Cold Callers

[TheDoctor]

WRT cold-callers, I suppose you could say that these are people prepared to take a job, probably one they hate, rather than sit watching day-time TV on JSA or whatever.

Depends.
The PC virus scammers are crooks and con artists, and deserve every bit of abuse they get.

 

[Davidc]

TPS gets rid of most of them, but foreign centres get round that, and some just ignore it. I'm usually po;ite but short unless it's a scam (like the windows one) when I'm deliberately nasty.

On the mobile (Android) I use the facility to bar numbers once I've identified them the first time. Unfortunately iphones don't have this which leaves my wife's present phone vulnerable. Her (ex) school headteacher voice seems to get shot of them quickly though.

Junk mail gets a different approach. I print slips using old paper with rubbish on one side, and they say "You sent an unsolicited and unwanted communication to me at - address. Please do not do so again" one goes in each reply paid envelope so the company (as said above in another post) ends up subsidising the Royal Mail. Worryingly some companies seem to take note!

 

[DaveReading]

With a little effort and ingenuity, it's possible to keep the Indian virus scammers on the line for up to an hour without them twigging they're being wound up.

Apart from being immensely satisfying in its own right, it's also gratifying to know that while they're talking to you they can't be scamming anyone else (like, sadly, my Dad a couple of months ago).

 

[asterix]

Depends.
The PC virus scammers are crooks and con artists, and deserve every bit of abuse they get.

Agree it is fair enough to give the scammers a hard time as opposed to the genuine sellers. As for junk mail, the worst offenders are particularly anti-social organisations that feed on the vulnerable and credulous and take their money off them in exchange for trash, illusions and false promises. Unfortunately it is solicited and the mail services themselves make money from it.

I had the task of clearing a flat that was owned by someone who had become addicted to the stuff and never threw any of it away. Every shelf and cupboard had been filled with it, it was in every available space and the most of the floor was covered in it. The victim died penniless having spent all she had feeding these scams.

 

[Salad Dodger]

Some years ago, we moved into a house which had been fully renovated just a couple of years before.

Soon after moving in, I came home after a long day's work and whas about 3 mouthfulls into my dinner when the phone rang.

Him: "Hello I am from ----- Windows. We have a team in your area and would like to quote to supply you with new double glazed windows and doors"

Me: "No thanks. If you had bothered to look at the house before calling, you would have seen that we have new double glazing throughout the house already"

Him: "But are you satisfied with it?"

Me: "Well I suppose we could just rip it all out and start again at exorbitant expense, but I don't want to. Thank you.

He rang off......

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An ex-colleague at work used to tell cold callers that it was nice of them to ring, and she would be grateful for any special offers, as she found it more difficult to get bank loans for building improvements now that she had been made bankrupt. (Which she hadn't, but it got rid of them.....)

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Finally, a colleague was plagued by calls from a particular company, offering conservatories. After about the 6th call he agreed for the salesman to come round. It was only when the guy arrived that it became clear that my colleague lived on the 12th floor of a tower block, so installing a conservatory would be challenging, to say the least..... but at least he stopped getting calls from them after that!

 

[TheDoctor]

I occasionally try selling them stuff.
It's amazing how few window sales staff want a second-hand fridge...

 

[Lullabelle]

A few years ago we had a new front door put in and the fitter, nice guy, told us that he had a rival seller turn up at his door and asked him if he was interested in new windows, he scurried off shame faced when the home owner pointed to the big company owed van sitting on the driveway.

 

[Black Sheep]

I have done this for years.
I do it every Friday. I line up all the junk mail & envelopes, move the envelopes one to the left and then stuff them with someone elses junk. Cheers me up no end after a hard day. My Mother used to do it when I was younger and I thought that it was a right giggle. Dad thought that it was rude - no sense of humour.

You can go one better,

provided it's not breaching any rules about what they can and can't deliver Royal Mail MUST take anything that is addressed correctly and has the relevent postage paid.

If I ever get a return envelope from Eon they're getting a car tyre gaffa taped to it.
They skanked me for £200 for a service charge on a gas suply that they'd cut off due to the previous tennant and not re-instated despite me informing them of it every month.

 

[Saluki]

Hubby has sellotaped the pre-paid envelope to the occasional brick when nPower were irritating him greatly.

 

[deptfordmarmoset]

I was round at my mother's a couple of days ago and I answered the phone as she was out. It was Justin, an Indian who claimed to be in Dorset. Worse, though, he also claimed to be calling from TPS itself about the high number of cold calls in the area. I'd guess he would have tried to pass off a fee-paying super effective ''executive'' version of TPS, and thereby get bank account details.

Anyhow, cold calls about cold calls from the service set up to prevent cold calls, I really don't think so.

 

[RWright]

If they are first time calling me I cut them short and say take me off your call list. I have one robocaller that has been calling me several times lately. I started pressing one to get to a live person. I start talking very softly, below whisper level, when they say I can barely hear you, I then start screaming the loudest most vulgar and obscene threatening barrage imaginable. I am very abusive to say the least. They always end up hanging up on me. I just hope my neighbors aren't walking down the street in front of my house. It sounds like I am getting ready to kill someone.

 

[Fnaar]

We all agreed at work recently, that we'd rather do that job that involves scraping congealed fat of the inside of sewers, than do cold calling work.

My grandad used to do that!

 

[Plax]

I've always been told that when the phone rings it is a request and not a demand. So I never pick my house phone up. I am ex directory and registered with TPS so cold calls are at a minimum. Those I do get tend to call when I am at work so maybe I'm just lucky!

 

[asterix]

I never answer my phone either. I have had so many cold calls that make me descend from a ladder or the like I have given up. If anyone wants to contact me by phone they have to make an appointment (or I may just give them my mobile number).

 

[glasgowcyclist]

My landline and mobile are registered with TPS and that seems to keep away most unwanted calls. It takes a good few weeks to kick in though.

The best thing I've seen for landlines is TrueCall, although too expensive for me at @£100.

I never give out my true mobile number to business or websites etc, instead I give them my YAC Personal number. This is free for me, lets me redirect to other mobiles or landlines, and gives me free voice message to email notifications. If I do get a cold call on that number I'm happy to keep them talking in the knowledge that it's racking up a charge to them of 60p per minute.

GC