Persistent nuisance calls from BT Sales.

payless

ElkyElky wrote: »

LOL Well said!! I was in the same position as you, calls everyday from them trying to sell me something. I switched to Virgin Media.

Not once have I had any sales calls from Virgin Media.

No - just more expensive bills !

BT_company_representative

Hey terra_ferma,

The best way to stop unwanted calls is to register with the telephone preference scheme. This will only stop UK companies from calling and can take 28 days to take full effect but after that you should not be bothered by anymore calls. You can register here

Conan
BT Support

Nessynoo

I hate BT with a passion...no end of problems. Can we start a club?

terra_ferma

BT_company_representative wrote: »

Hey terra_ferma,

The best way to stop unwanted calls is to register with the telephone preference scheme. This will only stop UK companies from calling and can take 28 days to take full effect but after that you should not be bothered by anymore calls. You can register here

Conan
BT Support

I am already registered, I did not think it covered people who are already customers.
But you reminded me that I should be able to opt out. Will do that next time I contact BT.

BT_company_representative

Hi terra_ferma,

Just sent you a quick PM, could you reply by return.

Thanks,
Jon.

mike7899

boingsaidzebedee wrote: »

Having received 3 to 4 calls a day over a 3 week period from phone number 0800 9889 546 identifying themselves as BT Sales I am getting somewhat annoyed.

Informing them politely that I do not want to avail my home phone or myself with any of their offers has no effect in ending these calls.Changing my response to requesting that they shove their BT offers up their f*cking a*se likewise has not resulted in a reduction in the frequency of these calls.

Polite refusal,wit and repartee,simulated masterbation,putting questions as to the marital status of their parents,asking about the state of their underwear and nether regions and the sweat factor due to sitting on a warm chair for long periods,or even saying that I am dead---nothing appears to deter these telephone warriors.

Ringing BT to report these persistent nuisance calls which I should prefer to describe henceforth as downright harrassment on an elderly citizen of increasingly fragile mental state I solicit the following response.......

A very nice BT person who informs you that as an existing customer BT can regard itself above any restrictions of the Telephone Preference Service and will most likely hound you to the grave with unsolicited calls because that is their prerogative and it keeps otherwise unemployed graduates with useless degrees in Windsurfing employed.However she puts me over to the Department which should be able to offer constructive help.

The object of this Department it seems is to keep you on hold for hours ,hoping that you pass away from hunger and despair,with an automated message which regets how busy they are but kindly hang on.But it's a 0800 number so what the f*ck.

Phoned the number again today.Got the automated sorry but we're busy please hold the line.Placed the handset down on the table and drove dog down the beach for a walk.Walked a few miles,chatted with friends,shopped in the Co-op on the way home.Behold ! on arriving home found the automated voice still requesting I hold because they are busy.

The word that sprang to mind was "B*LLOCKS".Are BT simply taking the p*ss ?

However I have read on the World Wide Webby thing that BT has officially the worst customer service lines in Europe second only to British Gas.I now see how hard they work to maintain that poisition.

Can anyone give me truthful and definitive advice on how to curb the enthusiasm of the BT Sales teams who are truly telecom warriors of outstanding and insidious persistance.

As a by line whilst walking the dog this evening I noticed the big green BT junction box thingy whose doors are secured only by a flimsy padlock sitting on the pavement.

Now thought I what if the wind blew off this padlock and blew in a 2 litre plastic ex-ice cream container filled with petrol.What would be the chances of a carelessly discarded lighted match also blowing into the junction box? If this fairly possible series of events were to occur how long could I reasonably expect to be free of phone calls?

I have just spent 20 minutes trying to stop BTs own automated calls using 1471 I got the number 0800 9889 546 I phoned this and got a recording saying If you wish to be removed phone 0800 028 2272 a BT number this I think is in India whilst waiting for an answer I was asked to take part in a BT survey and kept waiting as they where busy, when I got through I told the chap that I was not a BT customer as such but still paid line rental to BT and that I viewed Cold Calling from BT as out of order He told me that in order to be removed I must contact my own Telephone company and ask them to block the calls some of which are very late in the evenings, I said why on Earth should I have to contact my Telephone company as it was BT who were making the calls and that I was stuck in a loop, the automated call was instructing me to contact BT customer service to be removed, I was seething and asked him for a Ref-number he said it was not necessary I told him it was and as I was paying BT nearly £40 a quarter I demanded it He then said he was putting my through to someone else as he had tried to help me and it was my responsibility to contact my own telephone company to stop the automated calls.
I was put through to a nice Irish chap and re related to me that he himself did not understand what the previous chap had been on about in seconds he had me removed from the COLD CALLING of BT.
Its a nightmare these Automated calls a month ago ServiceHelp who ever they are had got my number by mistake and 4 times I contacted them and each time they told me I would be removed only to come home and find 8 messages from them even on Sundays eventually I got removed but theirs was not a free number like BT so it was at a cost to me.

muckybutt

MothballsWallet wrote: »

regardless of whether someone is a customer of a company or not, if they tell a company rep on the phone that they do not want any calls, then the company must comply: failure is a breach of the Data Protection Act.

Nothing to do with DPA try Telecommunications Act 1984

[F143. Improper use of public telecommunication system. — (1) A person who—
(a)
sends, by means of a public telecommunication system, a message or other matter that is grossly offensive or of an indecent, obscene or menacing character; or
(b)
sends by those means, for the purpose of causing annoyance, inconvenience or needless anxiety to another, a message that he knows to be false or persistently makes use for that purpose of a public telecommunication system,
shall be guilty of an offence and liable on summary conviction to [F2imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months or a fine not exceeding level 5 on the standard scale or both].
(2) Subsection (1) above does not apply to anything done in the course of providing a [F3programme service (within the meaning of the Broadcasting Act 1990)] F4.]

MothballsWallet

mucky, if you ask them to remove you from their list and they do not do so, that is also covered by the Data Protection Act

I don't know of any company that has been prosecuted under the Telecomms Act for these offences that overlap with the DPA, imo.

PicklePie_3

It is rubbish that as a customer of BT the TPS rules don't apply to them, but they may argue that they have no record of you requesting to be excluded from their telemarketing lists. You have the right to to request be removed from those lists and should ask to be put through to someone who can deal with that request (however it can take 28 days to action it) – try calling 0800 028 2271/2272.
I have been the target of a fairly aggressive sales campaign by BT for the last 9 months. They have now taken the tack of using telemarketing companies who use the "silent call" technique (when you pick up there is no one there, but when I called the 0800 number back the automated response told me they were calling on behalf of BT). After several calls to BT they finally noted it on my account but claimed to have no knowledge of the company calling me. Finally I called the TPS who told me silent calls fall to Ofcom to sort out. You can report the number and company to 0207 981 3040 or 0300 123 3333 if it happens to you.
For sheer tenacity and inventiveness I've really never seen anything like BT's sales techniques!

Forest_Child

I am heartily sick of BT. Long story and basically I made the wrong decision but the cold calls we get, as a business interupt our workflow and no amount of telling the sales staff that we are on the TPS stops them.

This week I was contacted on my personal mobile. Apparently the BT sales team are now trawling the net for phone numbers and contact details to add to their phone book or some other such advertising scheme.

If I want advertising I will go look at the market, assess who offers what and who is in the best place to advertise my product but cold calling just makes me strike them off the list because I don't want to be associated with that sort of company.