unwanted callsI

mikepencoed

I am thoroughly fed up with cold calling telephone salespersons.

Currently I’m being pestered twice a day by Scottish Power trying to persuade me not to change my energy supplier.

Also we continually get what I presume are scam calls from India or somewhere

No amount of abuse puts these thickskinned people off and the Telephone Preference service seems to be totally useless against these calls.

Does anyone know of a successful defence mechanism against this abuse of the telephone system

Regards , Mike

Mark_In_Hampshire

Only caller ID and a handset which can be programmed to accept calls from people you "know" and choose to accept, and to automatically refuse calls from people you don't know and/or which are withheld. For example some Panasonic handsets can be programmed to ignore an inbound call if the caller isn't in the "approved list". The call comes through but the handset remains silent.

Or, one of those devices which acts as a PA for you, picks up the call, asks who it is, then asks you if you want to speak to them. Sure someone will pop along soon to recommend one..

forgotmyname

Waste their time as much as possible. I think well they are calling me and as you say they are too stupid to stop
so i may as well sound interested and ask lots of questions.

Haggle a great deal and just as they think they have won, I say i will pass these details onto my mum and dad who pay
the bills.

djl

We keep getting calls from India as well you can not stop them, so now I wait and if anyone is there I tell them to f%^k Off and get a proper job

cajef

Caller Display and an answer phone, if it shows as unknown, international or withheld number let the answer machine cut in they usually ring off straight away, if they start to leave a message and it someone with a genuine reason to call you can pick the handset up.

Sooler

Panasonic handset with in built call barring - bliss Don't answer witheld or international numbers - bliss again

macman

TPS cannot stop calls originating from outside the UK, it's not in their jurisdiction.

Jemma-T

macman wrote: »

TPS cannot stop calls originating from outside the UK, it's not in their jurisdiction.

I don't think TPS have a 'jurisdiction' anymore than ASDA or Tesco do. They're a private organisation and -as we all know- have no real effect if someone bypasses their 'rules'. Fur coat and no knickers.


Get a caller ID phone and stop answering the phone to strangers.

brewerdave

Sooler wrote: »

Panasonic handset with in built call barring - bliss Don't answer witheld or international numbers - bliss again

Just one caveat with that - AFAIA most hospital switchboards withhold their number - since several of my family work for the NHS that doesn't work for me!
Also my old employer's PBX !!:(

victor2

Had an overseas call last week doing a "consumer lifestyle survey." The usual nonsense of we're not trying to sell you anything etc. I asked where they got our number from and the answer was "it's in a database." Anyway, went along with it for a while, making up answers as I went along and saying I had no interest in anything they were asking about. Eventually, I got tired and told the caller I didn't want any calls as a result of this survey. His reply, which he kept repeating when I objected, was that I wouldn't get any calls, EXCEPT from those parties I'd said I was interested in. Even when I said that the answer to the rest of his questions would be no, he persisted. At the end, he hung up without even saying thank you.
Yesterday the same people called and insisted it was the first time they'd called our number. He realised it was futile proceeding though and hung up.

Caller display showed 064684537. Trouble is, we have relatives overseas and depending on how they're calling us, different numbers, or no number, shows up, so we can't just ignore them.

Suppose I could just tell them to hang on a minute and lie the phone down while getting on with what I was doing. They'll go away in the end.

prowla

Sadly I think that they are now as much of a fact of life as cold weather, bunions, taxes, and having to go to the loo daily.
I usually just say that I am in the TPS and they are breaking the law by calling me.
Sometimes I ask them where they are calling from and whether they are really called "Joe" or whatever they say their name is, just for the sake of a bit of an argument.
Sometimes I just put the phone down and let them prattle on.