[Closed] GrrrSnarlGnash! Pesky FAILED junk calls!

Chill, dude. Just go outside and gatecrash your neighbour's barbeque.

It's pelting down, and they're away on holiday.

Just got two calls from (presumably) the same people. Work phone that's used when I'm on call-out so can't be ignored.

Getting royally pissed off now - can someone remind me why we bother paying the idiots at OFCOM to sit on their arses and ignoring stuff that's really winding people up?

Some of these call centres which both receive and make calls have auto diallers running. When the connection is made,,if there's a spare operative then the connected call comes through to them, if there's no one are then the call is dropped.
More efficient that way, and that's a good thing. Right?

According to the Indy today 3.99% of the UK's working population is employed in a call centre

It's really annoying, apparently when the call centre operator gets within 30secs of his/her call finishing, they autodial a stack of numbers, whoever picks up first gets the call, everyone else gets dropped.

More efficient that way, and that's a good thing. Right?

I know you're joking but no, no it is not a good thing. It is a very very bad thing. Should be made illegal. As should cold callers who hang up on you when you are not interested...and and. I have generally given up answering the phone unless I know the number.

Is this mobile or land line? If mobile, the app WhosCall is good for blocking these twunts

My unladylike response to any now is foxtrot oscar.

I repeatedly report these to the TPS and the IOC.

My mobile is never answered if it shows up as 'private number'.

As should cold callers who hang up on you when you are not interested

I just say no thanks as soon as I can get a word in. No need to be rude to the poor chap on the phone. I wouldn't want their job and I suspect they aren't that keen on it.

My mobile is never answered if it shows up as 'private number'.

That's all very well C G, but withheld numbers in our case include various friends with hidden numbers (in which case answering m/c picks it up) - but also the childrens' school (!), the local library (!!) and doctors' surgery..

No need to be rude to the poor chap on the phone. I wouldn't want their job and I suspect they aren't that keen on it.

Strongly disagree. If more people were as rude as me then people wouldn't do these jobs. Simples. 🙂

I made a cold caller cry once, it felt bad and good all at the same time!

That one I am struggling with. Do you want them to stay and chat?

I just say no thanks as soon as I can get a word in. No need to be rude to the poor chap on the phone. I wouldn't want their job and I suspect they aren't that keen on it.

and with the same respect when you say no thank you not interested, i expect a sorry for wasting your time, not diiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii

exactly

No need to be rude to the poor chap on the phone. I wouldn't want their job and I suspect they aren't that keen on it.

^^ This - they're usually just someone young trying to make ends meet in a market that is hardly saturated with opportunity. Never an excuse to be rude to them when all they are doing is trying to make a living doing an unpleasant job. Would you be rude to a binman? A toilet cleaner? Nope. Same logic.

Binmen and toilet cleaners provide a useful service,cold callers provide what exactly?

It's a mobile call to my ancient Nokia tough phone, so there isn't the facility to add a blacklist of known numbers. I'm hacked-off because I may be getting an important call today, regarding my father possibly getting admitted to hospital for kidney function tests. Every time the phone rings I'm startled and wondering is this the call with some news?

I just try to sell them double glazing or life insurance when they call they soon hang up and never call back lol

They get targeted for number of calls made quite often.

If they catch me on a bad day the conversation doesn't last long. Otherwise sounding interested, dragging the call out for a good 20-30 mins then losing interested is good fun also.

I like the idea of trying to sell them stuff I may try that one also.

EDIT: Yes, registering on the TPS cuts down the number of such calls quite dramatically.

Cheers

Danny B

No need to be rude to the poor chap on the phone. I wouldn't want their job and I suspect they aren't that keen on it.

No. Bollocks to them. Nine times out of ten it's a scam of some form, they're criminals. They're a swearword filter engaging nuisance and I wouldn't piss on them if they were on fire, they know they're flaunting the law and they don't give a toss.

Not all, I grant you. In the US for instance, cold callers are usually legitimate companies IME. But the ones I get are always "hello Mr Jones, my name's Brian I'm calling from Microsoft / about your debts / on behalf of your phone company / about your recent injury" in a barely intelligible South Asian accent. Jog on.

registering on the TPS cuts down the number of such calls quite dramatically.

It stops legitimate callers quite well. It makes not a jot of difference to these ^^ parasitic bastards. I've quoted the TPS at them and they laugh in your face.

Maybe blowing a mountain rescue whistle down the line would wipe the smile off their face?

