Great 'Best Cold Caller Rebukes' Hunt

Sylvan

Good reason not to engage with cold callers in any but a frivolous manner then.

What are other types of 'advance fee' frauds? Are they something the cold callers would be touting?

Sylvan

Oh yes, we had one of those. The last two teenage santaspawn had a great deal of fun confusing the poor guy, in tandem, one on each extension (with very similar voices), one using thick geordie/cumbrian/highland accents and dialects (and Gollum) and t'other going with cockney/scouser/Sheffield and Spongebob Squarepants.
Teenagers - you gotta love 'em.
Autistic teenagers are by far the best. They can quote entire fillums, or series of Star Trek (or Spongebob) and hold the most surreal conversations without giving a flicker of a clue that they're not serious. Almost as good as letting a precocious 2 year old answer the phone.

MisterD21

Something which I have found QUITE useful.

Go to yac.com which is a Personal Number Provider and sign up.
Once you have been assigned your own personal number which is usually an 0709 number, give this number to which ever company that you don't really want to deal with.

When (there's no IF's here as it happens to everyone) a telemarketing company rings, just say "Oh that person doesn't live here any more, I've got their number if you want it?"
Then give them your 0709 number.

This not only gets your home number off the list but here's the 2 main good bits.

1) A Personal Number is chargeable at 75ppm (if they want to screw with you.. why not do the same.. make the !!!!!!s PAY through the nose for calling you)

2) You can configure your Personal Number via the website to screen calls and even block callers.

The call screening works very well.. the person has to announce themselves first, the YAC service will call you and say..

"You have a call waiting from <name>, if you want to accept it, press 1" then the call comes through.

If you don't want to answer the call it goes to voicemail which gets converted to an mp3 and you can listen to it anywhere... and they STILL get charged 75ppm for calling.

Unfortunately, you don't see any of the 75ppm but in my eyes, them paying through the nose to call is payment enough

Enjoy

mikki-b

Was looking at the true call site and found the reportacall.co.uk website. If enough people actually reported companies cold calling when they shouldn't be maybe we can collectively stop it. I for one have book marked this site in futurereadiness for when zenith ring again ( because they will despite being repeatedly told not to)

brewerdave

mikki-b, the problem is that few of these cold callers give you a recognisable Company name - I find they usually mumble something which I have great difficulty in deciphering and then launch into their script.

bestyman

brewerdave wrote: »

mikki-b, the problem is that few of these cold callers give you a recognisable Company name - I find they usually mumble something which I have great difficulty in deciphering and then launch into their script.

If the number is available put it in google and the company name often comes up .

If the number is unavailable or witheld then my tactic is to politely sound interested whilst finding out the company details, I sometimes ask if they have a website I can view later. Once they have provided the details I then thank them for providing them and explain that they have been most helpful and they will be reportted to TPS, OFCOM etc. I go on to say I wish them good look in job hunting and suggest next time they pursue a lawfull career.
I also point out that if they are engaged in criminal activities , they would be better off commiting a crime that will make them rich , rather than one which pays minimum wage.

Why not phone the company back often to ask if you have been taken off the database?

Some info here http://www.ico.gov.uk/complaints/privacy_and_electronic_communications.aspx
also complain to TPs, but bare in mind that the TPS is run by the direct marketing idustry.

gropinginthedark

The real failing here is that this discussion needs to exist. Our politicians are more interested in serving the interest of businesses than citizens. It's a crime that the "market research" lobby managed to get themselves exempt from TPS. A lot of sales callers use that as a shield, pretending to be MR then having established that you have an interest in their snake oil propose sending a consultant to provide "free advice about snake oil". (It's dead easy to word a "survey" in such a way that the questions lead to predictable answers: "Could you use a bit more money. Would you like lower fuel bills.. Do you earn less than £100K - Yes, in that case did you know you may qualify for a free government grant of up to £2000? When would it be convenient for our consultant to visit for your free insulation and double glazing assessment." Is that MR or is it sales?).

But in any case what gives "genuine" MR organisations any right to disrupt my private life? There's been some garbage in this thread from market researchers defending themselves and some well argued responses (which have gained plenty of "thanks").
Bottom line, you, MR guy, want some of my time for your benefit. You don't want to pay me for my time. You don't care that I don't want your call. You don't care that I don't want my life disrupted by having to answer the phone just to tell you to f off. You even have the nerve to tell me off for expressing myself impolitely when you've barged uninvited into my life.

Then they try the sympathy angle. "I'm just some poor hard working guy trying to earn an honest crust" - No you're not, you are one of life's failures unable to get a proper job so you are willing to throw ethics out the window. You are a beggar. You phone me expecting me to give you some of my time which will result in you getting paid. You place zero value on my time. Solicitors in my home city charge 3 pounds a minute, at statutory minimum your pay is a tiny fraction of that. Rather than call him at home you'd both be better off if you just sold him a copy of The Big Issue instead. For most of us our hourly rate is a million miles short of what a lawyer charges but the same principle applies.

It is not acceptable that I should need to adapt my lifestyle to screen calls by answerphone or spending £70 on an electronic gizmo. If the marketing lobby would care to offer to buy me the electronic gizmo so I can block their calls (rather than them make the effort to respect my TPS registered preference) then they might gain a shred of credibility.

What kind of moron, knowing there's a list like TPS of people who don't want anything to do with your scams, would choose to disregard it? You have the arrogance to believe that your particular variety of snake oil represents such a benefit to us that we'll gladly forget about or TPS preference and buy. You are an idiot.

In my opinion there should be no need to register with TPS, "no marketing calls" should be the default expectation, those that want them can sign up to an "allow sales calls" list. I don't think that would be very big...

A ringing phone is like a child demanding attention - if the reason is hunger, injury, full nappy etc - no problem, that interruption is valid. If it's a badly behaved child with persistent demands to be the centre of attention then it becomes a nuisance and the child needs to be educated out of that behaviour. When my phone rings I want to know that it's friends, family etc. and that I should answer. I don't mind being woken from sleeping off a late night it it's my kid needing collecting from a friends house. I don't want to be disturbed by some low life wanting to make money from me. Now if a few marketers were to be fined £5000 for TPS violations that might educate the marketing industry...

bellabt

I find the best way to stop cold callers asking you to do a survey is to ask if they have a credit card with them then tell them that you charge a minimum fee of £50.00 plus vat for information,they never call again!!!

TREVORW_2

What I normally do is either keep saying yes every 3 seconds, even when they are talking (usually non stop!) With a little giggle thrown in now and again for good measure! They usually soon get fed up! Or another way is to pretend that someone has knocked your door and you say "Oh excuse me for just one moment, someone has just knocked my door, I'll be right back, hang on for just a moment please" Then place the phone down without cutting them off and I'll guarantee within 1 minute they've gone! If they haven't then just laugh and say "You have been charged for this call" and then hang up !

wary

I had a call a few months ago asking who was responsible for our phone bill (or something similar). When I asked if this is a sales call, presumably in anticipation of me saying "not interested", he actually told me to f*ck off!!!

Anyway, I've not put this into practice as yet but I have a good ploy for next time I get one of these calls. My son has a hand-held sounds box (purchased quite cheaply from Hawkins), and one of the sounds is a rather loud, long and realistic belch. So when they turn on the smarm by asking how I am, I'll explain that I'm suffering with gas and play this down the phone! (It also has a farting sound but this is not as realistic.) Hopefully they'll soon be only too keen to hang up!

If you've not one of the boxes, you could always blow a whistle extremely loud into the earpiece!