Nuisance calls from "Householder Surveys"

Nod_Nolan

just got a cold call from the "Consumer Survey Centre", I hung up on them and the "Harold" called back saying "i'm not finished yet". I had to tel him that I was and hung up on him again.

John_R_H

I have been receiving repeated nuisance calls from the "Consumer Centre Survey" - like other people's experiences they call several times a day, are rude and agressive when you try to find out who they are and just hang up. I am registered under TPS but it does not stop calls from outside the UK. I am a BT customer and their nuisance call dept are placing some kind of filter to hopefully block these calls. It takes 48 hours to be put in place so I don't know if it works yet.

Another bit of advice they gave me was that if you don't hang up and leave the line blocked they can't use that line to call out. If you leave the line blocked for 10 minutes or so a couple of times they apparently tend to give up calling you.

HughThistle

Hello cagsd, could you please share--preferably post--the address or details you have for this company? I get calls every day from "Householder Surveys". Some days they call themselves HSL. I can't find anything on them so anything you've got I'd be grateful if you could share.

Those having problems with "Consumer Service Centre" . They use call centres in the Philippines but the company behind them is actually based in Newark. Phruit Ltd. ww.phruit.co.ukWhy not call them up? They have been struck off by the Direct Marketing Association ww.dmcommission.com/adjudications/2011/02/phruit-ltd/

grannybiker

Experian_company_representative wrote: »

Spike7451 - let me clarify that when people apply for a credit report we do not share their details with external organisations.

TPS is the way to go and if the calls persist you might consider changing your number. I've had similar problems as my number was clearly recycled when I moved last year. I was constantly getting marketing calls for the previous owner of the telephone number. It became clear that they were usiong a very outdated copy of the phonebook. Fortunately they do seem to be giving up now.

James Jones

:mad: How dare you suggest that we should have to go to the cost and inconvenience of changing our numbers just because data sharing companies can't / won't abide by the guidelines or companies such as yours hide dodgy clauses deep within their tiny and wordy T&Cs? :mad:

TPS have yet to respond to my complaints. 2nd one sent just now after the 3rd call in 2 days from British Consumer Survey. They also sound Ssian but tell me their names are Steven, Mark etc.
I have been polite, but have firmly told them NOT to call me & I'll be reporting them to TPS.
From reading this tho', that appears futile so will try the whistle & leaving off the hook trick .

P.S. Oh, and I am always polite as I know it's a carp job, but an getting well hacked off now! Perhaps employees need to question the tactics of the company they work for....?

grannybiker

Dear Mrs
Thank you for your complaint regarding the receipt of a research call.
The Telephone Preference Service (TPS) aims to reduce live "direct marketing" calls and is unable to stop calls from organisations who are conducting research. Research calls are not deemed as direct marketing as they generally relate to information gathering or seeking of opinions whereas the purpose of a direct marketing call would be to sell or market a product or service.
If you want to stop these calls you will need to contact the companies that make them directly or inform the caller that the call and any future calls from them is not welcomed. Additionally, you can also request that they suppress your details. They are obliged to comply with your request. If the company continues to call disregarding your request you may seek further guidance from the Market Research Society (MRS), furthermore the MRS has a code of conduct which all members must comply with. Their details are:
Market Research Society (MRS)
15 Northburgh Street, London
EC1V 0JR
Tel: 02074904911
Fax: 02074900608
Web: https://www.ico.gov.uk


I trust the above is of help, but if you have any further queries please do not hesitate to contact me.

Yours sincerely,
Arthur Cummings
TPS Team Leader

Seems that if you complain about a research call it automatically generates this standard response and they read no further...
I Have requested that they stop calling, no avail.

NFH

To alleviate this increasingly annoying problem, I've considered paying £2/month for anonymous caller rejection. However, it seems that this will only prevent calls where the caller has deliberately withheld their number; it will not reject "number unavailable" calls such as those from offshore call centres. I also resent paying a recurring charge to prevent a problem caused by others.

