BT gave me a recycled number and now i keep getting nuisance calls!

jassi_9

Hi as the title says, i moved house and got a new BT phone line installed.

The home phone number i have was previously a local car garage and i keep getting calls everyday asking for this car garage....annoying!

The thing is this car garage does not have a website. But if you google them, websites like 192, nearyouuk.com etc have my home number associated with this car garage.

I called the gargae and they said it has not been there number for 2 years (i think the old owner was using this number). And the garage basically said "its not our problem"...we dont even have a website.

So my question is what can i do to stop all this happening? Is it BT's fault, the garages fault or do i have to personally get all these websites to remove my home phone number from thier databases?

Thanks

littleboo

Numbers have to be recycled, 2 years seems a reasonable gap to have left.

stclair

Explain the circumstances to BT and ask them to change your number.

This happened to my mom she used to get umpteen calls for a local swimming baths.

bib1

Won't BT change your number if you're getting spam calls?
Maybe someone on here can give advice - otherwise try telling BT what's happening.

tomtontom

No one is at fault, it is just one of those things - numbers have always been recycled. I'm not sure about BT but Virgin do so after six months of them being inactive. You can ask for a new number but they may charge you for the change - if they do I would call back and try another advisor.

GwylimT

You can ask BT to change your number, I did this once as the new 'owner' of our old phone number was prank calling the police and BT still had the number registered to our address. Over a two week period we had almost nightly visits from the police in the early hours, very frustrating as even though they knew the situation on day one they are can't ignore a call.

Nodding_Donkey

I heard about a case in the US where a customer was given a number very similar to a local hotel. the telco refused to do anything about it until she started taking bookings from everyman and his dog. the hotel soon got fed up with wedding parties arriving unannounced and pressured the telephone company into giving her a new number.

"A 36,0000 mile service sir? That will be £30 and of course you can have a courtesy car"

jassi_9

Thanks for all the replies

I don't want to change the number because it is a really good number and i have already given it out to friends and relatives.

Cant i just get it taken off the websites that its on somehow? 192, nearyouuk.com etc

Would it be my responsibility to get it taken off or should i ask for BT to do it themselves?

Owain_Moneysaver

Websites which take a feed from BT / Yell directory enquiries database should eventually update.

However for reasons of cost many websites take info from other websites and not from 'official' sources.

You would have to contact every website individually and you will probably find that many are not particularly proactive in removing the entries.

If you really are unwilling to change the number then a Truecall may be the best option.

[Deleted User]

Reminds me of the time I kept getting calls for a home hairdresser to my mobile for a few weeks. After googling it turned out they had an advert in their local press with one digit the wrong way round on the number. :rotfl:

giraffe69

When I moved I had to contact quite a few websites for similar reasons. It was a bit tedious but they all did the job in the end