CAMPAIGN TO STOP COLD CALLS

I registered with the telephone preference service.

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I registered with the telephone preference service.

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Does it work?

If someone does call what do you do about it?

Steve B

Useful techniques to annoy the callers

On hearing what the call is about - you say - "How nice of you to call - I have not spoken to any one for a week -and then witter on until they give up"

Window sales - ask how they fit windows into a tent

A sales call inviting me to make lots of money by using my computer - I asked the caller why if it was such a good deal were they working in a call centre when they could borrow £500, get a computer and be earning the money themselves - the caller gave up.

Do any thing to destroy their script.

Derek

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Thanks for that, Mekon, I have registered now, too.

I registered with TPS a couple of months ago. It takes 28 days before it fully kicks in. Now that that period has passed we get no cold calls. Fantastic!

I believe there is a similar service to stop you getting junk mail.

Nick

Tell them you're very interested in their product but a bit busy at the moment, and could you have their home number so you can ring them back after work.

Thomas

RE: TPS

There's a get out clause!

It only covers sales calls not those related to 'market research' or similar.

Hence the 'If you could change any of the doors or windows in your house...' type calls.

For these you need to explicitly state that you do not wish to receive these calls in the future, when you receive them.

The more irritating problem I come across is the methods used to initiate the calls, they use software that autodials and then, if answered, forwards it to an operator.

If there's no operator available they hang up and since they dont activate caller ID you can't tell who it is.



Andy.

For Mail the website is;
http://www.mpsonline.org.uk/mpsr/html/default.asp

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I'm completely fed up with double-glazing...companies calling

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Strange. This never happens me here in Sweden. Can it be that everybody already has TRIPLE glazing...

JohanR (Yes, everybody has central heating to. The only option for a civilised world)

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It only covers sales calls not those related to 'market research' or similar. Hence the 'If you could change any of the doors or windows in your house...' type calls.

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Andy - I'm not sure that is the case! I registered with TPS 2 years ago and havn't had any unsolicited calls at all since, except for ones from overseas 'boiler-rooms' which are outside the scope of the legislation and from genuine market research companies.

David

We regularly get the "You filled in a survey" calls, this is always complete BS, 'cos I'm way too lazy to fill in any surveys.

Just wheel out the old Seinfeld line
Telemarketer: Hi, I am wondering if you are interested in changing to company long distance service

Jerry: Sorry i was just going out, but if you give me your home number i can give you a call

Telemarketer: Sorry we are not allowed to do that

Jerry: So i guess you don't want people calling you at home

Telemarketer: No

Jerry: Good now you know how I feel (hangs up)

Hi
When you do get one of these unwelcome calls, just utter the magic word and they bugger off immediately. "UNEMPLOYED"
Regards
Jim

Living in a "foreign" country can be usefull.

When I get tele marketing calls the reply.
"I say old chap do you by any chance speak english?" usually works quite well.

I had one persistent caller who bravely switched to english and we continued as follows:

Telemarketeer- "Yes I speak english? I would like to offer you a low price subscription to your local newspaper"
My reply- "since I don't speak Dutch do you think I would be inetersted in a newspaper written in Dutch?"
Telemarketeer- quite long silence -then- "good answer, goodnight"

Actually I must apologise and state that I really appreciate the fact that EVERYBODY in Holland speaks English superbly well, which makes life over here extremely easy for a lazy bastard who has not learned to speak Dutch!
I am extremely gratefull

GEOFFP

BLT,after suffering from this annoying problem of cold calling i decided that an EXTERNAL caller display unit would be justifed.......it paid for itself in the 1st week!."WITHHELD" calls are never answered 'cept by answering machine....

dennis

Suprised this has not been mentioned. The US set up a national "do-not-call" registry, enforced by the FCC (or was it FTC-part of the lawsuits, I guess). Anyway, 50 million people signed up for it, which made it just about the most popular direct-public initiative EVER to pass in the US. Hence, all the legal wrangling and whatnot was just about powerless to stop it.

