Cold calling

savemoney

The law will change in April about cold callers still not as strong as I would like it

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-31616523

I make sure when i find out who calls me to complain to ICO and make sure I add they caused distress as I wont these companies fined. Far too long they are getting away with causing a nuisance.

grandmasam

I answer the cold callers now with. 'Her ladyship is at the House of Lords today,' and tell them I am the cleaner, in a broad gloucestershire accent!

Caz

GreyQueen

grandmasam wrote: »

I answer the cold callers now with. 'Her ladyship is at the House of Lords today,' and tell them I am the cleaner, in a broad gloucestershire accent!

Caz

:rotfl:Oh that is brilliant! Love the idea of the heaven and hell switchboard, too.

My Computer Wizard, an IT professional, had an enjoyable half-hour tormenting one of these your-computer-has-a-virus cold-callers by pretending to be simple-minded and not understanding anything. I applauded the Wiz for his efforts in wasting 30 mins of their time and keeping them from bothering civilians.

Eenymeeny

I'm lucky in that I've only ever given my number to people I know I'll want to speak to! If it rings and doesn't show a name I don't answer it. (I have tried answering if it just shows call 1 rather than a number, just in case, but I don't speak and the line just goes dead) I'm hoping eventually that THEY'LL get the message!
Sorry to hear that you've had more sad news Thriftwizard, I know that you're going through tough times at the moment.

Steve059

I have free "anonymous call rejection" on the landline and usually just don't answer any calls from withheld or unrecognised numbers.

However, if I'm feeling bored, I'll answer them ... in Russian. This gets rid of them, without being rude and should give them a reason to remove my number from their list. OK, one day I'll get a call from a call centre in Russia. But not yet.

GreyQueen

One thing to be aware of if you automatically reject witheld numbers is that some of the organisations with them aren't nefarious and could be having very legitimate reasons for trying to get in touch with you.

Such as a hospital. Or a GP or your local council. I work in a local authority call centre and our number is automatically witheld. We can manually override that and will if we have a customer's file flagged that they don't accept witheld numbers, or we ring them and encounter the automated message this phone does not accept witheld numbers, goodbye.

But our call centre is set up to take inbound calls from the public, we mostly don't call out, unless we've received a message that Mr(s) Public wants to talk to us. Or, in my least-favourite scenario, when we have to call Mr(s) Tenant/ Leaseholder to tell them they need to go home immediately to let an emergency plumber into their flat as water is pouring into the flat below.

And, if we try really hard to get someone in an emergency, and can't get hold of you, the worse-case scenario is you come home and find your locks have been changed and a note where you can collect your doorkeys from.........:(

Gigervamp

Those "Microsoft" calls are a pain.
I just hang up on them, but hubby did string one along for half an hour by pretending to be an old man.

They almost got his aunt though, once. She'd been on the phone with them for over an hour trying to do what they said, when she phoned my hubby using her mobile to ask for help. He told her it was a scam and to hang up, then went round to sort out her pc and undo all the stuff that she'd done to it.

Annoying thing was, she'd been warned about these calls and she's only in her 70s, so not old old, yet she still fell for it.

RAS

Many moons a go the phone line on the new house kept being called by people wanting to book a round of golf. We eventually discovered that it had belonged to the local club some time previously.

OH would belt down stairs in the freezing, starkers, thinking it was an urgent call from work and find some twerp on the other end who was using a number from a decade previously. Things got worse when pro events were on.

My favourite was the request as to "when was Jackson teeing off". He was solemnly advised that we did not know as there were moles on the 18th.

However, I know how desparate it is with folk who are open to suggestion.

Steve059

GreyQueen wrote: »

One thing to be aware of if you automatically reject witheld numbers is that some of the organisations with them aren't nefarious and could be having very legitimate reasons for trying to get in touch with you.

Such as a hospital. Or a GP or your local council.

<snip>

True. But I received infinitely more unwanted calls than wanted ones. There are other ways for these organisations to communicate with me.

GreyQueen

But if somebody official (even Police numbers are witheld) needs you in a hurry in a crisis, how fast are the other methods.........? Never mind, you probably won't come to too much harm by it. I do think we should be allowed to go around and duff up these timewasters, though.

Or if they get fined, We The Public ought to get some dosh to make up for our inconvenience.