Dealing with Cold Callers + phone

Pollycat

birkee wrote: »

You know when they want you to say 'yes', so say 'NO', and that confounds them, as it takes them off script.

I read something a while ago about this - if you start to ask them questions such as 'What's the weather like there?', it throws them off.
That is if you haven't already put the phone down.

mandragora_2

TPS works really well for us. On the few occasions we do get calls (less than a couple of times a year), I either just hang up straight away or ask them for their company and and head office location as soon as they pause for me to answer a question. This is the info you need to make a complaint under TPS. If they give you that (and it does happen now and again!), then great - note it down, then tell them they're in breach of TPS, you'll be reporting them and they'd do well to remove your details from their database. If they don't want to give it to you, they usually just hang up at that point. If they don't, there's little point them continuing the conversation, because until they tell me, I'm not going anywhere else in the dialogue! Polite, effective and doesn't take long. As I say, it's worked for us for the past decade or so. We also have caller display and if we get evening calls from an international number, they don't get picked up.

luckyinlove2011

I've seen something on TV before where a guy used to creep out cold callers like ask them personal questions like 'what are you wearing' and 'how do you like it' just intimate questions and they soon be the first to put the phone down. Or my boyfriend will tell them he's burgling the house and he can't talk. I personally just say no thanks and put the phone down, boring option hey

Amanita_2

We've been on the TPS list for years - the only unsolicitated calls we now get are from BT - yes I know they consider they have the right to abuse my phone number as we are technically customers but it irritates the proverbial out of me and I will now do whatever I can to make sure they get as little of my money as possible.

Every day I have off I can guarantee that I will have a call in the morning from a salesman "wanting to save me money". As our call charges are under £5 a quarter they don't have a lot of scope so what they really mean is how can they improve out profitability to them.

Suzanne_Louise

The other week, my parter received a call on his mobile, from someone offering him help after his accident - an accident that we know nothing about, as he's never had one (touch wood). He passed the phone to our 26 month old daughter who proceeded to tell the lady about 'fishy pie for tea' and various other ramblings. He took the phone back after he started hearing the lady shouting 'I'm not going to take you off our lists' etc to which he replied 'you waste my time phoning, so I'll waste yours' - a bit harsh, but very funny.

wannabehermit

I seem to get the random phone companies calling me going on about an upgrade, then phone me a week later saying the same thing despite me telling them before that I get my upgrades through orange/it's not time for an upgrade/to stop calling me & remove my number from their records and still I get it.

The most irritating ones of all though are the accident claims companies adn the ppi companies. I've never had ppi on any loan or credit card and I've never made a claim on my car insurance so therefore have no accident claim to make. You can be as polite as you like but still the calls continue. I've tried allsorts, stringing them along making them think that they're going to get something out of it, leaving the phone on the table, telling them I'm going to get paperwork and leaving them 'on hold' for ages, my favourite is to play this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixAgzUoMs3k down the phone to them. They interrupt me at home, they get away with it by being in a different company, they don't take no for an answer and don't seem to understand politeness so I think I'm well within my rights to do so.

BUT ultimately I've found the only thing that works is to speak to a supervisor, really have a go at them, make it clear how much they are pi.ssing you off and tell them that if they carry on then you're going to contact the police for harrassment. They've stopped straight away each time I've done that. The last time the company in question had been phoning me 3 times a day for over a week, the last couple of weeks have been lovely without them calling me.