Cold calling

nuatha

GreyQueen wrote: »

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.

Which timewasters?
When the government pays for my telephone and my time then they can expect me to answer the 'phone. As it is I no longer have a phone plugged into my landline.
I personally regard telesales as beyond the pale. That and door knocking will guarantee that I won't do business with your company no matter how much more your ethical rival charges.
The business number that was connected yesterday had another 4 telesales calls today - at least the receptionist won't be bored when they open for business

nursemaggie

Have to admit hospitals and others do not help themselves.

I receive lots of these calls and the first thing they say is "for security reasons please give us your date of birth."

I was replying with "for whose security do you require my date of birth?"

I kept getting a lot of irate NHS workers, in reply to this, who were reminding me of my hospital appointments. When I pointed out, if I was going to forget I would still forget if they reminded me a week before, they were not very helpful.

I get my cancer drugs delivered every month and I have had to make the people who phone me from there give me their post code as they always ask for my post code too before they will say who they are. I would come to harm if they refused to deliver.

I think it is time cold calling was stopped.

I once had my phone number listed in yellow pages as being the local council. Some of the calls we got on our answer phone would have been hilarious if they had not been tragic.

jk0

Anyone ever heard this cold call revenge recording?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YvJQxgtJW94

GreyQueen

Years ago, when police stations actually had publicly-listed numbers, rather than all calls routing through a countywide control room, one of my friends had a landline in this city which was co-incidentally (apart from a very different area code) the same as the number of the cop shop in a town 30 miles away.

He had very bolshie callers who wouldn't accept they had used the wrong area code and were talking to a private number in Provincial City rather than a police number in Market Town. Had to get it changed in the end, he used to get calls at all hours.

At work, we take incoming callers through a security question but not people we've called out to; we have called them on numbers we already hold for them, after all. Most people are suitably wary (I applaud this btw) and we start by identifying ourselves by name, department and organisation and say we're ringing in response to their voicemail about their bins etc and they thaw suddenly as they remember leaving that message.

I've had my landline number since 1998, and know the couple who had it before that, but I still get stray calls from people who think it's their friend or relative's number. Thrice in the past year, I have responded to mistakenly-left voicemails by calling the person back and pointing out they'd used the wrong number and the intended recipient hadn't got the message. Most amusingly, one elderly lady who'd left a rambling message regarding a mutual friend's funeral on my machine, demanded to know what Mavis's phone number was when I called her back.

gilly1964

I recently married, so when I get cold calls for Miss @@@@, I say sorry she is not around anymore. The funniest one was someone thinking Miss @@@@ had passed away and apologising profusely for disturbing me at this distressing time.

If called by the Bank, I ask them to prove their identity.
Can you tell me the CEOs name?
What is your telephone banking number?
I have a direct debit leave my account on the 8th of the month, can you tell me what it is?

Sales people, windows, solar panels and the like. Sorry I rent this house so cannot help.

Microsoft type people, give it about 10 minutes and then ask if I should have it turned on as I can't see what they are saying

But the real favourite was a local provider of massage services had mistakenly used our phone number in a local paper ad, one number was wrong. DH was quite surprised when he took the first call asking if extras were available.

dava123

looking at this thread,i am so tempted to get a second line the one which charges a premium rate,like £1.50 a min,i could talk to them all day on that line,any one know how to get a second line?

Mr_Toad

Eenymeeny wrote: »

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.

I doubt very much that 'they' will get the message as most of the calls are from auto diallers and they don't dial random numbers they dial in blocks so your turn will come again.

Mr_Toad

nuatha wrote: »

I may be claiming a record, new phone line went live at 09:10 yesterday morning. First telesales cold call at 09:18.
Telephone company assure us its a virgin (not previously issued) number so it has to be random number diallers - by 5pm there had been another 4 cold calls.

Autodiallers don't dial random numbers.

They dial in blocks of sequential numbers. If the dialler picks up an unused number they get the NU (number unobtainable) tone and simply move on to the next in the sequence. If that number is then issued, like yours, the next time that block of numbers is dialed it gets answered.

Double_V

Good information.

Stevie_Palimo

dava123 wrote: »

looking at this thread,i am so tempted to get a second line the one which charges a premium rate,like £1.50 a min,i could talk to them all day on that line,any one know how to get a second line?

That will not work I'm afraid as the people that buy, sell and use numbers will check the records prior to use and anything that resembles a premium rate will be thrown away.


There is little you can do about cold calling and despite the law changes and so on they are here to stay, Basically if you go on to anything these days ranging from a compare website through to shopping online details are sold on as standard unless you read through the full t&c's and make sure you uncheck, check every box possible.


A lot of call centres went abroad a while ago and now with the crackdowns Company's will probably revisit these again to generate leads as they are outside of the rules in place.


Another myth that answering your phone and or text will notify the caller, sender and then make them aware your number is connected is rubbish as they only need to see a connection made from the sending point, If you really loathe the calls and texts then either check everything you use from mobile contracts to online shopping and contact each and everyone to say I do not wish for my details to be used/sold on at any stage or simply live an area without any signal, connections to anything that can receive marketing.