TPS - Has anyone had real success with it?

IamNotAllowedToUseMyName

I am fed up of getting calls. I know I am registered on TPS and the lack of calls from the big companies suggests to me that I am covered, but the rubbishy little companies still keep calling. Worse, they have the temerity to tell me it is my fault - I have registered too recently (registered in the early days), or too long ago (they do not expire), or I clearly am not registered (I recheck the site occasionally).

I gave up complaining about calls to TPS some time ago, too many hoops to climb through, it should be as simple as giving a general description of the nature of the call and a time of day of the received call and the phone companies should simply automatically supply the actual number to TPS. It should be an offence to make a sales call with a withheld or fake number.

Has anyone here ever been told that they have had a successful complaint that has resulted in a fine?

Anyhow, I am developing a grand plan for a campaign. The principle is to accept the call and see where it can lead. You obviously can bail any time it gets too time consuming, but if you have a spare minute, the idea is to see how much effort you can get the firm at the other end to put in without you doing anything more than dealing with the phone call. My aim is to get reps to call to the house, ideally when I am not at home. The only rule is not to lie. The principle is to get to the point where it is no benefit in not complying with TPS. The main problem is that the unscrupulous companies probably employ some unsavoury people.

A simple example is the solar panel company who called today. We had these installed a few months ago. I qualified the call and got a call back. He went through a long list, I explained I knew all about it, had a south facing house, detached, no dormer or velux windows. The guy then asked if I had any obstructions, to which I replied "solar panels". He was a bit bemused, and asked if they were for hot water, I said no, electricity generation. He asked why I accepted a call back, and I said because they had ignored the TPS. He then said, "If you would use common sense, you clearly are not registered." Grrrr!!!

Has anyone else got any good ideas for politely and legally getting your revenge on lazy or unscrupulous cold calling companies?

katejo

IanMSpencer wrote: »

I am fed up of getting calls. I know I am registered on TPS and the lack of calls from the big companies suggests to me that I am covered, but the rubbishy little companies still keep calling. Worse, they have the temerity to tell me it is my fault - I have registered too recently (registered in the early days), or too long ago (they do not expire), or I clearly am not registered (I recheck the site occasionally).

I gave up complaining about calls to TPS some time ago, too many hoops to climb through, it should be as simple as giving a general description of the nature of the call and a time of day of the received call and the phone companies should simply automatically supply the actual number to TPS. It should be an offence to make a sales call with a withheld or fake number.



Has anyone here ever been told that they have had a successful complaint that has resulted in a fine?

Anyhow, I am developing a grand plan for a campaign. The principle is to accept the call and see where it can lead. You obviously can bail any time it gets too time consuming, but if you have a spare minute, the idea is to see how much effort you can get the firm at the other end to put in without you doing anything more than dealing with the phone call. My aim is to get reps to call to the house, ideally when I am not at home. The only rule is not to lie. The principle is to get to the point where it is no benefit in not complying with TPS. The main problem is that the unscrupulous companies probably employ some unsavoury people.

A simple example is the solar panel company who called today. We had these installed a few months ago. I qualified the call and got a call back. He went through a long list, I explained I knew all about it, had a south facing house, detached, no dormer or velux windows. The guy then asked if I had any obstructions, to which I replied "solar panels". He was a bit bemused, and asked if they were for hot water, I said no, electricity generation. He asked why I accepted a call back, and I said because they had ignored the TPS. He then said, "If you would use common sense, you clearly are not registered." Grrrr!!!

Has anyone else got any good ideas for politely and legally getting your revenge on lazy or unscrupulous cold calling companies?

Try the following. I have just used it to stop another firm from ringing me several times a day and it seems to have worked though I have received no acknowledgement from them. This was from Consumer Advice.

