Unsolicited calls

bazzaang

Got 4 phone calls in a matter of minutes from norwich union last night not very happy so fired off an email of complaint today see what they have to say if and when they reply.

Does it wind anyone else up when the phone rings and you get this four or five second delay then someone with an indian accent asks if you are the homeowner and starts waffling on about stuff you have no interest in? We have taken to hanging up at the first sign of this delay. Anyway here is my letter of complaint just for your interest and opinions.

""To get straight to the point, I am not a customer of yours, If i desired to become a customer of Norwich union I would contact you. I do not appreciating getting a phone call at 20:13 on a friday night. In my house we have a policy of hanging up as soon as an indian callcentre worker calls us, these calls are unsolicited and we have no intention of buying from cold callers. However after hanging up at 20:13 we get another call 15 seconds later, we hang up again then fifteen seconds later we get another call, this time I answer and say "We have hung up twice so we are obviously not interested, have you not got the message?"
I then hang up. However the phone rings again, and I am very angry by this time, fortunately the line was dead when I answered. I have a 2yr old daughter and she is a sleep at this time of night we do not appreciate stupid pointless calls at this sort of time of night.
My number is *********** i want this number removed from all your records I do not want to be phoned by your company under any circumstances, not even in response to this complaint. Any response you choose to make to this complaint can be directed to me through email by replying to this email i have sent you.

Yours very angrily

Bazzaang""

Anyone else had problems with over zealous cold callers??

suki1964

Register with the TPS - no in front of the phone book or go online at
http://www.tpsonline.org.uk/tps/

Takes about a month to kick in

bazzaang

thanks will do that :-)

Will post the reply if and when i get it

bazzaang

lady_noluck

If you have a little time to kill and want to get your own back try some of these:

*Assuming you don't mind having your 'phone out of action for a little while, tell the caller you're very interested, and you're just going to go and get a pen and paper so you can take notes. Leave the handset off-hook, and go back to the TV, with your feet up and relax. They're unlikely to still be there half an hour later, and it's their 'phone bill.

*Tell them to talk VERY SLOWLY, because you want to write EVERY WORD down.

*Insist that the caller is really your buddy Leon, playing a joke. "Come on Leon, cut it out! Seriously, Leon, how's your momma?"

*Tell the telemarketer you are busy at the moment and ask them if they will give you their HOME phone number so you can call them back. When the telemarketer explains that they cannot give out their HOME number, you say "I guess you don't want anyone bothering you at home, right?" The telemarketer will agree and you say, "Now you know how I feel!"

*If they want to loan you money, tell them you just filed for bankruptcy and you could sure use some money.

*Cry out in surprise, "Judy! Is that you? Oh my God! Judy, how have you been?" Hopefully, this will give Judy a few brief moments of pause as she tries to figure out where the hell she could know you from.

*If they say they're John Doe from XYZ Company, ask them to spell their name. Then ask them to spell the company name. Then ask them where it is located. Continue asking them personal questions or questions about their company for as long as necessary.

*When they ask "How are you today?" Tell them! "I'm so glad you asked because no one these days seems to care, and I have all these problems; my arthritis is acting up, my eyelashes are sore, my dog just died..."

Maybe if we annoy the staff so much they'll give up their jobs, the companies won't have any staff then they'll have to change their policies. Only call customers who want to be called or the staff will leave again.
I used to be one of these staff too!

IvanOpinion

It has now got to the stage where after saying 'no thank-you' twice I just start hurling a massive amount of verbal abuse down the phone at them until they hang up although the funniest ones are those that try the 'I don't have to take that' and then stay on the line ... I explain to them in mono-syllables that they do and will for as long as they stay on the line. And I keep doing it until they hang-up. DW was very surprised the first time I did it but now all she says is 'another call centre?'.

Ivan

elona

I registered with tps so this seems to have stopped now but hubby used to say "that was a bit abrupt" when all I had done was pick up the phone - realise it was unsolicited and say "I am not interested , bye"

When he picked up the phone there would be a long pause then "I think you want my wife" and I would get lumbered again!

What really annoyed me was when I got one of these calls years ago and then one of my daughters fell over - was screaming hysterically and hurt - and the stupid woman on the other end would not hang up so I could phone the doctor!
The situation had been explained to her and the kind of cretin who either did not understand or care that I had a hurt child to deal with is beyond my understanding!

Midas

Ha ha ha!!

Lady_noluck those are very good! I think I'll print those off and stick them up by the phone so I can take my pick each time they call!

Ta!

Nelski

bazzang - you may actually be creating more calls for yourself without realising. The call centres use whats known as a dialler which automatically calls all the numbers on its database. When you pick the phone up that short gap is the dialler directing you to an operator, if there is none available you get the silent calls which I know really worry some people. If however you put the phone down before the call connects to an operator the dialler automatically puts your number back in the system which explains why you get loads in a short time. Best thing to do if you are not registered with TPS is to wait till an operator comes on and then tell them you are TPS registered - this usually scares them enough to stop and they will also take your number out of the system so at least its one down!

Do like the other options of things to say as well though!!
My favourite is when they say "I'm not selling anything" You say in a very nice tone "Oh what a shame I was really ready to buy today but I will only take calls from people who are selling things - never mind" This throws them completely!

Just one small thought, the operators are doing a job - maybe it is the company we should be angry with not someone on minimum wage and doing a thankless job.

researcher

how about telling the caller your the tenant, and they'd need to deal with your landlord - they can't get off the line quick enough and they remove you from their databases ( well I think so - they've stopped calling me!!!)

suki1964

Al_Mac wrote:

Doesn't apply to foreign call centres, unfortunately, that's one of the reasons thet get used, more and more.

Sorry

This is true

However if you ring your telephone providers nusience calls dept they have another list that you are added to which stops those calls as well

I found this out last week when I started to get a lot of calls come through from the same company (automated dialer) rang Telewest. Fraid i cant remember what the service was called but it was free

SnowyOwl_2

I have a credit card account with Barclaycard, and on telling them my new details having moved house, am now constantly hassled by them calling to sell me their insurance. How can I get rid of these cold calls, considering it was me who gave them my phone number (though I didn't expect it to be used for this purpose)?