To be hacked off with nuisance phone calls from international callers and even more hacked off with EON, Sky and all the companies that they claim to be surveying on behalf of?

[WetAugust]

I get about 5 nuisance phone calls a week. Sometimes several during a single day. The organisation maling the calls is 'Bristish Consumers'.

They are usually from Asian callers who introduce themselbes as 'John Smith' and state they are not trying to sell me anything - just want me to take part in a 'survey'.

This survey wants a whole load of personal data which I refuse to give and also asks if I'm with Sky, Bt, EOn, have paid mortgage protection payments etc - all of which I give ridiculous answers to.

The last one said he was collecting information on behalf of his partner - EON.

It's obvious that they are collecting data so they can pass on to these organistaions so they in turn can ring you about changing power supply company etc.

I joined the TPS years ago to prevent these sorts of calls. My number has also been ex-directory since I got it in 1991.

I rang BT to complain. They told me to complain to the TPS. The TPS tells me to complain to my phone provider - BT. BT tells me there is absolutely nothing they can do to stop these nuisnace calls and invited me to buy a product called Truecall which will block these calls - at a cost of £100!!

So, if TPS can't stop them, going ex-directory doesn't stop them and BT can't stop them I am now going to boycott all these companies such as EON on whose behalf these nuisance callers claim to be working.

Anyone feeling like this too?

I am actually thinking about getting rid of our landline because of these unwanted calls. Most people who know us well contact us via our mobiles, texts, e-mail, Facebook or Skype.

Even when we say that we are listed with the TPS, these sales callers will say, "Oh? You are not on our list!" Well, we've been with TPS for years and we were still on the list last week when we checked. Some will still persist even when we point out their company could be fined.

We are also getting more calls from call centre where you no-one replies when I say "hello", but I can hear (Asian) voices in the background.

I've done two things to combat the problem. 1. A Siemens 'Gigaset' phone that can be set to not ring when calls come in from unidentified sources. 2. Ignore any calls that come up in caller display as 'unavailable international' or 'withheld'. If anyone I know is calling from overseas they can leave a message.