and people to empty the house. Though I don't see why your sister couldn't put in a claim for this if she did it herself.

Account need to be kept showing all assetts and all debts and only after that is the remaining estate allowed to be divided up according to the terms of the will. So that's why the charities, as beneficiaries, are entitled to see the final spread sheet. As is/was your sister.

Yes Anya, he left 2/3 to charity to avoid inheritance tax and 1/3 to others. Correct me if I am wrong but shouldn't a charity just receive a cheque when the estate is wound up and say " thank you very much " when did they get to see the will and demand to see executors expenses before monies are paid out ? I told my sister she should make a complaint, initially to the solicitor and then to the law society, I think there is mischief afoot. My sister does not like to make waves and the solicitor seems to be taking advantage of this.
My rant is at the greedy charities who are impatient for their money, I do not benefit at all from the will and feel that my sister has been treated unfairly. She emptied and cleaned a very large detached house, lost holidays and paid for hotels and flights from abroad but has not seen a penny of the thousands she has lost. I asked her the other day if she would agree to be an executor again and the answer was a resounding NO. We feel cross at our cousin too because he put her in this position, if he had only stated a fixed sum to be given to the charity instead of a percentage. Probably when he drew up his will his estate was not as valuable as it was when he died.

Harrigran are you saying that your cousin left a will stating 2/3 of her estate was to be divided between two charities and and the remaining 1/3 to your sister?

I'm guessing here as it is not clear unless I have missed something in the thread.,

That's terrible, harrigran. Sounds like pure greed on the part of the charity.

I also get annoyed by those charities collecting money at the supermarket door. I'm told they are not supposed to actually ask you for money but many of them do, or they rattle their bucket in your face.

To add insult to injury, my sister was executor for our cousin's will, the charities are questioning my sister's expenses for selling the house and so on and are demanding proof of every penny she spent. Cousin died 18 months ago and because of the actions of the charities most of the remaining money is being eaten up by solicitors fees. I told her to contest the will because I thought two thirds of a sizeable estate was too much to give away when she had been left with a year of difficult work to clear up his affairs.
I have now suggested she makes a complaint against the solicitor who has dragged her heels and allowed this to continue for 18 months. The two charities that share the money are the wealthiest in the country but the solicitor told my sister she wasn't allowed to know which one was disputing her costs.
My cousin never married so my elder sister was his next of kin, when he was dying he sent for my sister on the eve of her holiday of a lifetime cruise. She cancelled her holiday and was told she could not claim on her insurance because a cousin is a not close enough relative. My sister lives abroad so had to fly to England and pay for hotel accommodation.
The greediness of the charity has resulted in a lot of stress and I will be cancelling my membership of both charities and I will be writing to tell them exactly why. One of the charities has the highest paid CEO and I think the whole charade is shameful.

sunseeker - what a good idea, I'll do it.
KatyK - it's only done to make us feel guilty, isn't it? And what a waste of money, too. Why don't they save the money they send on pens or coasters or whatever and put it in their own (or someone else's) charity box?

I am going to start taking the bumf from charity 1, put it in the paid postage envelope addressed to charity 2 (and vice versa) and post them back. If enough people did that they will get a taste of what it is like to receive piles of unwanted junk mail!!

Oh yes, the charity letters pre Christmas where they enclose a pen, or some free cards, or a couple of coasters. We get lots of those too. My DH has a saying 'my tear bowl is full'. We all do what we can.

harrigran - my grin was for your earlier post but I completely agree with what you've just said. Some of those charity bosses are paid an absolute fortune and then there is the new and luxurious HQ to be paid for.....

harrigran It's terrible isn't it? I don't give to them. I have been giving to two charities for years and, apart from the occasional disaster appeal etc, I stick to my own.

harrigran

At this time of year we get charity letter after charity letter through the letterbox. I bin them all - or send them back. I do make regular offerings to my pet charity but can really do without all this scrap paper landing in the hall. Why don't charities realise that their annoying missives totally discourage people from donating - they have the opposite effect to what was intended most of the time. I, too, thought the government was cracking down on them after that poor lady committed suicide but it seems just as bad as ever.

Before the charity gets one penny of your money they have to collect a year's salary for the CEO, do not feel guilty the ones in the wrong are the chuggers. I was actually told, on the phone, that xxx charity was aiming to raise £600,000 and the fund raisers would receive £110,000 of that money.

The charities are still at it despite there supposedly being a government crackdown. Today in town I was stopped by someone trying to get me to make a regular payment to The Red Cross. This evening I have had someone asking me to make a regular payment to Great Ormond Street Hospital. Yesterday I had a call from another charity asking for the same. I wish I could give to them all but I can't.

Went to Mums today and she was worrying ( for the first time) about the mail from charities. She was slightly tearful at being unable to help all that came through her door. Hopefully I have settled her mind but wish I could stop the stuff coming through her door.

We actually had cold callers at the door the other day trying to convince me I should have solar panels, I told him to place his panels where the sun don't shine

I let everything go to answerphone because I have a different ringtone for family members so I know if it's worth tripping over the dogs to pick up.

I then have the pleasure of deleting the rubbish.

I do miss GS3 now that's he's at school. At a 3-year old, and keen to answer the phone, he was a great firewall between me and cold callers. I've never had the same volume of cold callers since

I reported a company to TPS for cold calling. Received a phone call this morning from a company of the same name saying it wasn't them but another company using their name and that is why they were on the TPS list. Although he was polite and didn't try to sell me anything I was a bit put out that he had called me, particularly as my complaint was about cold calling!!

"...OfCom can prosecute..." rather than "...OfCom and prosecute..."

Report it LullyDully and sign up to TPS (the Telephone Preference Service). If you're signed up to that, they're breaking the law if they call you, so at least OfCom and prosecute them.

I keep getting a text offering me a loan. Don't want to text stop in case ( of what I'm not sure ) so I delete it daily. Boring

I have caller display and just don't answer if I don't recognise the number. They've sneaked under the wire a couple of times when DH has been waiting for a call from abroad but we don't even engage in conversation, we just hang up.

I tend to listen to the answerphone before picking up to unknown callers these days. They're devious blighters - I actually got a voicemail cold-call message (exactly the same format) on my mobile while I had it in my hand - no call, straight to voicemail. How was that done? I was playing lexulous at the time - does that stop calls?

I hate those calls too. People are usually smart enough to decide what to do or not to do without stupid phone calls. I am going to buy new windows and a door. 10 windows 1door. I will not b easking for quotes from any of the companies who have phoned up with their window scrappage schemes and quotes valid for 18 months. I don't know if they have ever thought that telephone sales calls might put people off.
I don't think that I would press any number instructed in a call like that. I don't answer the house phone any more. If Iam beside the phone when it rings I will check the number calling but unless I recognise the number I will not answer. If they leave a message I will decide whether to delete or act on it.
It is a real nuisance having these calls
SPF