Hows **** annoying, sales people continuosly ringing including my bank trying to sell shit that they will not pay out on because of the small print.

Sorry just been disturbed again.

are you on the TPS list Rich?

caller display.

or hang up if you don’t hear anyone on the other end within a second.

What home phone?

99% of the time!

We’ve won a holiday for 6…ok now stop ringing me!!

Yup TPS is your answer although BT themselves rang me yesterday selling broadband there was stunned silence when I told them they were ringing a TPS line.

Yep. TPS here. Very first thing I did when we got the new phone line.
Very rarely get unsolicited calls now.

You can register online: http://www.tpsonline.org.uk/ctps/number_type.html

there is a mail preference service as well but not sure if you’d be doing yourself out of a job there 😉

mrmichaelwright beat me to it…

Yes, in much the same way as I ignore everything that comes through the door that isn’t addressed by hand. 🙂

Always ignore it as it’s usually the girlfriends mum

Can we use this clip as an example (N terribly SFW)

i only answer it after 7pm.

Yup, I ignore – it’s either sales doods or not for me. And it’s downstairs.

Brant – that is fantastic!!!!

Caller display – ~£2.50 per month with BT and TPS should do it. Then you can ignore anyone you (don’t) like!

As a matter of interest, no one as ever been fined for breaking TPS regs, and it only applies to sales calls that originate from the UK…

It’s pretty good, but not fail safe. I’d still recommend people to sign up though

Hardly at all these days always running around after my two young children and can’t be arsed talking to sales people after a stressful day at the cracker factor. Anyone who knows me calls me on my mobile I answer that when I can find it.

I don’t ignore my calls unless I really want to avoid someone. Had a cold call tonight and when I said I was busy and about to go out they hung up on me lol!

Caller ID is FREE if you sign up for “BT Privacy at Home” which also registers you with TPS.

I forget it’s there. So I forget to check the voicemail. So if you’ve left me a message, and I haven’t got back to you, sorry!

My parents live with me and the phone line is in their name, (stepfather’s). I registered the number with TPS, which did seem to make quite a lot of difference. Still get the occasional foreign based ‘holiday prize’ call. Did get one the other day, tho’, which I should have enquired more closely about. I answered the call, as both my parents are in their eighties and I can get to the phone quicker. On this occasion the caller asked for me personally, then said they were calling on behalf of the LibDems, and could they ask some questions? I said no, I was having my tea. Only later did I wonder how the frack did they get my name in connection with a number that’s nothing to do with me? I always give my mobi number to people. Was a bit concerned.

I’ve got a VoIP switchboard thing running at home just now which i built for work but have not got around to actually putting in the office. It has a rather tasty ‘on hold’ service so when the b astards ring i say, “Hnag on a sec I’m just on another call – I’ll put you on hold” and then I do. Its programmed to hang up on them after 12 minutes of really really dire Albanian folk music and pan pipe classics i got off the Net. Not once have they phoned back, i can also listen in to what they are saying when on hold and that can be quite funny !! One day I’ll get bored of doing things like this !!!

Never get unwanted calls, ex directory and it seems to work just fine. Although i am told that blowing a whistle down the phone can be quite an effective deterrent against repeat offenders.

NZcol I want of them!!!
I never answer the home phone, its allways someone trying to sell something, I have the TPS too, anyone I willing to talk to has my mobile/email. Oh and I never answer with-held no’s (thats normally the bank)

i am told that blowing a whistle down the phone can be quite an effective deterrent against repeat offenders.

Why? it’s not like the same person is sitting there knowingly dialling your number. it’s all done by computer anyway.

TPS? Im on it. I still don’t bother answering the phone (turned the ringer off) and I don’t give out my home number. What got me was the silent calls that hang up (along with the resulting call centre caller who rings awhile later. Yes you can report them….if you can understand what they are saying in the first place.

we’re on TPS so the only people who hassle us are BT themselves and the wife’s brother so yes, I ignore it. 😉

I’m with tps already but i get plenty of calls from our banks for ‘surveys’ selling us stuff we don’t want or need. And plenty of overseas calls.
Trouble is most of the family are French so caller display says ‘international’ whether its my nan or someone teling me i have won a free laptop.

Get loads every night even though I’m tps registered. Been getting 000 000 0000 numbers calling me lately?
Though I think all my calls come from someone spying on me as they always call just as I’m about to start eating.
Though if I do answer to a sales person I’m usually asked if I’d be interested in saving money, my answer is always no.

I actually quite enjoy getting cold calls. No – really. I usually make up elaborate stories about the person the are wanting to talk to being eaten by a tiger that very morning or listen REALLY intently with (lots of ‘ohh, really’ and ‘that’s absolutely fantastic’ as they talk) and wait for them to realise I am winding them up and hang up on me.

All very silly really I know, but it amuses me in my own little world.

If I am busy I just hang up without even saying ‘no thanks’ but my wife says I am rude!

(Also sat here thinking about the ‘massive yacht’ sketch by Mitchell and Webb) 🙂

HERE…

Another way of amusing myself is to swear alot. Not at them directly, but if they roll off an interesting fact I’ll reply with f*** me, that’s a f*****g great deal, those other f****rs are really s**ting me and so on, you can begin to feel the unease.

LOL! Yes, that is pretty much in the same vein as my responses, but haven’t tried the swearing. Will do that the next time they call. 🙂

May I suggest a Ray Whinstone accent as well sir.

Caller ID is a wonderful thing. We answer if it comes up on the phone as Mum or Dad or whoever else is stored in our phone’s memory. Anyone else can leave a message.

Unsociable? yup 🙂

I never really get calls at my house phone. I’m rarely there to be honest, but I still rarely get them from anyone but family. But I did register with the TPS when my number was first created.

At work, we got so many that we’ve starting routing these waste of time calls to an extension which has a recording saying “Sorry we’ll be with you in just a sec” and then playing some music.
Longest we’ve had somebody on hold for was 15 mins 😆 how’s it feel to have your time wasted?!

We went through a spate of data calls (our home number must have been an old fax number or something). We would get calls at all times of day and night and BT couldn’t do a single thing to stop it. We daren’t disconnect the phone at night in case of emergency. Thankfully those have stopped (or at least dropped dramatically – just one or two a year as opposed to three or four a night sometimes).

TPS here too. However it only applies to sales and not ‘surveys’ as one caller tried to tell me. By and large I ignore it, it’s usually one of Mrs. C’s sisters anyway.

honesty can work really well too, as am tps’d only get calls from companies i’m a customer of already. latest ‘offer’ was a extended warrenty on a sky+ box.

“no f*cking chance, you’ve already sent me a sh*tty scaremongering flyer for that and it cost a f*cking fortune. if the piece of sh*t breaks it’d be cheaper to buy one off ebay. can i have a free hd box?”

i didn’t get a free hd box funnily enough.

TPS and ex-directory here, in the last week I have had a couple of calls that as soon as I answer a recorded message begins, am waiting to see what comes up on my bill as I fear it may be one of those scams that charges you for answering, hung up within 2 seconds both times.