I understand that you are receiving unwanted phone calls from ...... and you would like to know if there is anything you can do to stop this.I would advise that you formally write to them requesting they delete your details from their database as you no longer want any contact with them. State in your letter that if they do contact you again you will report them to the Information Commissioner, as to continue contacting you once you have specifically requested they do not, becomes a breach of the Data Protection Act which is regulated by the Information Commissioner. The contact details for them are www.ico.gov.uk Send any letter by recorded delivery via the Post Office so sending and receipt can be checked

On my phone I now also have a message to say that I NEVER answer calls with the number withheld.

Whatever you do, DO NOT register with the Advertising Protection Agency. It is a scam. Read the feedback in this forum (currently the entry under your request) for further information.

IamNotAllowedToUseMyName

katejo wrote: »

Try the following. I have just used it to stop another firm from ringing me several times a day and it seems to have worked though I have received no acknowledgement from them. This was from Consumer Advice.
...

My problem is that it is a steady 3 or 4 calls a week from different companies. It is not at a level where it is worth expending masses of effort but they always seem to come at a tricky moment. Rather like sitting in a quiet carriage on the train and hearing mobile phones, it is more irritating because they have been told they are not allowed and ignore it.

If you consider that all that the TPS is is a list of phone numbers that should not be called, it is trivial for the companies to comply, and yet to stop them as you suggest is significant time and expense - you've got to swear at quite a few phone operators to cover the effort of sending a registered letter to the company.

biscit

To be honest I had 3 or 4 calls a week, and I felt that the fact I was getting so few unsolicited calls meant the system was working A-OK. Opinions obviously differ.

Squire_Fulwood

I took a firm to the Information Commissioner a couple of years ago with a fairly spectacular result. Looking into the problem at the time I found out that it was a call centre calling me. When I asked the operator who she represented she said, "We have all sorts in here". I suppose that firms who wish to advertise must pay for the call centre to make a number of calls on their behalf so it seems to me that politely asking a single firm to get off your back may not achieve much since it's the call centre that needs adjusting.

My complaint to the ICO concerned the single firm the call centre claimed to be and my problem was that they did not seem to take no for an answer. After the fourth or fifth call you begin to wonder if they heard you the first time. The ICO contacted the firm who must have panicked since they sent an email to the call centre telling them to stop phoning me. The call centre then phoned me to ask what was going on. They sounded concerned.

They wanted to know why I notified the ICO and I said it was because he has teeth. They said that they were going to remove me from their lists and I said that I would do so as well if I were them.

I have had no more bother.

nhoneymonster

I think the thing with TPS is it won't stop any calls from people who already had your number.

I'm sure I always tick the boxes on anything I complete saying I don't want my information shared but comapnies still get it somehow.

Dave_C_2

I've been on the TPS for a lot of years. Up until this year it was working fine, but gradually over the the year the situation is getting much worse.

Probably down to the TPS being toothless and not prosecuting.

Now I do the following:
If it's from overseas (usually India) I say that I can't understand and put the phone down
If it's from the UK it's "no thanks" and put the phone down

So far this is working.

Dave

davidlizard

The TPS is toothless - and the telemarketers know this.

To date there has been zero prosecutions.

When I tell telemarketers I am TPS registered, they are more likely to say "so what?" and carry on trying to flog me their tat.

These days I use an answerphone to screen out unwanted sales calls.

Reggie_Rebel

Ask them if the want to talk about God*





*This doesn't work if it's the Jehovah Witness's on on the other end

fluffnutter

Never give your number to anyone. I'm registered with TPS and I get about one call every couple of years. I think this is partly due to the TPS registration but mainly to do with the fact that I've never, ever given my number to anyone other than friends and family (and the doctor). Once you're on a mailing list your details will be sold, end of.

Fridaycat

I'm registered with TPS, but was still getting around 5 unwanted calls per week. Up until a couple of months ago, that is, which is when I swapped all my Nectar points for Amazon vouchers and bought myself the TrueCall system which costs around £90. I have not had a single unwanted call reach me since. I have checked on my online account and have had around 20 unwanted callers dialling my number in the last 4 weeks alone, but have been blissfully unaware of them!

TPS is not effective at stopping calls from UK companies and powerless against international ones. I would thoroughly recommend TrueCall to all