Wrong caller for 5 years

polr

Hi, Not sure this is exactly the correct are to post this so apologies if not.

We moved into our house 5 years ago and we're still getting calls for someone at this number. I'm notinc it more as I am now working from home and there are a good 3-4 a day which is quite annoying!

Short of changing the number is there anything I can do to stop this?

We're registered with TPS but I'm not sure if that relates to our names/address or the actual phone number because they are still calling but when I say "we're with TPS" they hang up.

Quentin

You could get something like truecall, depending on how much you feel stopping this is worth. (Costs around £100, and would hopefully stop all your other nuisance callers too)

Buzby

Is it the same caller, or different ones? If the former - ask where they go the number from. If the latter, then Truecall is really the only option.

liam8282

Surely when you move into a house you bring your own phone number with you, or get a new one?

Can't say I have ever heard of taking on somebody else's phone number when moving into a house.

Am I missing something here?

Stompa

liam8282 wrote: »

Can't say I have ever heard of taking on somebody else's phone number when moving into a house.

We did. We got a few calls for the previous owner but they tailed off pretty quickly.

However, the previous owner did mention that they sometimes received calls intended for a local company. We're still getting those 16 years later! Turns out that their number is 1 digit different from ours, and some people just seem to misdial.

liam8282

I still don't get it, why would you want to take over somebody else's phone number, and how can somebody decide to leave their number. Surely the number is account specific rather than property specific, and the number goes where the account goes?

As I said, you either bring your existing or get a new one. Even if you keep an old number you are still going to have to get in touch with the phone companies to alter the accounts, then the person leaving the number will have to get in touch with everybody and tell them it is no longer their number, and the new person will have to get in touch with everybody to tell them it is their new number. All seems like a lot of unnecessary hassle to me.

boyse7en

liam8282 wrote: »

I still don't get it, why would you want to take over somebody else's phone number, and how can somebody decide to leave their number. Surely the number is account specific rather than property specific, and the number goes where the account goes?

As I said, you either bring your existing or get a new one. Even if you keep an old number you are still going to have to get in touch with the phone companies to alter the accounts, then the person leaving the number will have to get in touch with everybody and tell them it is no longer their number, and the new person will have to get in touch with everybody to tell them it is their new number. All seems like a lot of unnecessary hassle to me.

Used to be the case (and I'm talking 30 years ago) that it was very expensive, and time consuming, to try and take your phone number with you when you moved house. Most people, in those days, used to get the number of the house they were moving into.

Stompa

liam8282 wrote: »

Surely the number is account specific rather than property specific, and the number goes where the account goes

Well it was 16 years ago when we did it, and things have undoubtedly changed since then. For us, I think at the time it was down to cost. IIRC BT wouldn't let us take our old number to the new address (despite it having the same dialling code), so it was a choice of having a new number (for a fee of £xx), or taking over the existing number (free).

BargainGalore

When I moved house 5 years ago I took my number with me it didnt cost anything I was with BT only for line rental and still am

macman

liam8282 wrote: »

I still don't get it, why would you want to take over somebody else's phone number, and how can somebody decide to leave their number. Surely the number is account specific rather than property specific, and the number goes where the account goes?

As I said, you either bring your existing or get a new one. Even if you keep an old number you are still going to have to get in touch with the phone companies to alter the accounts, then the person leaving the number will have to get in touch with everybody and tell them it is no longer their number, and the new person will have to get in touch with everybody to tell them it is their new number. All seems like a lot of unnecessary hassle to me.

You can only move the number if the new property is on the same exchange as the old property-in many cases this will not be so.

brewerdave

@liam8282-BT reuse old numbers - presumably that's what happened with the OP;they didn't actually say it was the old phone number associated with the house.