Incidentally,

Given the details they hold, I'm reasonably sure I know where they're getting their data from.

If you want to stop these overseas fartknockers, try filling this in and faxing it back.

^^ This - they're usually just someone young trying to make ends meet in a market that is hardly saturated with opportunity. Never an excuse to be rude to them when all they are doing is trying to make a living doing an unpleasant job. Would you be rude to a binman? A toilet cleaner? Nope. Same logic.

I understand what you're saying but consider that a job involving making calls that inevitably attract abuse is, actually, a kind of abuse in itself because of this.

I don't take delight in swearing at these callers but their employers need to be taken to task for this method of working.

A recent call saw me say 'did I ask you to call me?'. Poor bloke could only reply 'no'.

And, no, am not rude to anybody else.

My unladylike response to any now is foxtrot oscar. (1)

I repeatedly report these to the TPS and the IOC. (2)

My mobile is never answered if it shows up as 'private number'. (3)

(1) That was the response that someone trying to sell me a PPE claim got when they called my mobile
(2) I rarely get calls on my mobile, which is registered.
(3) My bank shows this when they call.

Thank you, Cougar, for so eloquently expressing my feelings, and I'm pretty sure those of most on here, about these bottom feeders.
Far better than I could have done it, certainly. 😀

I used to get repeated, persistant calls from st helens conservatories.
I explained, again and again, not interested, because I live in a first floor flat. Until it got too much.
The look on the salesmans face when he turned up on my doorstep was priceless. 😀

Received this today from TPS:

[i]Thank you for your complaint regarding the receipt of an unsolicited direct marketing call.

You may already be aware that the Telephone Preference Service (TPS) does not have the facilities to know which companies are calling you and therefore relies on the complainant to ascertain this information upon the receipt of an unsolicited direct marketing call.

Despite our best efforts, TPS has not been able to ascertain valid contact and/or address details to raise this particular complaint. Please note that even on occasions where a company name and/or telephone number is supplied TPS may still be unable to ascertain valid company details if during the course of our investigation the company name and/or telephone number supplied is found to be fictitious.

Although we have been unable to raise this complaint against the offending company we will make available to the Information Commissioners Office (ICO) details of complaints which TPS were unable to raise against the offending company due to lack of valid contact details.

The ICO are the government body responsible for enforcing the Privacy and Electronic (EC Directive) Communications Regulations 2003. This may enable them to look at trends in complaints being made and where possible identify those organisations who are not complying with the regulations surrounding such calls.

TPS has now closed the investigation into this particular complaint. Please note that this email address is not monitored. If you now have sufficient information and wish for TPS to investigate please re-log your complaint via the TPS website www.tpsonline.org.uk .[/i]

C/C Hello, can i speak to Mr Project pleae,

ME, Sorry he is on the other line, can i help,

C/C,And who are you sir,

Me,I am the Doctor,

C/C Hello Doctor , can i have your surname please,

Me ,Yes, i am the Doctor,

C/C ,Dr Who,

Me,yes that is correct, (pause)

i am from the planet Galafray, (pause) i am a time lord, i travel in a space time conmtinumn.(pause) I am 10000 million years of age in earth years, so have plenty of time to answer your calls.

Usually the phone then goes dead.

goes like this for me:
LL rings, I answer it & say hello. I can hear the digital whirring and realise that the call is a nuisance one then hang up before anyone speaks.

The call centre is on on bbc3 in a couple of mins, see if you can spot who called you

I used to get repeated, persistant calls from st helens conservatories.
I explained, again and again, not interested, because I live in a first floor flat. Until it got too much.
The look on the salesmans face when he turned up on my doorstep was priceless.

💡 Thank you.

[b]I may be getting an important call today, regarding my father possibly getting admitted to hospital for kidney function tests. Every time the phone rings I'm startled and wondering is this the call with some news?[/b]

Hope he's ok - I have end stage kidney failure, Dialysis 3 times a week. Not fun 🙁

Some goodish news. They want to see him as an out-patient for the time being, and have commissioned some less urgent testing. It seems the antibiotics are working. Though that hasn't yet resolved his repeated kidney infections or recurring kidney stones.

Thanks for your thoughts.

