Help us please to stop harrassing calls from energy savers [Merged]

PlutoinCapricorn

This is really bad. Have you registered with the Telephone Preference Service? It won't stop many unsolicited calls from overseas, but reputable companies that use third party overseas call centres should check whether you are on this. Avoid any company that wants money to ensure that you are not on opt-out lists.

There is a gadget called TrueCall that helps, but it seems all wrong to me that you should pay not to receive these phonecalls.

Could you get the name and address of the company the call centre is acting for and write to them with an official complaint?

trevormax

something someone suggested on a simelar thread. Buy a whistle. If they call, blow it very hard next to the mouth peice, then hang up. Eventually, everyone who works there will be deaf and unable to call you

maninthestreet

Get that True Call system that was on Dragons Den last week.

BitterAndTwisted

I might be being unfair but as soon as I hear a foreign-sounding caller asking if I'm Mrs X (I'm not married and I live alone) I just say "no, thanks" and put the phone down

Samba_Pa_Ti

im registered to the TPS the only cold calls i get/got were from ipsos mori, which i complained to as they were phoning me at stupid times (8/9pm at night and 9am in the morning) i told them i work nights and to take me off their lists many times and they ignored me, a strong email sent to them got rid.

i also get calls from BT about credit cards (a well known scam), i have fun with these and when they ask for bank details i just tell them il brb (to get them) and leave the phone off the hook, by the time i check the phone they have gone and its whilstling its balls off.

mothershipton

we had calls regularly from these people, i tried all kinds of ways of getting them to stop. I asked which company they were working for, didnt respond, swore at them, answered their questions with a stupid answer. put the phone on top of the washing machine. In the end, i answered their questions with a maybe and they said i had successfully completed their questionnaire ! and an advisor would be ringing me. The day after someone from n power rang saying i had filled in a questionnaire, which i denied and told them that i was on the telephone preference service. I havent heard from them since.

The other thing we do is let the phone go to answer phone, call centres always hang up.
good luck

Forris

BitterAndTwisted wrote: »

I might be being unfair but as soon as I hear a foreign-sounding caller asking if I'm Mrs X (I'm not married and I live alone) I just say "no, thanks" and put the phone down

I don't normally even let the call get that far. If I pick up the phone and there is a silence (I assume it is the caller's switchboard connecting them) then I hang up before they even speak!

jonnyd281

I had a call from these jokers - three times in one day - once whilst out, once I answered the phone and had fun with them - their script doesn't cover I get my power from solar panels on the roof :-), I don't have any, but they don't know that - third time I told them 'if they wouldn't mind awfully buzzing off', they hung up when I said I was with TPS.

Ballymackeonan

Just say you have a wind turbine - and ask them if they would like to buy your surplus electricity as it's windy today!

joegib

Forris's technique is a good one. Most cold callers are calling via automatic dialling machines which, once they detect an answered call (on your number), direct the call to a free operative. That process leads to a silent pause lasting for several seconds. My practice is to simply to answer "Hello" and if the caller doesn't answer straightaway, to break the call. I've found that legitimate callers (say, my bank or someone known to me) use direct lines and start talking immediately.

The only other class of call where there might be a genuine pause in my experience involves someone who's got a wrong number and is surprised by the voice answering — in which case breaking the call straightaway saves everyone's time.

I've recently installed an answerphone for the first time (left on permanently). Having had no automated cold callers for several weeks, I started getting worried about whether my answerphone was working correctly. Checking it via my mobile showed that it was working fine. I wonder therefore whether these automated callers can detect that the receiving line is on answerphone and if so, don't complete the connection. Who knows, but I'm happy not to be plagued by these calls any more!