One of those bl..dy phone calls....!!

We use a code with family members - ring 3 times, stop and ring again and at least we know family are calling. Our GP surgery has number with held though so hospitals might too. It's so annoying! Have blown whistle down phone before and let them ramble on while I continue what I'm doing!
Sorry about your SIL and hope she makes it x

Poor you Marelli, hope things go well with your SIL.
Our phones stopped working a while a go so we had to buy new ones; two cordless ones, one for landing and one in hall. By coincidence it had installed on it BT call guard which is absolutely brilliant.
We were being plagued by cold calls especially about 6pm.
They have completely stopped now. When someone rings us for the first time they have to announce who they are and we choose to accept the call. Afterwards we can then mark them as accepted and from then on they just get through as normal.

We also have caller ID and I'm sure that because we rarely answer phone if its a 'Foreign Withheld' or and really long one we do not recognise (sometimes DH fancies an argument.....don't ask me why!) , the actual number of calls is slowly reducing. Every now and again there is a little flurry of them over a few days but we do not answer and they stop. Whether its just coincidence I do not know but we certainly are not bothered as much as some of the other posters.

We bought a call blocker phone from Argos which only rings when programmed in numbers ring. Anyone else gets a message asking them to give their name. The phone then rings and we are asked if we want to speak to ...name...(It works for withheld numbers!)
Automated calls do not get through and the small cost of Caller Display is worth it for not getting any more nuisance calls.

Wishing you and your SIL well Marelli

POGS, that's very kind of you. x

Yes we have a BT call blocker. we simply don't get any now.

Marelli

Sorry to hear your sister in law has had the trauma of an operation , it is indeed a concern due too her age and it is a folly not to acknowledge that point but I send sincere wishes she makes a full recovery.

The problem is at the moment you are all working on an adrenaline and a phone call at any time is a worry but that early in the morning must have scared you witless. Nobody can seem to stop these infernal overseas calls but as you quite rightly say they are a b----y nuisance.

I hope your next visit will see her in a comfortable position.

Some sort of call blocker system came with my phone when I bought it. I get maybe 2 International calls a week. I used to have to answer it in case it was the nursing home in Ireland informing me that my aunt had died but my aunt is now dead so I can ignore these calls. If any of my relatives want to contact me they do it by email.

Marelli I hope that your sister in law is slowly getting better.

I received a CPR call blocker as a Christmas gift from my family. It is worth it's weight in gold.

You need a telephone that has call recognition and I have caller display set up with BT. I don't know if other phone companies have this too.

Once it's connected to the phone socket and the phone when a nuisance call comes in you just press a small button on the call blocker. If you miss a nuisance call you can put a code into the phone with the number you want to block and it won't get through again. It will take some time to 'train' all the nuisance numbers but eventually hardly any will get trough. So I'm not interrupted by lots of these calls on a daily basis, some early morning and some late at night! It is a great gadget.

Here is the info; www.cprcallblocker.com

Also Elegran!

NanaandGrampy !!
Thank you all for your kind thoughts for my sister-in-law. I'm hoping I can pass them on to her whenever she's able to have visitors, bless her. I've just got the feeling that she'll be quite annoyed at herself if she actually does come round fully from the anaesthetic - but that's another story.

If the really early/late calls continue, I'll definitely look into a call blocker such as NanaandG and glass recommends. Thankyou.

I have a call-blocker that works a different way. Since I bought one I have had hardly any of those bloody annoying calls.
You plug it between your phone and the socket. You can set it to block any or all of international calls, no number calls, specific numbers (for these you just press a red button while they are on the phone and you never hear from them again) and a couple of other categories.It is preprogramed to block 200 known nuisance numbers. If you want someone you know abroad or with number withheld to be able to call you but still block most of them, you give them a short code to put in before they dial and they are let through.

(it is a CPR 1200 Number Capacity Nuisance Call Blocker, £39.99 from Amazon)

Thanks for the info about the call blocker Nana, I hadn't heard of that, what a simple solution!

Of course, I'm just on mine?

oh crumpets !!! Sorry annsixty and Marelli blame it on not having finished my first coffee of the day

N+G it was Marelli who had the early morning call but thank you for the thought and the info .I will look into it.

I havn't had any very early/late calls but am so fed up with them that I try to have a bit of fun at their expense. My response now is to say that no I am not Mrs Tiggy but I will go and get her. I let them wait a bit and then come back on the phone practising being a very stupid old women (not difficult). One yesterday was 'giving' vouchers for new bedrooms or kitchens so I went on for ages about how a new bed would be lovely and when would it come etc etc. The caller eventually gave up. I too feel sorry for people who have to earn their living in such a way but 'pressing 9' to be unsubscribed doesn't work so I am trying another way ! I havn't had another call from 'Microsoft technical dept' since their last call when he slammed the phone down after calling me a ''f*****g loser'.

Marelli for you

I'm so sorry to hear about your early morning upset annsixty how thoughtless these people are.

You can purchase something called a 'Call Blocker' We found the relevant information on the Information Commissioners website and have had ours for a few years now.

You just plug it in and when a call comes in the caller gets a voicemail instructing them to press 5 to speak to you. As most of these nuisance calls are from an automated dialler where they dial a block of numbers simultaneously and the first to pick up the call gets a human answer all the others go to a blank line like your experience this morning . So it means that there IS no-one to press 5 so the call never comes through to you.

It only rings in your home if there is an actual human on the end who has pressed 5. We have experienced a 99% drop in these annoying call and our sanity is almost restored {smile} . It also means that calls from places like your GP surgery get through as they don't use an automated dialler.

Hope your sister is doing better.

We have had a huge increase in the number we get each and every day. The earliest we have had is about 8:15 am, but we have noticed that the rush starts straight after noon when several can come in a few minutes. We have TPS which doesn't stop foreign call centres but have caller display which often say International or Out of area. Private caller could mean our surgery but unless I am expecting them to ring I don't answer those either. My D who visited last week was amazed at the number we get, it is probably 10 a day.

Marelli {{{hugs}}} I know people have to make a living but at that time in the morning is terrible, hope you have good news about SIL today.

We bought FIL a BT phone which allows you to actually block numbers as he was being harassed by companies and charities, works a treat.
www.amazon.co.uk/BT-Cordless-Machine-Nuisance-Blocker/dp/B00DBWUC9I/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1459928772&sr=8-5&keywords=bt+phones+call+blocker

I've noticed a recent increase, particularly in those dam Windows calls

Firstly Marelli I hope your SIL is on her way to recovery .

These damn calls are a nuisance. I get three/four a day - any day any time. However, like Kittylester I have caller display, so can just not answer, which is little consolation if I've just lumbered downstairs to answer the phone. I've joined a phone call blocking service, which obviously isn't working and there are online sites where the numbers can be reported (though yet again, nothing seems to happen). However, I thought I'd heard the government were making moves to ban these pesky calls...perhaps I was dreaming.

Thank you, kittylester. It's been such a long journey for her - maybe not one that she's really wanted to make. x

Any other time, we just let every call go to answer phone, kittyl, and ignore any call where it's 'one of those'. We do check 1471, to make sure it's not been someone who hasn't been able to leave a message.
So infuriating!! Is there any way of actually blocking these calls - does anyone know?

Sorry, meant to say that I hope your Sil pulls through and gets well soon