I get at least 3 calls everyday from 'Active Energy Direct'. They call themselves different things each time, usually abbreviated versions of their name and I'm afraid I'm at the point of being quite rude to them. I always start off polite but saying I'm not interested. This rarely gets rid of them so after explaining that they are not the first call I've had from them that day/week I know what they are offering and could they please make a note to not call me because they ate wasting their time and mine. At this point I usually hang up. Regularly the phone rings immediately which when I answer it I get the same person asking why I hung up when he was trying to explain what they were offering. At this point they are generally told in no uncertain terms what they can do with their services and I hang up. There have been occasions when they will immediately call me again. Bloody hell. Bugger off.
I also get lots of calls trying to sell me advertising space in some bogus publication. I just stop them and ask them to wait while I google their company name. Generally they can't hang up quickly enough.

I get at least 3 calls everyday from 'Active Energy Direct'.

Seems they're on Twitter. They've got the same approach to that as they have to your phone calls.

https://twitter.com/AEDCallCentre

The most fun I've had with them was shortly after being awarded my PhD:

CC: Hello, is that Mr Zokes?
Me: No, there is no Mr Zokes here
CC: And who am I speaking to then?
Me: Dr Zokes
CC (flustered): Oh, I'm very sorry sir
Me: No, no, I've not been knighted, just a Dr
CC: Errr.....

I just put the landline handset by the radio and walk off. Fortunately I never have had any CC or spam on my mobile- yet!

Here's a thought- I assume that businesses receive CCs as well. What is your employer's policy with dealing with them. If I can be bothered (see above)I ask them to email me. They never do.

zokes - Member
The most fun I've ever had [s]with them[/s] was shortly after being awarded my PhD:

CC: Hello, is that Mr Zokes?
Me: No, there is no Mr Zokes here
CC: And who am I speaking to then?
Me: Dr Zokes
CC (flustered): Oh, I'm very sorry sir
Me: No, no, I've not been knighted, just a Dr
CC: Errr.....

I know it probably makes alot of peoples days thiking up some clever reply when they get a cold caller ring them up. Why not just ignore the call or hang up straight away and save your brain power for better things? 😉

Why not just ignore the call or hang up straight away and save your brain power for better things?

Because it took all of about five seconds to say, I'd just opened the letter formalising my PhD (so I was quite chuffed with myself after three years' hard slog), and to be fair, it wouldn't really tax anyone's brain too much to come up with that.

It would just have been easier if they'd noted the TPS list and not called in the first place - they could have saved their brain power and time for better things [/sarcastic wink]

We get a fair number of calls per day at the bike shop asking about our electricity/phone/gas (non existent) and there's two of us who work here, sometimes there's only one of us working and it is a right pain in the arse to stop what your doing, wipe your hands,sit the tools down and have to deal with some ****wit on the line reading from a script but we have to answer the phone to all calls as it's a small business and the incoming calls could be important to us whether that be a customer or supplier.

As soon as they start their speil i just end the call, or if it's the electricity cretins i mention that i've tapped into the meter next door and steal their leccy, that usually shuts them up.

I do have a house line/number at home coz of the BT Broadband line and the fact you need a phoneline whether you use it or not but i don't have a phone plugged into it, i use my mobile for everything and it's got to the point now that if my phone doesn't recognise the number i don't bother to answer, i've had 18 calls today from these ****in cretinous call centre parasites and the sooner cold calling is banned the better, and i don't agree that it is a worthwhile job - a worthwhile job produces something of value or is of beneficial help that is of need to the user.

Swearing at them is not on, it's somebody doing a job rather than doing nothing. It's also a legal job mostly if there in the UK. Swearing at them won't change anything as they have targets to hit so will just move on to the next caller but might be the person who does something regrettable due to listening to tirades of abuse all day at work while just trying to earn a living.

If you want to make a difference either collect their details and report their company (if you are on TPS).
If not say Goodbye and hang up.
It's like the people trying to sell CC's in motorway services etc. they are not there because they have a life long passion for Barclaycard or own the company, they are there because they need a job. A polite no thanks is not the hardest thing you will do, they wont remove you from the list because they can't but abusing them isn't called for.

My dad, being a total ****, now responds to any calls asking for him with some variation of "He was my father, he died last week", and to "Is that the occupier", "No, nobody lives here" Everyone's got to have a hobby.

When I was building up my cycle courier business in Aberdeen many, many years ago, I worked in a double glazing call centre as a team leader. My job was to follow up 'bites' from my underlings. I hated doing it but saw it as a means to an end. Can't stand being called at home by sales types but it's just a job. A swift no thank you then hang up is all that's required.

