Nuisance calls from "Householder Surveys"

ALIBOBSY

I think the secret with these calls is when you pick up the phone don't speak-the number of older people I know who answer the phone with their number is crazy.

Pick up the call and wait, you can tell if its a call centre as there will be a delay and the a click before the person speaks. After a few words you will know if its a friend/relative or a numpty you don't want to speak to and you can just hang up.

Or have a bit of fun with them and make up a load of carp that's untrue, I told one guy my name was Mrs Duck and I had just won the lottery so needed nothing off him as I was selling up and leaving the country with my pile of cash lol. But try the whistle thing or just keep hanging up anything but engage with them and allow them to get into their spiel.

Another good one is when they ask for me I say hang on, and just leave the phone there. Turn the tv up or put the hoover on and see how long they will stay on hold. Saw someone on another forum had a woman wait 20 mins before finally hanging up-numpty.

But overall the easiest thing is caller display and some kind of answer phone. Oh and BTW if you have a mobile you can change the ringtones for people you want to speak to-emergency contacts/friends/family and have it go to silent or a different ringtone-perhaps Monty Pythons "spam" song for other rubbish calls.

Ali x

Beenie

sorry, I don't understand this.

are you saying that we should put the phone back in the holder?

if so, it's not 'off the hook' so how will this affect the nuisance caller?

Wingus

Beenie wrote: »

sorry, I don't understand this.

are you saying that we should put the phone back in the holder?

if so, it's not 'off the hook' so how will this affect the nuisance caller?

OK, i may be a little bit old fashioned, o got a simple phone, with the receiver attached to the base. I pick up the receiver, and lay it to the side of the base, wait for the tone, then put it back....i should have been more precise, i apologize:)

ValHaller

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.

On yer bike. Nice people don't spend their lives annoying the hell out of others. You don't like the abuse, those you call don't like your call, so show some respect for others - and for yourself too.

Every cold caller we can make give up their job is a victory. The companies who employ you to call have no compunction in assaulting our lives. If you don't like the abuse, that is collateral damage as far as I am concerned. Because basically there is no effective nice way of telling the bottom end of the market to stop.

And have you noticed that over the years the whole cold calling market has gone to the bottom end. Let's face it, no self respecting company will try and sell anything by cold calling these days - because they know it is ineffective at selling to anyone but the terminally stupid. Even the kitchen companies are trying to spam by posting on this site because no one will buy a kitchen after being cold called.

Wingus

I have received another call today, they are NOT just asking for a survey. I was asked twice, if i wanted to donate to charity. This, to me, is their way of trying to scam you out of your credit card or bank details, and therefore it does not comply with the " survey" rules. Since asking questions in a survey is legal, however, asking for card details indicates a transaction and therefore comes under distant selling regulations, which is against the law:)

I am looking further into this matter, and trying to find out if there is anything, by law, that would indicate or give rise to the exchange of monetary value and how these so called surveys are conducted to fool people into thinking they are giving to charity.

Some basic advice for all of us is this: DO NOT give any details of your bank or cards to anyone, especially over an unsecured phone line, and to someone that is technically harassing people to obtain such details. Make sure your family, friends, anyone you know and trust knows about this, and perhaps, or hopefully, we can all get together, on Facebook or get a petition going to stop these things.

Now is the time we all need to get together, and stand up, not only for our rights, but for those that are less fortunate and don't understand what it is they are up to. I think it's about time we stood up to these bully's and get them back.

splreece

I have had many an angry call with I believe the same people and/company... and with a 1 year old who cant sleep, i am sick of getting calls after 8 or 9pm....


Is there a legal bod out there that could answer this one..

Would i get in trouble if I SPAMMED ALL THE EMAIL ADDRESSES I could find on phruit-ltd's website... i am sick of calls and its about time they got a taste of it back..

i am not talking a few emails from an internet account.. i am talking an automated 10,000... its not meant to cause any damage... just waste their time a little bit as well..

any thoughts

apologies it is aggressive but i am at the end of my patience with them

david39

Everyone just calm down. They are just telephone calls coming in and all you need to do is pick up the receiver and wait 5 seconds to see if you hear anyone speak to you.

If you can't, it's a call centre - just put the receiver down and get on with your life.

Don't get involved with talking to them - it won't stop the calls and you'll just wind yourself up for nothing.

Just think of them as another of life's unavoidable annoyances, like the guy down the road with the noisy exhaust on his car or the cats that wail at night in a nearby front garden.

If you follow this advice as I did, you'll feel much happier with your lot in life and you'll find the calls become far less frequent when it is realised you are a non-responder.

Honey_Bear

david39 wrote: »

They are just telephone calls

They are 'just' people interrupting me four or five times a day, sometimes for weeks on end, every one of which means I have to stop doing what I want to do, to deal with them wanting to con me, or flog me stuff I don't want or get money out of me any way they can. I'd like to have been able to be polite to all of them over the years, but that point was past long ago.

For various reasons, I can't screen out incoming calls from withheld numbers and after 25 years I don't want to change my number - and nor should I have to.

There is however one point I'd like to make which a couple of the other posters have touched on and it makes me very sad. There is now one particular foreign accent that, as soon as I hear it, I simply place the handset on the table and walk away. Ten minutes later, when I come back, the caller has hung up. I'm really sad about that because it means I have turned into someone I don't want to be.

What's so odd about the companies that buy my phone number is that never once, in all the years I've had this telephone number, have I ever bought anything, given out any details that would be of any value to anyone, confirmed my name, or my marital status, whether I own a car, the property - anything. All I've ever done is cost these wretched companies money and yet, somehow, they deem it's worthwhile paying someone to ring me. I don't get it (nor do I need to).

ValHaller

david39 wrote: »

Everyone just calm down. They are just telephone calls coming in

?????? You are exactly right. They are just telephone calls coming in. There is not even any point or benefit to them. They are about like kids who knock on your door and run away. They are an unwanted disruption.

And at some point enough is enough. Telling people to calm down is rubbing salt into a wound.

Timewarper

I get regular calls from companies purporting to be linked with one household survey or another. Sometimes the numbers are withheld, sometimes not. I've had another, literally five minutes ago, from a very Indian-sounding man calling himself Simon from "Householders Choice". never heard of them, but 1471 gave me 01734533443. When I asked him how his company got my (ex directory and TPS-registered) number he hung up. Couldn't even get my marital status correct!