Cold calling ideas needed

MarilynMonroe_2

pigpen wrote: »

Register with TPS.. it stops most of them within a few weeks.

It is a $h!tty job that people do to put food on the table and keep a roof over their head. I hate them as much as the next person but these people are trying to raise families on the pathetic wage they are paid and treat like crap by their supervisors and given all manner of abuse down the phone.

If you blow a whistle down the phone you can actually make them deaf and they know exactly who has done it and you CAN and SHOULD be prosecuted.

My son worked in one (for Npower and the lottery people) for several months and was fired because he refused to force elderly people and vulnerable people to sign up to things against their will. He hasn't been able to find work since and has a 4 year old and a 1 year old to feed and house and clothe..

These are real people on the phone with real lives and very real bills.. Think about that next time you abuse them... There are far too any happy to b!tch about people unable to find work then abuse people doing their job.. would you think about doing stuff like this to someone in a shop trying to sell you something? Do you give the Big Issue seller grief??? ... what's the difference?

A lot don't get paid if they don't meet their sign up quota for the day.

TPS doesnt work, infact I read recently an article that calls increased once you registered with TPS.

MarilynMonroe_2

Tropez wrote: »

It is when Ofcom are so impotent that the issue persists.

A certain wonderful company have ignored six requests to remove my details from their database and never call again which is a breach of communications legislation. I was even nice enough to send them a letter to their offices making the same request, by recorded delivery so I know it arrived.

They were reported to Ofcom two years ago by myself, and again six months ago, as well as by copious others given the vitriol about them on the Internet and yet they persist.

They are in breach of the law but those responsible for dealing with these imbeciles have thus far failed in their duty to do something about it. Therefore, until such a time that something is done about these numpties, I might as well have some fun with it and turn the perpetual annoyance and intrusion into a source of amusement.

If they would at least stick to one number it would be less of a problem but sadly they can't even do that.

Now, I don't treat all cold callers in such a way. Those who are first time callers I do the whole polite "Sorry, not interested, please can you remove my details from your database. Thank you." thing but there are those companies that don't seem to learn and if as I suspect the Ofcom webforms are routed to a chimpanzee enclosure in Madagascar and that is why they are as useful as hedge trimmers in the Sahara, I might choose to return the favour, more so when they operate in a manner where I can't simply add them to the contact group "Smegheads" on my phone which doesn't ring or vibrate.

I'm taking aguess at BT?

They have ruined having a phone for me. i can not get rid of them. i was with them fo rmaybe a year 7 years ago and since then they have continued to harrass me. I don't have my phone plugged in anymore. It's only used to ring out.

Also those calls that when you hang up they are still on the line when you pick back up. What if you ahd to ring for an ambulance or fire engine etc, they have control of your line untill their call has finished.

Tropez

MarilynMonroe wrote: »

I'm taking aguess at BT?

They have ruined having a phone for me. i can not get rid of them. i was with them fo rmaybe a year 7 years ago and since then they have continued to harrass me. I don't have my phone plugged in anymore. It's only used to ring out.

Also those calls that when you hang up they are still on the line when you pick back up. What if you ahd to ring for an ambulance or fire engine etc, they have control of your line untill their call has finished.

No, it's not BT although a few of my friends have had problems with them and I do get a lot of their mailshots.

The companies that tend to bother me, unfortunately, are the ones that obtain my number through rather devious means by using a webcrawler to pull my "office" number from the company webportal which gets diverted to my mobile.

British Gas have taken to calling my landline though. I might have to join the til-foil hat brigade on that one because they constantly manage to call me when I'm next to the only phone in the house without a Caller ID display. It's amazing what British Gas sell these days! Home insurance, some sort of shed and roofing service and a concierge offering - they offer me everything but gas! - I'm just waiting for them to phone up offering to fix my PC if I give them remote access and my credit card number! :rotfl:

Georgiegirl256

Person_one wrote: »

I call Godwin!

Don't be mean to call centre staff OP, unemployment is high, times are hard, they aren't annoying you for fun they're doing it to keep a roof over their head and their family fed.

Say "I'm not interested, please take me off the list" and be more careful about who gets hold of your number.

Cal centre staff are often so surprised when I'm polite to them, or wish them well, its sad really.

I can totally see where you are coming from, but when the same ones phone up again and again and don't get the message, this is when I start to lose my rag, and so I just hang up on them.

coolcait

Tropez wrote: »

It is when Ofcom are so impotent that the issue persists.

A certain wonderful company have ignored six requests to remove my details from their database and never call again which is a breach of communications legislation. I was even nice enough to send them a letter to their offices making the same request, by recorded delivery so I know it arrived.

They were reported to Ofcom two years ago by myself, and again six months ago, as well as by copious others given the vitriol about them on the Internet and yet they persist.

They are in breach of the law but those responsible for dealing with these imbeciles have thus far failed in their duty to do something about it. Therefore, until such a time that something is done about these numpties, I might as well have some fun with it and turn the perpetual annoyance and intrusion into a source of amusement.

