Today I swore ….

Yes. I had a combi oven delivered. It was very heavy. I asked the courier if he would bring it up for me. I live on the first floor. He just said 'no' and walked away.
There was no way I could lift this oven on my own. I was . furious. I have lodged a complaint with Curry's.

BlueBelle

For the third day running twice at 7 am and today at lunchtime I had a cold call asking about my loft insulation
After asking if I was the homeowner and suggesting he hoped I was having a nice day etc etc I asked why he was ringing me (an English cold call this time) he said he was ringing to ask me about my loft insulation, I asked him if he knew why he was making me so angry, he said no ? And I said because I haven’t got a f,,,,,, loft
I should apologise but I won’t
Anything got you going lately ?

... And I said because I haven’t got a f,,,,,, loft

That's the kind of answer I would love to give - well done you!

What get's me going is the fact that a complete stranger calls you to sell something and asks if you're "having a nice day" or the other opener "how are you?". I had a similar call recently where the caller started asking me the same sort of questions, could I confirm my address and was I the homeowner. I cut him short and said "why the hell should I tell a complete stranger calling me out of the blue my personal status?". He started to explain but I interrupted him again and said "you're either a scammer or you're trying to sell me something and whatever it is I'm not interested and am going to put the 'phone down so don't call me again". Which I did... and could hear him burbling something like, "but Madam, I'm only"... click. Infuriating, the lot of them.

I have had the How are you today? so I tell them a long rambling story about my made up problems. It does get rid of them.

I had the loft insulation cold call. I sent him away with a flea in his ear. Other calls I have had told persistent callers they should be ashamed of themselves trying to scam people. The phone was put down . Have BT so press 1572 and put it on my block list. Other phone companies have a similar system.

I swear every day but mainly at news readers.
I never get the cold callers. Some years ago I bought a whistle, they didn’t like that. Word obviously got round.

When cold callers ask if I’m the home owner, I tell them I’m the cleaner and they hang up quickly.

I actually feel sorry for the cold callers and delivery drivers, as well as the call centre people. They do a job nobody wants, they get abuse, and they got to keep to impossible schedules.

Bluesky my dd shamed me when I said how angry I was with these calls! She said much the same as you, and it certainly made me hang my head a little and change my tune a little too.

Two cyclists at the entrance to a narrow one-way street; they dismounted and walked their cycles through the oncoming traffic in the middle of the road.

BlueSky

I actually feel sorry for the cold callers and delivery drivers, as well as the call centre people. They do a job nobody wants, they get abuse, and they got to keep to impossible schedules.

Me too BlueSky - they are only doing a job, (obviously, I don't feel at all sorry for the scam callers). I just politely say 'sorry, I'm not interested, but thank you for calling' and end the call before they have time to reply.

Regarding cold callers on the phone or at the door. My husband just says "we only rent the property" end of conversation. We do actually own our house.

Just had chuggers at the door. It's bad enough in the street, but I really don't think they should be going round houses. As it happened it was for a charity we already support, but I didn't think that was any of their business. He did the "Are you having a good day?" thing, so I just replied "Yes thank you, and no thank you" and shut the door on him as he was saying "Enjoy the rest of your day" (to which my DM's reply would have been "Thank you, but I have other plans").

Whiff

I had the loft insulation cold call. I sent him away with a flea in his ear. Other calls I have had told persistent callers they should be ashamed of themselves trying to scam people. The phone was put down . Have BT so press 1572 and put it on my block list. Other phone companies have a similar system.

Me too. Last one was the Indian call centre one about my Amazon account. I was just screaming down the phone saying do you realise what you’re actually doing and ‘so whereabouts in London do you live: how is the weather’. I usually try not to be horrible because they need the work but I’d had too many of them over several days. And I did ask for an apology given that he’d called at an inconvenient time but he refused. So I just lost it!

I worked for a double glazing company for a while, it was awful, the wages terrible, the bonuses we were meant to get if an appointment was made never materialised and people would literally scream at you. I didn't last long

That’s why I try not to be unpleasant. I was doing a market research job one night and as I walked down the drive some double glazing people asked me if I’d like to work for them. They said I was brilliant: chatting about the ladies dog etc. I pointed out that I was genuinely interested in the dog and wasn’t doing it to sell her anything. I didn’t make much money doing market research.Sometimes ended up giving people a lift or picking up shopping for them! And, in retrospect, it was quite dangerous just going into peoples houses.

BlueSky

I actually feel sorry for the cold callers and delivery drivers, as well as the call centre people. They do a job nobody wants, they get abuse, and they got to keep to impossible schedules.

Me too, so I’m never actually rude to them. Scam callers are obviously another matter, though.

Dd1 once had a holiday job in a call centre, cold calling about management consultancy, IIRC.

She only lasted about ten days. As she said, it’s not much fun being told to eff off all day long.

Upon asking cold callers , Co tha seo in Scots Gaelic, who is this? I very rarely have to ask a second time before they hang up.

I have a call blocking facility on my mobile phone so if I get a call from someone l don’t recognise l activate this. It has greatly reduced the number of cold calls l receive.

We don’t have to put up with scam or cold callers any more. Our new BT Call Guardian landline phone intercepts all calls. We get a message that says who’s calling and we choose whether to accept or block them. Accepted numbers can then be saved so when they ring again , they get straight through to us.

Used to get several cold or scam calls a week. Sometimes 2or 3 a day. None at all now ?

It happened to me recently. I said loudly "Do you know what time it is?".
The line quickly went dead.
They shouldn't be allowed to ring so early.

I do recognise cold callers can be a damn nuisance, especially when they call early/late, so we had a call screening facility, (similar to muse) the caller must state who’s calling to the recorded message, then we can either accept or refuse the call. We’ve had no cold callers since.

There is a difference between cold callers trying to sell you something and scammers - there is a problem with your computer/Amazon prime needs renewing etc. the first are just doing a job, but the scammers are laughing at you and deserve all they get.

This doesn't apply to me, it happened to my hubby once.

He answered phone to listen to some bloke calling himself John rabbling about had my husband has an accident.

John asked ( in broken English) if he had accident with laptop, falling off a ladder, tripped, blag, blah, blah.

Husband let him rattle on, then said "Actually yes, i had an accident the other day."

John almost whooped down the phone, "You had accident?"

"Yes," hubby replies, "I stubbed my toe on the end of the bed."

John repeated "TOE?" "BED?"

bang The phone was put down.

I think to be fair these people are told to be polite and to wish people nice day etc, so perhaps its just best to accept their chat and reply, you too, or whatever. I think you can reply pleasantly to the silliest of comments.