The job allowed me to buy a mobile phone, business cards, leaflets etc. And on the plus side, several hundred people ended up with good quality windows and doors :-):-)

I've had about 10 of these calls with the dreary woman's voice talking about my claim for mis-sold PPI. I have added each one to my address book as "Nuisance caller" and a few I got from lists on the web. Now I have "Nuisance caller 1" and Nuisance caller 2" eaxch with 9 or 10 numbers and it's starting to work; I have been able to ignore four of them in the last week.

A question for those who feel that it's wrong to be rude and that these people are 'only doing a job' ...

Would you want your son or daughter to be doing that job?

It's all very well being sanctimonious but don't forget that these companies have not operated by the rules, ie checking with TPS. They also fail to disclose the correct company name and details when asked.

I will carry on telling them to foxtrot oscar. 🙂

A question for those who feel that it's wrong to be rude and that these people are 'only doing a job' ...

Would you want your son or daughter to be doing that job?

It's all very well being sanctimonious but don't forget that these companies have not operated by the rules, ie checking with TPS. They also fail to disclose the correct company name and details when asked.

Maybe blowing a mountain rescue whistle down the line would wipe the smile off their face?

Use anything you like - a whistle, an air horn, an pneumatic road breaker, a rolls royce jet engine. To the caller it will be as loud as.... a telephone receiver.

Jeezus cg!

I just say "Sorry mate, not interested, thanks." and hang up.

I have a sweary word in my mobile and each number that tries selling me shite gets added so that I don't answer in the future.

I find I'm much less stressed after polite refusal rather than telling someone to **** off.

If it's an unrecognised number, ignore it and google it to see who it was. If it's spam add the number to a spam group folder with a silent ring tone.

I think you lot are directing your hate at the wrong people and you say that cold callers don’t offer anything…. They clearly do.

Because if wallys and goons didn’t buy the rubbish that cold callers peddle, then the cold calling companies wouldn’t use it as a profitable sales technique …. and then the sane amongst us wouldn’t be getting these calls.

So if you wanna hate… and this being STW means you do…. Save it for the clowns who get sucked in by cold callers.

"No thanks, bye" ... and put the phone down.

If we all did that, they'd stop.

I ran a small company doing cold calling. We supplied a B2b need for other small companies that couldn't afford or didn't want the hassle of employing their own sales staff. Sales is the lifeblood if ANY business, has to be done, otherwise there isn't a business. We called mostly financial services to small firms, but we did calling for local garages, did marketing gathering / surveys, small firms selling playground equipment to schools and councils, did electronic components, training courses....loads, and we were signed up to the DMA, we TP cleansed every list, and we gave the TPS number out to people who wanted it and advice about MPS as well.

Rude customers goes with the territory, but we spoke with loads of lovely folk, saved someone's life, I talked to one guy who was threatening to top himself ( small business going bust) while my colleague called the ambulance, they found him with a rope, saved another from an accountant who was stealing money to the tune of thousands a year... And listened to a baby being born.

It's also a legal job mostly if there in the UK.

I can't remember the last time I had a cold caller based in the UK. And if I did, they're breaking the law. Remind me again why I should be polite to criminals?

[b]It is a legal requirement[/b] that all organisations (including charities, voluntary organisations and political parties) do not make such [unsolicited sales and marketing] calls to numbers registered on the TPS unless they have your consent to do so.

Wot Cougar says^

Aren't these people required to ask whether it's a convenient time to call? If so, they never do so and clearly fail to treat me with courtesy so consider I'm fully justified by my choice of terminology.

Another thing, following a car accident at the end of last year I was besieged by calls two days after reporting it to my insurance company - Aviva for those who wish to avoid.

I spoke to Aviva who obviously denied it, I wrote and escalated my complaint and still was fobbed off. Was intending to go to the Information Commissioner's Office with it but another fight was taking up my time.

Those of you who support CC because 'it employs people' should understand that those jobs are usually very short term.

I've just realised why you guys hate the cold callers so.

Your phone ring and you think you are popular... "oh I wonder which friend wants to speak to me" , you think.... Then you look at the screen and realise ... nop I'm still Jonny No Mates beacuase it's a blooming cold caller.

I know this beacuase it happens to me when I get a text and it's vodaphone telling me my monthly bill 🙁

[i]understand that those jobs are usually very short term.[/i]

I had people with me for 5-8 years. I've left the company now, but its got the same people working for it now that were there when I left nearly 3 years ago.

