Dealing with Cold Callers + phone

cheeswright

Ok so you registered with the telephone preference service
you found the convoluted way of stopping unspecifically addressed mail from the royal mail

we know your good
but how do you deal with the unrepentant and persistant liars who continue to phone and post - often from abroad - so the same laws dont apply

I thought this might be the place to start a thread with examples of how some of us deal with the unrelenting optimism of the crooks and swindlers out there

so please join me with your devoius techniques of making them hang up first !

Azari

Various methods but the easiest is to wait until they get into their spiel and then quietly put the phone down and go and do something else.

cheeswright

1. explain to them that as they have lied to you 3,4, even 5 times in their first sentence you are wondering how they are going to convince you that they are now suddenly telling the truth

2. ask immediatly - interrupting them as they are talking if you should give them your bank details now - you really dont care what it is they'r selling - you'd love some and your just off to get your bank card - then leave the phne stood for ...say 2 hrs ....

3. say you cant confirm who you are as you've been dead for 6 years - and your very interested in how they got connected to this phone number ....have they done anything particularly bad or immorall in ..say the last two hours... and are they in an area that is experiencing a high level of physical threat at the moment...?

nicolax

my dad would just say 'oh ill go get the wife to talk to you' then leave the phone on the table.
then see how long they hold on for! he reckoned cause we were still connected they couldnt hang up and call someone else cause was still through to our line ... although im not convinved by that!

Pollycat

What's wrong with simply saying 'sorry, not interested' and putting the phone down?

cheeswright - you might be wasting their time with your suggestions, but you are also wasting your own! :cool:

Azari

nicolax wrote: »

my dad would just say 'oh ill go get the wife to talk to you' then leave the phone on the table.
then see how long they hold on for! he reckoned cause we were still connected they couldnt hang up and call someone else cause was still through to our line ... although im not convinved by that!

Sadly, that's the wrong way round.

It's the caller that determines when the call ends.

That's why those recorded sales spiels are so annoying - if you needed to use the phone in an emergency and one of those was in progress you would have to wait until it finished to be able to use the phone.

jess1974

I have caller display, its been a godsend, i don't answer any withheld or international numbers, nor do i answer any calls from anyone i don't want to speak to......

Jo_F

Pollycat wrote: »

What's wrong with simply saying 'sorry, not interested' and putting the phone down?

cheeswright - you might be wasting their time with your suggestions, but you are also wasting your own! :cool:

Because, if it's the people using a with held number, that are trying to convince me that they are actually calling from Orange Business, they take no notice of this, and still continue to call you, day after day.

Pollycat

Jo_F wrote: »

Because, if it's the people using a with held number, that are trying to convince me that they are actually calling from Orange Business, they take no notice of this, and still continue to call you, day after day.

So arguing with them, telling them they are liars, being sarcastic etc - really works?
Do they really stop calling you?

I'm asking a genuine question here as I don't get calls from telephone companies or people pretending to work for telephone companies and I find MY method

Pollycat wrote: »

simply saying 'sorry, not interested' and putting the phone down

works on the few calls I do have.

liam8282

Pollycat wrote: »

What's wrong with simply saying 'sorry, not interested' and putting the phone down?

What is wrong with it is, it is too polite.

You should not say sorry and there should be at least one insult thrown in.

Jo_F

Pollycat wrote: »

So arguing with them, telling them they are liars, being sarcastic etc - really works?
Do they really stop calling you?

I'm asking a genuine question here as I don't get calls from telephone companies or people pretending to work for telephone companies and I find MY method


works on the few calls I do have.

I have asked them politely, many times not to call me again, how many times do I need to be polite to these people when they blatantly ignore me?