Telephone Preference Service

vet8

We signed up to the telephone preference service years ago when we got fed up with idiots trying to sell us double glazing. For ages it worked great, no more annoying calls when you were in the shower.

Now however, as most call centres are abroad these unwanted calls have started to come back. :eek: My OH says the TPS only works for calls from Britain Is that true? If so it makes it pretty useless now that most calls you don't want come from abroad.

macman

Yes, the TPS only works within the UK unfortunately, it's not enforceable offshore.

Buzby

Which shows you how useless the TPS actually IS (and the MPS, which cannot stop unaddressed mail either). The telemarketers were given a bullet wirh the TPS was created with its list of 'do not call' numbers, but economies of scale meant that the cost of calling from abroad fell to next to nothing, and the foreign call centres worked for peanuts. It didn;t take long for it to be realised that only when calling from the UK did the TPS rules apply, so it became open season again. There are systems you can add to your home phone that require the caller to enter additional digits before your phone is made to ring, which normally kills the automated caller systems.

Old_Git

This is what I do
treat your phone number like you bank details ,
dont give out your phone number
if you have to fill in a form on line and it asks for a phone number
I swap the last two digits .
In the past 11 years I have had one sales call and that was from BT .

vet8

I NEVER give my phone number to anyone, it always annoys me that it is always asked for regardless of what form you fill in. But we are in the phone book. I have thought about being ex-directory, but I think it is a joke and defeats the entire point of a phone book. Apparently less than 40 % of numbers are listed now which makes it pretty useless.

So as a point of principle I stay in the phone book and I think people should be able to have their number listed so that they can be contacted if needed, but not have to endure unwanted sales pitches.

elkay115

I just had a call from some company, no idea who and when I told him I am a member of the TPS, he asked for my my 9 digit number before he would remove my number for the list! I don't recall getting a 9 digit number when I signed up for TPS not that long back. I just recently changed my house number and am getting so many calls now, and it seems the TPS just doesn't work any more!

vet8

This is the point. We get calls from British call centres and we give them all the "Why are you phoning me? I am a member of TPS" stuff, but it does not seem to work any more. GGGRRHH

brewerdave

I just listen silently whilst they waste their money going thru a meaningless sales pitch then hang up !
As for being in the shower.... fit an ansaphone - anyone who needs you desperately will leave a message.

david39

We were plagued by a "financial" bunch of scammers in Leicester trying to sell IVAs - two calls a day sometimes. They always had asian accents so you thought they were overseas so not worth making a complaint about but, in fact, in the early days they left a 1471 number that linked back to a company in Leicester. On the phone, they referred to themselves as the Debt Councelling Service (or Agency) and claimed to be working under a government scheme!.

Recently, as reported elsewhere in these forums, several such firms were threatened over persistent cold-calling by withdrawal of operating licences by the FSA and the calls stopped but, sadly, they have just started again, using a new title. Must be the same firm - same sales pitch, same tactics, just a different name.

It seems that you cannot stop them calling you - I recognise them immediately and put the phone down but it doesn't stop them ringing.

Heinz

Why not just say, "You're too late. I was made bankrupt last week." ?

They may even then realise there's no point in offering an IVA.

vet8

brewerdave wrote: »

I just listen silently whilst they waste their money going thru a meaningless sales pitch then hang up !
As for being in the shower.... fit an ansaphone - anyone who needs you desperately will leave a message.

I have an answerphone and I must admit that now I hardly ever even bother to answer the telephone, I let the answerphone get the message as I am so sick of cold callers.

BUT this misses the point. I feel that I should be able to have my phone number in the book and not receive unwanted calls from anyone. Yes, I can not answer the phone, I can hang up etc. etc., but why should I have to go through any of this aggro? I should be able to request no cold calls and that is what happens.

An Englishman's home is his castle and all that sort of stuff. :T