Tackling the telephone sales nuisance

[Guest]

Or you can lobby the Government to instate what we have over here which is a Federal "Do Not Call" List. takes one telephone call to get  on it then if you get any more calls the company responsible gets a hefty fine.

That's basically what the Telephone Preference Service is but these days international voice-over-ip calls cost next to nothing and overseas fly by night companies are untouchable.

[trisonic]

Hmm, see what you mean but I've never received one of those....

What services are they selling? What's the point of the calls?

 

Best, Pete.

[Guest]

I've never hung around long enough to find out what it was they wanted. Often they claim to be calling from 'British Surveys' but their accent suggests otherwise.

[Peter Kazmierczak]

Those who know me will realise that my surname can be quite difficult to pronounce. Hence I sometimes feel slightly sorry for those cold callers who've drawn the short straw to give me a ring

[melmerby]

Hmm, see what you mean but I've never received one of those....

What services are they selling? What's the point of the calls?

 

Best, Pete.

Generally some sort of claims management services. i.e "we will claim back for you the money owed for the mis-sold ****"

**** = enter your preferred scam here

 

****PPI (payment protection insurance) is typical and has been sold by unscrupulous (i.e. normal!) insurance agents, to people who could never derive any benefit from it.

You are entitled to make a claim if you have been mis-sold PPI.

The telephone sales people go on the basis that randomly dialled calls will eventually hit a mug who gets taken in.

 

BTW TPS which is supposed to stop this sort of thing (from UK callers) is basically toothless and cannot stop them.

 

Keith

Edited April 5, 2013 by melmerby

[Horsetan]

.... my surname can be quite difficult to pronounce.....

 

Polish ancestry?

[Welly]

I have one misgiving about Truecall - many NHS hospitals ring patients or relatives through their private branch exchanges and in my experience the number appears as "not available" so could get blocked by it.

[RFS]

I have one misgiving about Truecall - many NHS hospitals ring patients or relatives through their private branch exchanges and in my experience the number appears as "not available" so could get blocked by it.

Current version of Truecall handles this.  The callers usually show up as "withheld" because they're calling from a switchboard.  You can elect to have it screened via "shield" and "whisper" - caller has to press a key (which gets rid of silent calls and recorded message calls) and then say their name, and most cold-callers hang up at this point.  We've got ours set such that all withheld numbers go direct to answerphone as though we're out.  If the call really is for us they'll leave a message which we can pick up. 

[Ian Fisher]

Who calls me website carries uptodate logged information on who it is supposed to be calling you.

 

Just daft be it witheld or international.

 

Three ppi today....

[Peter Kazmierczak]

Polish ancestry?

 

Indeed.

[BoD]

I didn't realise Sunset was a Polish surname.

[davet]

Several years ago I was overseas in Singapore I think.  An insurance company made a cold call to my UK mobile which I happened to be carrying.  I let the agent rabbit on for about 10 minutes and then told hime where he was making the call to.  He slammed the phone down.  I wish I could say I haven't heard from this company since but it felt good at the time.