'supporting each other through really tough times'

boultdj

Mrs LW, when my Mum use to get them kind of call's she use to say 'get on with your sale's pitch, after all it's your phone bill not mine' then put the phone down and go and make herself a cup of coffee, but she prefered it a few year's later, after I moved out and I use to go up and see her and step-dad, if I answered the phone, main reason was 'cause they were trying to sell double glazing or conservotires, use to 'Mrs X', 'no I'm Miss X', 'Can we intrest you in DG by any chance?' me'I'd have to ask the council first' Them 'we have this down as a privet house' Me 'Sorry but I live in a council flat, 1st floor', 'Sorry to have bothered you', and then my Mum went a whole year without any one pestering her.:D Just goes to show, they should have asked if I lived there after all,I did tell them they had got the wrong person, in that I was Miss, not Mrs X[evil]:D

alltrustgone

I have a Trucall system. Don't use the call filtering elements of it, though its pretty comprehensive and flexible. TPS registered already, and don't get many UK based cold/silent callers on landline, though do get marketing calls from business's I already deal with like BT or utility companies. Do get the international calls, but generally don't answer them.

What I do use on Trucall is the call recording function. I originally got the unit (with the recording capability - not sure all models have it) when I had a period of much discussion with tax man, pensions people and other such bodies, and have kept recordings of all discussions (often contradictory!) with them, in case anything goes pear shaped. Calls are saved to an SD card, and the recordings can be transferrred to computer for long term archiving. I also like that, when my bank/insurance/utility company etc etc etc tells me about the wonderful benefits of their latest new product that has absolutely no pitfalls or downside whatsoever and no sorry we don't have any printed documentation about this product to send you, I have a recording of exactly what they promised. My username will give you a hint about my views on such organisations!

Recently got a new mobile phone/number, and within 24 hours I was getting cold calls, PPI I think. I just don't answer the mobile if the numbers not recognised, usually check the number online afterwards and if its identified as a legitimate caller, I'd ring them back. The mobile number is only given to friends and family, and only a few so far. Never given mobile number to any business, so guess its either been gleaned from my service provider or been randomly generated. I heard recently on TV discussion that you can report these nuisance numbers to Ofcom and another body - wasn't TPS, maybe the Information Commissioner (whoever/whatever that is) and they can take action if complaints mount up, this seemed to included calls to mobiles. So tired of our personal data being treated as a profit-making commodity, without permission, and so little we seem to be able to do about it. How is it squared with the Data Protection Act - I believe even the DVLA sells data they collect about us.

RAS

alfsmum wrote: »

We have regular calls which come up as 'international', loads recently from Dennis Publishing (oh has a couple of subscriptions with them so they want you to 'try' another magazine). Was thinking about getting a call monitor to filter out the unwanted numbers as we are also registered on TPS but it doesn't stop them.

TPS does not cover companies with which you already have a commercial relationship.

Somewhere he will have failed to tick a box (or untick) which meant that they are allowed to share his contact details to other companies in the same group and "selected" outsiders. OH needs to write to them and tell them to remove his phone numbers from their records.

Rowan9

Good to hear positive stories of dealing with unwanted calls.
Fuddle - yes - it's work, eat, sleep and repeat! Keep an eye on Alfie - it takes them time to re-adjust but I did have to rehome a young lab years ago as he wasn't coping with being alone (I worked 15 hours a week out of the home so it wasn't much but was a change for him as previously I had worked 10 hrs a week from home). He was an RSPCA doggie and when I went back to them about it, they rehomed him to someone who was in most of the time. I think he went to be a pub dog. So...sometimes it is difficult for us but much better for the dog. Someone has a quote saying you (as in we, all dog owners) have work, friends, hobbies - your dog just has you.
Having spicy soup, salmon, potatoes and salad for tea.
More snow forecast for some but I think we're to be ok.
Want some warm sun!
W

ginnyknit

My Mum kept getting pestered with brochures for conservatories, 20 or so of them arrived in a few weeks. It was someone filling in a card and used her name and address, it was obvious as her name was spelt wrong everytime. Despite phonecalls to tell them to stop the post kept coming, so I invited them round to measure up for a driveway and conservatory and waited with her. We saw a van arrive outside with the company name on and a very puzzled man looking up at her first floor flat :rotfl: one more phonecall sorted that one out!

