Dealing with Cold Callers + phone

*Scarlett

Your number may be on a few databases and even duplicated several times within the same company which might account for the numerous calls from the same company. Although if they are continually calling and you have asked them to stop that is a different matter (bearing in mind it may take a while to get your details removed).

I'm sure you can lodge a complaint about this and the company would be subject to a fine if they are contacting you after you have requested them not to. I think it's this site that you would contact

http://ask.ofcom.org.uk/help/telephone/unsolicited_sales_calls



TPS has been successful for me - I used to get multiple calls per day but now they are rare.

If you are completing any forms, either online or paper, make sure you read carefully to tick or untick the box regarding future contact or sharing your contact details.

Generally if I'm searching on line or getting quotes / prices for something I don't input my real details until I am purchasing from the company and try to make sure that they will not share my contact details.

jess1974

ukjoel wrote: »

Then you had better hope your doctor never needs to get in touch.
Confidentially rules mean that doctors should now all contact you from a witheld number.

Not saying I agree with this but its the way it is unfortunately.

I'm sure if it was that urgent the doctor would leave a message on my 1571 answering service.....

roddydogs

The biggest pests Ive found are the "Sky" insurance salespeople, they always say "its about you Sky installation" (I haven't got Sky) .They must phone at random and if some, usually old person has Sky it sounds official. Absolute pests (yes im on TPS, but they take no notice)

cherie1122

My husband gets a couple of calls every week on his mobile from a number which we think is Kitchens Direct. He programmed the number into the phone memory as "Cold Caller" and never answers it when it rings. It works well.

aurongrande_2

Advertisements, surveys and downright scam calls are all bad in my opinion. I spent 2 weeks with a man constantly calling me on from a made up company on behalf of TalkTalk (yes I'm a TalkTalk customer). He kept calling me at about 8pm to 9pm each night. he was wanting me to go to modify some settings on my computer and go to a website and download a security program. When I told him that his fake security program would not work under Linux, he hung up. Then he kept calling me me each day with the same stuff. I just kept pranking him one way or another. After 2 weeks, he gave up. Now I only rarely get survey calls from various companies.

At one point, my parents kept getting these sorts of calls on an almost daily basis. It almost makes a person want to do this - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DnApDFsxg3w

frivolous_fay

ukjoel wrote: »

Then you had better hope your doctor never needs to get in touch.
Confidentially rules mean that doctors should now all contact you from a witheld number.

Not saying I agree with this but its the way it is unfortunately.

Yes, aggravating.
I had a call from a hosptial (a wrong number actually, but never mind) and it was withheld.
The police also recently rang me from a withheld number.

frivolous_fay

cherie1122 wrote: »

My husband gets a couple of calls every week on his mobile from a number which we think is Kitchens Direct. He programmed the number into the phone memory as "Cold Caller" and never answers it when it rings. It works well.

I do a similar thing with the missed calls during the day when we're out. I google the number then save it.

When they finally make the mistake of ringing when we're home - I can finally lodge a report with the TPS. (You can't report them unless you actually picked up the call)

No doubt TPS don't do much, but the calls did stop after the last report.

Aquatronixjenny

We run a business so need to answer witheld numbers as quite a lot of our customers do it.

However, if its a sales call then I always politely say no and put the phone down. If they call back again from the same company and start getting stroppy then I always pass them to our Purchasing Manager (my 3 year old daughter). She likes to talk about fairies and dinosaurs... a lot...

moonrakerz

Get a phone with caller display, if it a number you don't know just pick up the phone and replace it. If it is a genuine call they will call back almost immediately.

abi-em-mum83

I receive high volumes of calls from "out of area", literally 15-50 some days!
Obviously foreign,very poor spoken english. We have TPS,but since there is no number to trace not much can be done.
They ask to speak to Mrs Smith, when I inform them no one here by that name they start offering mobiles or something, telling them Im not interested makes no difference. If I put the phone down they do not disconnect the call so I cant make anymore calls. Or they just repeatedly call back.
It got too much when one night when my daughter was very ill, they called, told them not interested, please disconnect the call as we need the line free for emergency services. yet they didnt disconnect the call and were sitting laughing, and I was unable to call an ambulance.
SO now when they call I have some fun. I answer as a funeral home,prostitute, psychic line, let my girls speak to them etc. Or I blow a whistle down the phone. They still call, just not as often!