If they would at least stick to one number it would be less of a problem but sadly they can't even do that.

Now, I don't treat all cold callers in such a way. Those who are first time callers I do the whole polite "Sorry, not interested, please can you remove my details from your database. Thank you." thing but there are those companies that don't seem to learn and if as I suspect the Ofcom webforms are routed to a chimpanzee enclosure in Madagascar and that is why they are as useful as hedge trimmers in the Sahara, I might choose to return the favour, more so when they operate in a manner where I can't simply add them to the contact group "Smegheads" on my phone which doesn't ring or vibrate.

I sense a little negativity in your message, Tropez...

pigpen

MarilynMonroe wrote: »

TPS doesnt work, infact I read recently an article that calls increased once you registered with TPS.

It has worked for me for 12 years or so.. and everyone else I have registered.. in fact I didn't tell my nanna I had registered her number and just asked if she had had any calls and she had had 1.. which was her own fault for making a stupid charity donation and putting her details on it.

Richard53

TPS works fine, for the legitimate companies that sign up to it. The problem is with the newer companies that use things like auto-diallers, who don't give a monkeys about your preferences, and who will call again and again because they don't have a database as such, just a list of likely numbers that are called at random until some poor mug takes the bait. I've been registered with TPS for many years (MPS too), and I am getting more cold calls (and those horrible silent ones) than ever. I am now getting nuisance calls and texts on my mobile, and that number is never given to anyone I don't know personally.

I'd love to write all sorts of nasty letters to their head offices, threaten them with court action and all that, but they will never tell you who they work for, and the numbers are always withheld, so you have nothing to go on. I am seriously considering getting a TrueCall. A friend has one and swears by it.

elantan

MarilynMonroe wrote: »

If only your suggestions actually worked!

there was a huge thread on this site years ago about a man being harrassed on the phone by a company and it was a laugh the things he got up to.

that would be this one

Wol2 wrote: »

These were a slightly different type of cold callers- but this could maybe provide a "few" ideas....:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

.....and it still remains one of the MSE classic threads of all time

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/741653

WARNING:
Do NOT read whilst drinking a beverage in the proximity of your computer keyboard :cool:

xxx

one of the most classic thread of all time wol .. i re read it often ..

i have signed up to TPS for years and every year i check that i am still signed up for it... doesnt stop me getting called over ten times a day though ( and sadly that aint no exaggeration)

i work nights so when i am on for 4 the house phones are turned off for the four days ... then i just have the issue of people coming to the door ( two today)

atrixblue.-MFR-.

trouble is if your polite they will ring back.

if your horrid they will pass your number round and youll get calls from all sorts.

if they get a whiff that you maybe the person the are after they will call and call and call.

if your female and a male calls youll get a call back a day or so later from same company but a female (to see if you will interact with the same gender) and like wise for males.

ive been insulted by them, and not even been rude or ill mannared, i had one call that went

caller:"hello im from xyz debt collection agence is there a mrs xyz there?"

me:"sorry i have never heared of a ..... she does not live here"

caller:"i dont care you havent F888ing heared of her, your probably just a f888ing benefit scrounger you pathetic peice of S$*t get a life and put the B12tch on the F888ing phone now or ill come round there and punch your head in"

ME:i'm a pathetic peice of S$^t, you need to look in the mirror, because of you come round here that will be the last time you look like that! only a pathetic peice of S4^t would have an attitude like yours.

so do i afford some curtesy to cold callers? sometimes depending on mood.

i love to use this one

caller:"hi im calling from windows"

ME:"no your not i can see through my windows and cant see no one on the phone"

securityguy

Richard53 wrote: »

TPS works fine, for the legitimate companies that sign up to it. The problem is with the newer companies that use things like auto-diallers, who don't give a monkeys about your preferences, and who will call again and again because they don't have a database as such, just a list of likely numbers that are called at random until some poor mug takes the bait.

The problem is that although the TPS does what it says on the tin, it's a tin that isn't terribly useful. Companies that adhere to the TPS usually behave reasonably anyway, so just telling them to stop calling would have been enough. People who have a serious problem with cold calls will probably find the TPS almost useless, because they're mostly getting calls from unscrupulous and/or overseas companies, to whom the TPS isn't a deterrent anyway.

The people I think do deserve a lot of criticism are the Information Commissioner. I'm sorry, because I think that they do good work in other areas, but it's a clear example of regulator capture. The regulator spends a lot of time with the people they're regulating, who wear nice suits, host elegant lunches and explain very eloquently the problems they have with compliance even though they are, of course, full of good intentions. The regulator spends rather less time with the people they're supposed to be protecting, who are a mixture of individuals who just write letters.

Ofcom, IC, CQC, ORR, whoever: they all end up being terribly understanding to the poor misunderstood providers, and heartless and unhelpful to the tedious punters, some of whom don't even shop at Waitrose. If you want to make yourself upset, watch on YouTube the meetings of the CQC board, and watch a bunch of third-rate over-promoted nonentities talking like an episode of The Office, while being completely uncaring about patients, about whom they couldn't give a stuff.