Seven up hope you get something sorted for your little brother, its awful when dreading going to school or work makes you physically ill. All his needs should be met, education is not the only important thing, bless him.

Peanut2013

I'm another one who doesn't answer the phone if I don't know the number. This has caused problems at times as my health visitor calls from a blocked number and refuses to leave messages. After 4 weeks I bumped into her at health clinic and she was panicked that she couldn't get hold of me!

Typical!

GreyQueen

If I ring my parents' landline at an unexpected time I often get answereed with a very testy Yes?! Reason being is that my parents' line gets several unsolicited sales calls each day.

My brother also lives at their house and has his own landline for his business and when it rings it is an autodialler silent call 9 times out of 10. And these calls come in at all hours but especially at mealtimes. Very annoying.

I registered both their numbers with the TPS and also my own years ago and have checked in the past few months and they're all still registered, for all the good it's doing. I never get sales calls myself; there is an answerphone on all the time and if I'm home I'll answer and if telesales people are ringing when I'm out they're not leaving any messages. I always make sure to select (or deselect) the no further contact thingy on forms etc.

I sometimes wonder if it's a generational thing as many of the people I know who receive pestilential amounts of these calls are homeowners in their early retirement years. It's as if they've popped up somewhere demographically as loaded and are being marketed-to aggressively.

I've lived in a household targetted by a paed0phile sex pest. After the first incident (police were involved immediately) only I and the child's mother would answer the phone. The perv must have been holding his hand poised over the phone because he'd disconnect the second an adult spoke. He never got at the child a second time but it kept on and on and on, and one night after an unsuccessful evening pestering, he rang in the small hours for spite and got me out of bed.

That was the final straw and we had an operater-intercept put on by BT for several weeks. This was 20 years ago, I expect the technology makes different options available now.

I'm also a Pl*sN*t customer for just over a year and I never get sales calls. Either it was a co-incidence or I'm on some list somewhere as a person not be bothered on grounds of being a) skint and b) stroppy..........:rotfl:

Oh, and TV Licensing are pestering me again. They say they'll come and visit. They're such teases, always promising to pop around and when the find me not At Home, carding me and then not coming back for years............... I know the law and my rights and will adore the chance to point them out.

No warrant = No Access.

Nargleblast

Re unwanted phone calls - I think there is technology available which dials a random number of digits, with the rationale that eventually it will hit on a real telephone number.

We went ex-directory years ago, and discovered that phone numbers are recycled after a period of time - we still keep getting calls for a man who obviously had our number before we had it, and we can only assume he owes a lot of people a lot of money!

Texts to mobiles about "that accident you had..." - how creepy is that?!
I think if you text STOP to the number it confirms that your number is a real one and opens the floodgates for more spam texts.

With any calls the key is to not give any info away about yourself or your household circumstances. On receiving an unwanted sales call you can be polite (after all it is not the caller's fault, he/she is just doing what they are paid to do) and just say "Sorry, I am not interested thank you" and put the phone straight down.
If callers are persistent you can put the phone down and walk away into another room for a few minutes. And every time you get a call from the same company you can invent new ingenious ways to deal with it, in order to save your sanity. Like the time one caller found himself having a one-sided conversation with the contents of my knicker drawer.

alltrustgone

Anyone familiar with this hilarious recording. An American telemarketer meets much more than his match

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYDpjWCPeU8

Oh to be that quick-witted

silvasava

Dont know if it works but i was told if you get the 'silent' call where automatic calls are made to check what time you are in - keep pressing the hash key on your phone. The system will think there's something wrong & chuck your number out! Here's hoping
Many years ago I worked on a large switchboard - we used to get the 'pervs' ringing quite regularly - we used to keep a yacht aerosol distress horn & sound that down the phone. I think the funniest was when a colleague was informed by her caller that he had the biggest w***y in the world. She very calmly replied 'Yes I know and you keep it between your ears' Shame he couldn't see about 12 women falling about laughing.