In any event, I CAN tell you that I get about 90% fewer telemarketer calls now. That i get any is due to stupid loopholes which permit non-profit fundraising and ANYBODY that I have done ANY sort of business with in the last 18 months.

make a stink. It could work in the UK.
Judd

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Originally posted by TOKSIK:
BLT,after suffering from this annoying problem of cold calling i decided that an EXTERNAL caller display unit would be justifed.......it paid for itself in the 1st week!."WITHHELD" calls are never answered 'cept by answering machine....

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Does this mean that calls from unidentifiable numbers (e.g. international calls) are answered by answering machine only or is there a way of distinguishing between "withheld" and "unidentifiable"?

--J

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The US set up a national "do-not-call" registry, enforced by the FCC

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We have the same thing in the UK - it's called the Telephone Preference Service and works very well for all domestic calls.

Sadly, it fails to prevent scam artists from the USA calling you, pretending to be Wall Street investment managers. They are extremely rude, pushy and arrogant and generally have to be told to F*** off before they get the message!!

Not a good reflection on genuine US financial services companies.

David

"Beauty is in the eye of the Beer-holder"

Chaps,

You need to play the game with these pesky callers. Before our "do not call" list, I would ask to put the person on hold claiming someone was at my door and then return to doing whatever I was doing. They would eventually hang up.

For the calls made by machines to record hours when someone is home (and thus answers), if you press # six or so times very quickly it removes you from their call list.

For unsolicited junk mail, I typically send it back to the sender if a postage paid envelope is included.

I told several people at Naim they were very welcome to phone me up anytime and try to sell me something.

No point - their time is better spent bringing out new products they know I'll buy anyway!

Jeremy,

1471 - the caller withheld their namber - witheld number.

1471 - we do not have the namber to return the call - international call.



Regards,

Steve.

RE Hard copy junk mail - we stick a label over our address on the mail with the words
"Unsolicited Mail - Please return to sender"

then put the item in the postbox/mailbox

Derek

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Originally posted by Andrew L. Weekes:
The more irritating problem I come across is the methods used to initiate the calls, they use software that autodials and then, if answered, forwards it to an operator.

If there's no operator available they hang up and since they dont activate caller ID you can't tell who it is.

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Yeah - that's really nice of them isn't it - just imagine all these single female pensioners being made SERIOUSLY paranoid by this, thinking it's some deviant perve or lowlife scum trying to find out when they're out, so they can burgle the place, or in, so they can do something much worse...

It's really nice for people like my parents, one who has a heart condition and diabetes, and the other with a bad back - all that hassle to get to the phone to find - nothing.

On my Panasonic landline phone (with caller ID), you get "Withheld" for some calls, "Private caller" for MOST of these annoying company callers, or "Out of area" - which I'm still not sure applies to international or not.

I usually have about 4 "Private caller"s backed up on my phone when I get home from work - there's never any messages on 1571, so it's obviously scummy cold callers (since people I give a toss about have a name/number entry on my phone).

"UNEMPLOYED" might work, but so does "WE RENT". He he he...

You have to feel sorry for the poor sods in the call centres though - it can't be much of a job and although it winds you up, being rude to them won't help either you or them. Woah - can't believe I'm being this tolerant here!

__________________________
Make your choice, adventurous Stranger;
Strike the bell and bide the danger
Or wonder, till it drives you mad,
What would have followed if you had.

I had a funny experience with a company last year.

I got a hand-delivered mailshot through my door from a conservatory company. I decided to call them - even though I had no intention to buy one..........you'll see !

The telephone rang and the young girl on the phone told me all about the conservatories that they offered including the "all-in-one" service including all planning. I decided to sound very interested at this time and made an appointment for a salesman to visit

He duly arrived in his slick car and I met him on the path. After nearly a full 20 minutes sitting in the back garden discussing his products (needless to say I had a couple of cold beers knowing he was driving !) I asked him to go inside to finalise everything as I didn't want to discuss anything in the garden.

What a smile he had on his face !!

From the giddy heights of ecstacy at the thought of a big commission to the depth of despair when I opened my door and he saw the staircase - joys of living upstairs in a cottage flat !

Turns out his company put flyers through every door - 50% useless before they started !!

A wise old farmer once told me how he deals with cold calls on the phone.

He says (very politely) "Just hold on a moment would you please" and walks away from the phone to go about his business.

This takes much less time than engaging in 'conversation' with the cold caller AND bungs up their phone line.

Simple! (and you stay calm)