'Free unlimited calls? My !!!!!' Blog discussion

anewman

ericthelobster wrote: »

That's a little unfair on whoever it is gets landed with all the junk calls intended for you, isn't it?

Or perhaps based on the use the prepaid envelopes to send them junk idea, we could give them the numbers of places that cold call and annoy us You can find plenty of them on sites like who called me.

DettaWalker

What upsets me most is their idea of free international calls.
we subscribed to sky free international calls (5 pound charge a month) recently. me being from Germany assumed (wrongly!) that this meant I could call as much as I wanted for 5 pounds a month flat-rate. turns out only the first 60 minutes are free. after that they charge you anyway.

Sure that just means hang up and redial, but what the hell. In germany we re protected by fine-print-fraud like this.
If you say unlimited calls for 5 pounds a month then thats that over there. :mad::mad::mad:
On another note... we dont call it "free calls" because theres a fee involved, so that would be misleading. they have to call it a flat-rate instead.

JimmyTheWig

DettaWalker wrote: »

turns out only the first 60 minutes are free. after that they charge you anyway.

I believe this is covered by a "fair-use" policy. It would be unfair for someone to sign up for this service and stay connected on a call 24/7. And it's not just an international call thing. All phone companies do it with all their free calls.

But I think there should be a system in place where you can get a warning message that you have been on the phone for 55 minutes, or whatever. Or even a setting on your line that cuts you off after an hour.

DettaWalker

JimmyTheWig wrote: »

I believe this is covered by a "fair-use" policy. It would be unfair for someone to sign up for this service and stay connected on a call 24/7. And it's not just an international call thing. All phone companies do it with all their free calls.

Seriously? Maybe its because I m female, but I have no problems staying on the phone for more than an hour. Especially in an international call when you re catching up on events of the past... x weeks.
I still think that setting a fair use policy at 60 minutes of a call is... a rude way to try and get more money out of customers. 4 hours or more, I might agree with, but even then. Its still misleading... for someone moving to the UK. Good thing our phone displays call duration.

bob_a_builder

What are the random "auto dialers" allowed to be exempt ?

Just force them to look up the "auto dialers" random number in the TPS database before it auto dials.

The law is an !!! .....

Merkin

Rupert_Bear wrote: »

Pleased you were not rude to the caller. They are only trying to earn a crust of bread like the rest of us.

If I get a sales call I give them the opportunity to get off, "no thanks", "not interested" etc.
I even do it twice.
If they still want to try and sell me something I think it is perfectly reasonable and even a necessity to be rude to them.

di3004

Been registered with TPS since about 2004, and we still now receive sales calls.
Like many we receive the calls from foreign people, and they don't give up, yet some of the numbers are withheld, so its then impossible to make a complaint to TPS about them.

We have our rental line with BT, and we received a number of telemarketing calls from them too, to upgrade etc etc, we made them aware everytime that we were not interested, and if we were we would get in touch with BT, but the calls continued, so what I done was contact BT to tell them to remove my details from their register due to the amount of calls receiving a few times a day, every day and every week for a number of months.

I then went on to tell them we are registered with TPS and will appreciate they remove our details for as soon as it is possible, this was about 3 weeks ago, they did say it will take about 20 days, so - so far so good with BT, but others are a nightmare.......:mad:

Would BT already be aware that we were registered with BT though?

I can understand if there was a bill problem where that call would be nothing to do with sales/marketing.

burky1959_2

My dad was cold called by a rep from virgin, he wears 2 hearing aids and agreed to their better deal. But didnt tell any of us what he had done, it wasnt until about 2 months later when he said he had recieved a bill from them for £120.00 a month, when I contacted them, they said he was now tied into an agreement with them. Part of this package was £36.00 a month for Broadband (he doesnt even have a computer) after several weeks and making several complaints, we cancelled, but he had to pay them over £300.00, believe it or not £60.00 was to deactivate his phone line for the Broadband he didnt have. A absolute rip off, I now believe they prey on the older generation. I made my complaint official in writing but to this day have not recieved a reply. and my dad, he wants no fuss, but has now lost all his confidence answering his own phone.

soapy955_2

I can't believe you people bother arguing with the cold callers... I just say "No thanks" and put the phone down! If I'm in a bad mood and I know it's a cold caller and they ask for me i just say "Hold on, I'll go and get her" and put the receiver on the shelf and leave it there 'til they get fed up with waiting and hang up! Very satisfying without having to get angry with them!

di3004

soapy955 wrote: »

I can't believe you people bother arguing with the cold callers... I just say "No thanks" and put the phone down! If I'm in a bad mood and I know it's a cold caller and they ask for me i just say "Hold on, I'll go and get her" and put the receiver on the shelf and leave it there 'til they get fed up with waiting and hang up! Very satisfying without having to get angry with them!

Hiya

Tried that one, and they still don't give up, a few hours on they still ring and try again, and i even tell them they have the wrong number.

I just recently lost my dad and that was when i was at my worst with them, i answered waiting for them to speak first, if a cold caller i would leave it on hold, switch on the music button, however I have been surprised with some, they are still waiting 10 mins on, then i put the phone down.