..to think registering with Telephone Preference Service makes no difference

[bigbluebus]

We registered with TPS a number of years ago and for a while its seemed to have some effect. However, we recently seem to be being bombarded with unwanted phone calls from India. Posted a couple of weeks ago about the calls (scam) where the Indian chap with the english name trys to help you sort out a virus on your computer - the computer he knows nothing about.

Now I am being hassled by a company who claim to be offering grants for loft and cavity wall insulation. They rang at 7.30pm last night just as we sat down to eat dinner - it was 'Leo'. My husband told him we already had cavity wall insulation and sufficient loft insulation. Then this morning whilst I was out in garden pegging out washing, I had to race inside to answer the phone (DH & DS were out so thought I'd better get it in case it was them ringing) only to find it was now 'Mark' from the same organisation that rang last night asking the same questions. Told him in no uncertain terms that we did not need a grant as we already had sufficient insulation, as we had told his colleague last night & would he please remove our number from their dialling list. He continued to ask me questions about when I got my insulation & why I didn't need any more loft insulation. I just repeated - remove our number from your list - at which point the line went dead - which seems to be standard for these calls - never a polite ending for having interupted your day unecessarily!
Is there no way to stop these calls?

[TheBolter]

Kew - I almost never give my no. out in cas I have to and am officious in ensuring that I NEVER tick boxes for email or phone comms from anyone!

[Kewcumber]

I was extremely suspicious myself yesterday evening with teh man who phoned at 6.45 on a Friday evening claiming to be trying to make me an NHS appt with a consultant rheumatologist.

He was in fact trying to make me an NHS appt with a consultant rheumatologist.

[Kewcumber]

I only give my phone number if I am expecting a delivery (and then grudgingly) and even then carefully check all the permissions and T&C's

[paranoid worked in the industry with some very shady types emoticon]

[TheBolter]

unless, not in cas ()

[Anniegetyourgun]

But did you want one, Kewcumber?

[grouchyoscar]

I know what you're saying, it seems that some companies use old phone books and when you've had the same landline number for over 12 years a few are bound to slip through. It works in most cases and the number of unsolicited calls does reduce substantially.

I find it easier to say 'you are not supposed to contact me, remove my name from your lists'

[Kewcumber]

ha ha! Yes I did, it wasn;t a cold call for underemployed Rheumatologists! Was just slightly taken aback that having been referred last week I was called this week and appt in three weeks.

Haven't seen NHS be that efficient before.

[BelleDameSansMerci]

Most larger organisations use Proactive Contact systems (diallers) to place outbound calls. These are programmed with lists that, for cold calling, should be cross referenced with TPS lists. If the company is overseas they don't/won't do this as PigletJohn outlined above. If you are a customer who has given permission to receive calls, you'll still get them. Similarly, if you owe money they are allowed to call you within certain times of day at agreed repeat rates (can't remember what they are).

So, in short, TPS does work in the UK and companies will be fined if they're caught out.

[bigscarymum]

I had one phone me back three times to ask me to repeat what I has said. It was "f* off and stop bothering me"

[bigscarymum]

I also sometimes ask them for their home number so that I can ring them back at an inconvenient time

[Cereal]

I loathe 'Are you a homeowner?'

"It's none of your business".

[theginganinja]

We're on TPS (have been for years) and we still get cold calling occasionally.
One memorable one was from Barclays;
Him; We'd like to discuss life insurance with you
Me; No, I'm sorry, we don't take cold calls at this number AND we're registered with TPS.
Him; No, you're not
Me; Erm, yes I am.
Him; You're not
Me; Listen bollockface I fffing well am, now good day to you.
Had to then go online to make sure I am registered, tried to register and it tells me that my number is already registered. We still get calls from Barclays .

The 'your pc has a virus, you will have to let me have remote access and I will fix it for you' ones are known scams, they drop a virus on your hard disk remotely, so if you ever get one of these, put the phone down.

[Cereal]

The ones who phone up and then ask you some "security questions" are annoying too. You rang me, it should be me taking you through security!

[Cereal]

Occasionally if you say you're not interested some cold-callers ring you back, make some insulting comment and put the phone down. Then you dial 1471 to find that of course, the number was withheld.

[theginganinja]

I've never had one call me back straight away, maybe I'm 'proper' scary.

[knittynoodle]

I also had the same company call about loft insulation and I too am on TPS. I told him we live in a flat and he'd just woken my baby so he had better get the bleep off my bleeping phone before I find where the bleep he lives and bleep his bleeping bleep.