I then looked for devices that could pick up all calls where the number is not presented and play a message to the caller asking them to redial without withholding their number. One consideration is that the calling number or type of call is presented a second or two before the ringing starts, so I wouldn't even be disturbed by any ringing if the device picked up the line immediately. I found Truecall, but at £100 it contains a lot of extra functionality I don't need; for the limited functionality that I need, I would expect to pay £10 to £20. Does anyone know of a more basic device?

Yuki60

Stecz wrote: »

I have previously worked for this company and I think all of you need to seriously think about this. Yeah, it's annoying for you, but it's soul-destroying working there. Everyone who worked there when I was were some of the nicest people I've worked with. Everyone's friendly and human. It's precisely this reason we might next seem less than thrilled when you get the dreaded call. You spend your entire day getting abused by people over the phone, insulting you and what have you. You tend to get a little sick of it. We got our information from when you sign up for free things, more than likely. When you tick the 'I agree to the terms and conditions' box, there's probably a condition in there that says they can sell things to third-parties, such as ourselves, so if you don't want these calls, read terms and conditions.

In future, be nice to tele-canvassers. It's a rubbish job done by nice people.

Just came across this thread and have to say I find your comments laughable. You chose this vile job that infringes on peoples rights to privacy. 99% of the calls i recieve are supposedly on behalf of UK organizations but the call centres are always in India. I'll be as horrible as I can be to these predators who often find themselves bothering elderly people and those more vulnerable. Roaches is a suitable name. You know when you call that the person has not asked you to. You know when you call that most of the time the person on the receiving end does not want you to. Be nice????? Not on your life!!!!!! Latest calls and around 2 a day for the past 2 weeks saying they are calling for UK home surveys. My language is getting stronger by the day! Why would I want to answer personal questions to some bloke in India?

cagsd

I thought it was too good to be true... these calls stopped for aaaaages and I thought they'd got the hint, but the last month or so we've been getting a load of calls from a Manchester number - previous calls always came up number withheld on the caller display.
The number is 01619287700. Obviously not recognising it, I didn't answer it and immediately googled it - a quick search on "Who Calls Me" brought the number up as "HSL" - could this be "Householder Surveys Limited"?????? The discussion on there sounds remarkably similar ie. callers asking to speak to the homeowner, being rude and abusive etc.
I have not once answered one of these calls, thanks to caller display. So far they've rung about 10 times in the past few weeks but hopefully they will start to get the message!

Heinz

Record the tones of a fax machine and play it the next time they call.

NonGeographicalMan

julescpink wrote: »

I rang BT to see what else I could do as I too am registered with TPS. There is a facility where I can block the number the next time they ring. Once I have taken the call, I hang up and dial a certain number, then the next time they ring it will be blocked. Unfortunately it isn't a free service, but the way I feel at the moment it is worth £3 a month to not hear them on the end of the line. I am hoping that once they can't get through, they will then delete the number and I can cancel the service

Don't waste your money on this service.

The Lifestyle Research Centre, Consumer Research Centre, British Consumer mob in India generally call from abroad with no number or with a faked UK number that does not exist. They regularly change the faked UK number. The £3 service won't work as it only works for UK callers who have dialled you with the 141 number withheld option. In this case it blocks those number without the number being disclosed to you.

But with the unwanted overseas pests it won't work as there is no number for BT's £3 per month service to log in their database, especially when the call comes in showing Unavailable or International. The service only works for Withheld number calls.

To let off steam you should file a complaint under the Privacy and Electronic Communication Rules with the Information Commissioner (https://www.ico.gov.uk) pointing out the level of harm being caused to your mental well being. You should also send an email to the CEO of Ofcom Ed Richards - ed.richards@ofcom.org.uk pointing out the nuisance you are being caused.

It is very hard to understand the scale of calls people (myself included) are getting from this single calling operation in India that wants to try to get you to receive further targeted sales calls from various dodgy UK companies like will writing services and ripoff burglar alarms with massive maintenance charges. They have 25 million UK homes to pick from and to keep calling people regularly evenly distributed over the UK would take a massive calling effort. Instead they only seem to have say 20,000 numbers that they keep on calling repeatedly.

Why would any rational commercial operation (even a crooked Indian one that doesn't care at all about UK laws) actually be doing this instead of running its data efficiently and only calling new UK data harvesting targets???