'usually'

I worked on B2B many years ago for six months. Then the boss did a runner and company folded.

A question for those who feel that it's wrong to be rude and that these people are 'only doing a job' ...
Would you want your son or daughter to be doing that job?

I doubt many people choose call centres as a career, but the people who do the job do it so they can take pride from actually having a job. If my kids went to work there every day knowing that they would insulted, abused and screamed at, yet they chose that over getting benefits and living and easier life doing not very much then I would be extremely proud of them

I don't get many calls and those that I do get don't really affect my life.

I was called by a nice girl from Energy Saving Trust a while ago, she must have been new and sounded terrified. We had a chat for a minute or so, I told her that we already had loft, cavity wall etc etc then thanked her for her call. She was stunned and said that I was the first person that had been nice to her all day!

That made me feel much better than just insulting her.

Or maybe they do the job under the threat of sanctions from the DWP?

I answer the phone, check it's a person on the end of the line then pass it over to my 2 year old.

The record so far is in excess of 5 minutes trying to get mummy/daddy to the phone and the little 'un LOVES speaking to people on the phone.

Obviously, there are call centres, and there are call centres.

The sort of operation nickc describes I have absolutely no beef with. They're operating within the law by honouring TPS. All the people here going "well, they're only doing a job", that's a fair comment as it's a legitimate company. And having worked in a call centre (albeit tech support / customer services), I don't doubt that staff turnover is massive. It was about 200% when I worked in tech (ie, the average lifespan of a support engineer was six months).

The thing with companies like that is, by definition, as I'm TPS-registered I never hear from them. They're not the ones I have a beef with.

I've worked in a call centre, I was young and needed the money... Crap job, and as a result I'm very much in the "no thanks, bye" rather than F.O. camp when it comes to answering.

Any unsolicited sales calls are saved to my phonebook, and set to go directly to voicemail, so they only ever bother me once.

Anything that does get through, I answer, put the phone down but don't hang up. Or hand it to my two year old daughter.

Its the recorded message calls that really boil my piss.

If you can't even be bothered to speak to me why should I have to answer the phone to a recording.

Press 1 to hear more, Press 8 to be removed from our calling list

I used to press 8 and kept getting the same recorded calls. Now I press 1 and tell them what I think of recorded calls or on one more memorable call how stupid selling solar panels in Scotland is.

or on one more memorable call how stupid selling solar panels in Scotland is.

Almost a days worth of extra daylight each week compared to some of our southern buddies just now - 8 days electricity generated for the price of 7- total madness to sell solar panels here. 🙂

and almost a day less in winter

Almost a days worth of extra daylight each week compared to some of our southern buddies just now - 8 days electricity generated for the price of 7- total madness to sell solar panels here.

Average power generated by a 1 square metre installation in the British Isles is 11W, I'm guessing it might be a bit lower in Glasgow

So yes pretty pointless

After several calls in one day (I'm self employed, so have to leave my work) I got really annoyed with a cc and told her what I thought. She rang me back 2 minutes later and said how rude I was and that I should be ashamed of myself, but not giving me a chance to explain that her call was one of many I'd received that day.
Her calling back made me think a little and from now on I just say I'll call you back in a moment and put the phone down. Of course I can't check on 1471 as they never leave a number.

Oh and does make me laugh how Asian call centre workers always give themselves common English names, such as Norman or Colin.

Which Mag are trying to get the government to act on unwanted calls. It's on their website, I think* you can add your name - 50 000 already.

*I'm a subscriber, I might get special treatment there.

"Sniff sniff, Daddy died today sniff sniff." is fun 😆

No excuse for abusing another human being. It is perfectly possible to express displeasure without verbally abusing/swearing at someone who is just trying to earn a living. I see some far worse business conduct in my day job and that is not a licence to start effing and jeffing at those responsible.

If you don't like the practice then campaign for better regulation or controls dont target the poor sods who in a shit job market have managed to get some unpleasant, repetitive and soul destroying job to make ends meet.

There's a funny comment on the Which website about handing the phone to chattering four-year-old twins.

No excuse for phoning me up to try to sell me something I can't afford, don't want, don't need, wouldn't buy over the phone anyway if the preceeding weren't true: dialling too many numbers and letting the call fail after I've answered it, when I'm on the TPS list anyway.

Rant over.

No excuse for abusing another human being. It is perfectly possible to express displeasure without verbally abusing/swearing at someone who is just trying to earn a living

Bike thieves are just trying to earn a living.