[oopslateagain]

I have Barclays ringing me every couple of weeks (we ARE with Barclays) and ask me security questions. I always refuse to answer, and they are always very confused as to exactly WHY I won't give out the last three letters of my mum's maiden name to a COMPLETE STRANGER WHO HAS JUST RANG ME.

FFS.

They are always polite though, and thank me for my time, so I end up feeling guilty for not talking to them...

[Jammyrella]

All I know is we used to get 2 or 3 cold calls a day before we registerd with TPS. No we get the occasional one, but we're talking 3 or 4 a year, so it really has made a huge difference.

[ProfessionallyOffendedGoblin]

With us it's the solar energy lot that won't take the hint. And random banking callers from the Indian sub-continent.

[LineRunner]

For a long time now I have had:

TPS registration
Caller display
Answerphone with call screening
BT's Choose To Refuse (call barring)

It helps.

I also have the 'Greet-only' option for when I want a day without people being able to leave any messages at all (because some people are fucking stupid and leave the same message about ten times on the same day).

Sometimes I just unplug the phone.

[PigletJohn]

If somebody calls claiming to be from e.g. Barclays or BT or a credit card company, you can say

"Yes, fine, of course we have to go through the security process first.

Now what are the first, fourth and last digits of my account number?"

[Anniegetyourgun]

That's a damn' good idea, PigletJohn. My callers eventually suggested I ring them on a number I knew really was theirs, eg the one printed on my card, which is another fairly safe option. (I didn't believe the first one who left me a number to call them back on.)

[Wormshuffler]

I never ever race to the phone anymore, the only people who ever ring our landline are mine or DH's parents, or cold callers. If I am in the middle of something I wouldn't want to speak to the parents at that time anyway, as we all usually have a long chat. Our phone stores all the missed calls so we can just call them back when we get a minute.
I had a call from Sainsburys energy the other day it went like this:-
Caller- Hello this is * from Sainsburys energy, we are doing a new service we would like to tell you about.
Me- (very politely) Oh no thank you , I am on the TPS and don't do business over the telephone.
Caller- Well you must have been a customer of british gas's at some point so as we are now joined forces we are able to call you.
Me- But I don't want to talk to you
Caller- but were you an ex british gas customer
Me- Yes but 7 years ago
Caller- But at some point in the past you must have said it was ok to call you.
Me (now shouting) Well now I'm telling you it's not ok.
Caller- but you are on the list
Me-hang up!
Honestly he was arguing with me about how I should have to talk to him!

[gillybean2]

I too have been registered with TPS for years and have had no cold calls for a very long time. But they have started up again recently.

I always google the number and it turned out the company calling me (saying they were calling on behalf of bt?!) are actually given my number by... BT!

Because they have my number as a customer they are allowed to pass it on to companys acting on their behalf!

Apparently you have to register with BT to say you don't want cold calls as well as be registered with TPS. The BT one expires after 12 months (they didn't tell me that, an internet research revealed it).

So BT can still contact you and give your number to companies on their behalf even if you are TPS registered...
THEY NEED TO CHANGE THAT - I can't imagine they get many sales from people who are TPS registered who by virtue of that aren't going to buy anything from a cold call...

The BT guy on the phone kept telling me I was placing an order. I told him I was NOT placing an order for an amendment to my account I was simply telling them to stop cold calling me and to stop getting companies to cold call me on their behalf!

I got a cold call the next morning from the same company and rang BT AGAIN about to move my account. A very helpful chap this time who apologised the last person hadn't processed my request correctly and hadn't blocked the cold calls [grr]. Since then I haven't had any cold calls. Which to me proves that it was only BT related calls I was actually getting!

However I did get a piee of paper advising me of my 'order' and that I would be charged for the service of being added to TPS and for being able to view who was calling me.
I told BT again that was not acceptable. Why should i have to PAY for them to not call me and I don't have a phone which shows callers numbers so that was of no use to me either.

They apologised and said the charge thing was an error. We shall see when I get my next bill. Any further fuckups problems and I WILL be moving my business elsewhere!

[scarletfingernail]

We registered with TPS a couple of years ago and have had a drastic decrease in cold call since.

The most annoying this now is that someone gives out our phone number as his when he doesn't want to be contacted and there's nothing TPS can do about that. So a few times a week I get a phone call from various companies asking to speak to the same person every time "Simon Walker". Drives me bloody mad. Surely if you're going to give out a fake phone number you'd make up a different one every time

We do however still receive phone calls about loft insulation. I just say "I'm not interested, thank you, good bye" and hang up before getting into any conversation.