Being plagued by calls in error (rant)

Blue_Parrot

For the last month, every single day, a firm called Mackenzie (something) have phoned demanding to speak to "Mark Long". Sometimes a human being phones, usually it is a computerised robot.

Twice I have phoned them back and told them that:

No one with the name "Mark Long" has ever lived at this address;
They are calling the wrong number;
I want them to STOP CALLING this number.

Twice I have spelled those simple facts out. Yet they phoned again, yesterday (a human being this time, called David).

I lost my temper! I shouted down the phone to him, all of the above, for the third time. He said that my number is "on their files" and that despite my repeated demands that they stop phoning me, it "may be" on "more than one file".

You are debt-collectors, right? I said.
"I cannot answer that question" he replied.

What a Load Of ****. Some "Mark Long" may have given them my phone number and they refuse to accept that, no matter how inconvenient to me, and no matter how many times I tell them so.

They're in Falkirk (it says on the internet). I'll be in Scotland next week, shall I go round there and tell them to their faces that there IS no Mark Long on my number, and never has been, ever?

Note that they phone my office number. This number didn't even exist until a few years ago.

marywooyeah

Its mackenzi e hall and they are debt collectors. Can you speak to your telephone provider and get their number blocked?

Own_My_Own

I have been getting calls for a woman for 5 years. They are now becoming less. But at one point I was getting upto 10 calls a day, from different banks and debt collectors. I now just give my street name (no name or house number) and they have been taking my phone number off they records.
It has taken a long while but I can see light at the end of the tunnel.

I think like myself you may have been given an old number. We only got this number when we moved here ( new build) .

I_luv_cats

Same thing is happening to me!

Either I have a re-issued phone number of a debtor or my number has been mis-applied in fraud or error, to their overdue accounts.

As the debt/s gets passed around I am plagued!

Own_My_Own

Tell them your road name.
I now simply say ' this phone number is held at an address in ...... Road. ( no name or house number given). Is that the address you have ? '
My calls have reduced dramatically.

I_luv_cats

Own_My_Own wrote: »

Tell them your road name.
I now simply say ' this phone number is held at an address in ...... Road. ( no name or house number given). Is that the address you have ? '
My calls have reduced dramatically.

only works until the debt is passed on again. they normally say is this *** rd?

They tell me to contact my phone company to see if the debtors address is still associated with my phone number

vikingaero

Next time ask the caller politely and calmly for the name and address of their company and write them a cease and desist letter.

No Debt Collection Agency is going to stop calling because the person says that they are not the person they want - it is the oldest trick in the book.

Even better: change your attitude to these calls and have fun. Check out the Having Fun with Debitas thread: https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/741653

Lou67

I have had to change my number about 5 times in the last 7-8 years because of nuisance calls. Some sales and PPI, and some debt collectors... And because many are not 'marketing' calls, the TPS won't do anything about it.

I had one number for 18 months in 2010/2011, and debt collectors called constantly asking for a Linda Parry*, and no matter HOW many times I said this is MY number now and not hers, they took no notice.

The debt was passed on to different companies, and they had our number (this Linda's old one) as the last contact, and the silly cow was even ringing them after they wrote to her, making agreements to pay and giving our number out as her contact number: a YEAR after she got shot of it.

One of the creditors said 'but I only spoke to her last week,' and when I said 'did you ring THIS number and get to her on THIS number?' they said 'no...she rang us and told us this was her number.' I got so p1ssed off with it, that I changed the number, as it was obviously never going to stop.

When I changed it, it emerged that Virgin Media had given us that number, just THREE WEEKS after Linda Parry gave it up. Out of curiosity, I rang the number every week. It was dead, but then just 6 weeks later, Virgin media had re-issued the damn number.

I rang it once a month out of blatant curiosity to see if it was still connected, (don't ask me why!) and after 4 months, it was disconnected! So whoever had been given it after me, must have got p1ssed off with it too.

I don't know about other service providers, but Virgin Media are terrible for recycling old numbers that have only been with someone else a few weeks before, but when I moaned about it, they said 'they have no control over how the numbers are dished out. So this is why we were issued a number just a few weeks after someone else had it. But SURELY they must see, when they go to re-issue a number, that someone only had it a month ago!

Unbelievably, within hours of getting our new number, (that we had in late 2011, and still have now; ) we had spam calls: sales and PPI and charities etc; so I now only use our number for outgoing calls and have the phone permanently switched off. I give my mobile as out home contact now. I did register the number with the TPS, but we still get nuisance calls; about 5 to 8 times a week. I literally give up now!

I contact everyone via facebook or twitter or email anyway, and the people in my life daily, I see every day or every week. If some one needs to talk to me for a while, they text me and I ring them from my landline, as we have a package where all calls are free.

But because of these nuisance calls, I no longer have the landline switched on.

* NOT her real name...

Lou67

Own_My_Own wrote: »

Tell them your road name.
I now simply say ' this phone number is held at an address in ...... Road. ( no name or house number given). Is that the address you have ? '
My calls have reduced dramatically.

Do the debt collectors actually believe that then?

Anyone could say that; even the real debtor... Oh no, I'm not miss Jones from Letsbe avenue, I am Miss Smith from ta-ra-abit road. No matter what we said to the debt collectors: NOTHING stopped them.

Blue_Parrot

marywooyeah wrote: »

Its mackenzi e hall and they are debt collectors. Can you speak to your telephone provider and get their number blocked?

Reply to all. Thanks........

The telephone provider is BT. These barstewards are phoning the office. I cannot change the number - all our legitimate customers use it and it is on all the company stationery. Why should I change the business number anyway? ???

The office has had this number since 1994.

Blue_Parrot

vikingaero wrote: »

Next time ask the caller politely and calmly for the name and address of their company and write them a cease and desist letter.

No Debt Collection Agency is going to stop calling because the person says that they are not the person they want - it is the oldest trick in the book.

Even better: change your attitude to these calls and have fun. Check out the Having Fun with Debitas thread: https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/741653

Please explain "cease and desist letter"

I do not have time, in a busy office, to 'have fun' with this lot. I don't have time otherwise in my life either. In any case, 9/10 of their calls are from computerised robots, demanding that "Mark Long" calls them back.