to think that 'blasting' a whistle, down the phone, into the ear of someone in a call centre is abusive?

[twinklingfairy]

An old school friend has delightedly put this as her status. That her husband had the whistle ready and BLAST = call centre caller with tinitus, lol ??
How is that funny!?
My DH had someone scream into his ear, as a teenager, and has tinitus to this day. That's over 20yrs later!
I wrote a reply giving this story but omitting that it was my DH and was told to , calm down. She has been putting up with the abuse of the constant call for months etc. And that she had suffered it herself, after a rock concert.
hmm not quite the same, I think, as having a high pitch put straight into your ear that could abuse Long Term damage.
But it would seem I am a kill joy
DH says leave it, but I can't help feeling very angry on his behalf. Not to mention the poor soul, though I don't deny the calls are annoying, no one deserves abuse like that when it could cause lasting problems.

I would never do that. It's bang out of order.

But so is cold calling. It is unasked for, unwarranted, intrusive and bloody annoying, especially when they unerringly manage to call just as I have put the dinner on the table. I am TPS registered but still get calls. When I say I am TPS registered a new trick lately is to say something like "Oh, your TPS must have run out because you have to keep renewing it". That is a lie. The first time this happened I checked with TPS who confirmed it was a lie and said we can report to them any firm that tries that tack and they will follow it up. Which I now do. I also tell these firms that they are on a black list as I never buy anything firms who cold call.

One of the very cool parts of my job, was occasionally calling people to tell them we were in fact in possession of a lot of money belonging to them. Genuinely there's and no fees to us involved.

One of my staff had a whistle blown. I called the lady in question back, she did it to me. I persevered holding the phone away whilst my colleague was still crying. Before confirming it was who I was looking for so I could send her a letter if she wouldn't confirm DPA she demanded my details. I gave my full name and company address, she and a male then threatened to come and stab me and hopefully kill me.

We followed protocol and called the police. The police went the next day. Charges were pressed, two days later she called me having received the letter stating she was due £2500. She also got fined and a criminal record. She called us wanting her money and us not to continue the case as she was a nursery worker.

I realise it's frustrating. The woman's reasoning was she was ex directory so she thought anyone she didn't know calling her was breaking the law. But it is assault.

It's not subjective, it is intention to cause pain and discomfort to another human.

OK, listen up. I'm an ex call centre specialist.

No one needs to get cold calls. You simply register on the Telephone Preference Service (put it into Google) and you can list your home and mobile numbers. What it means is that all companies doing cold calling have to check all numbers against TPS on a monthly basis to weed out those that have removed themselves from receiving cold calls.

If they DO call you, they can be fined a considerable amount of money. Simply CALMLY tell them that you are on the Telephone Preference Service and they will end the call.

No need to blow a whistle - in fact, that is indeed assault.

Don't be sarcastic, leave the phone on the hook, or whatever silly tricks people try - they will simply diarise the call again.

However:

It takes about a month before the calls stop

Overseas call centres seem to get round this

Crappy fly-by-night companies sometimes bypass this check.

We screen all our calls via answerphone. Job done!

Although I don't condone what this person did, I can go part way to understanding the frustration. We were constantly plagued with cold calls from abroad (crackling phone line etc). Goodness knows what list we were on because we were on the TPS list.

It got to the point where the calls were coming several times a day, at any time of day or night, waking up DD (PFB!). I at one point lost it totally with a perfectly pleasant chap asking if I wanted to upgrade my mobile.

Personally, I think cold calling is like someone ringing your doorbell at all hours of the day. It can become really intrusive, so I can imagine why some people crack. (again, not saying I condone doing this)

"It's not subjective, it is intention to cause pain and discomfort to another human"

Whilst i don't agree with blowing whistle's down the phone, i have worked in call centre's, there should be a better system of stopping these, all together.

I am doing a lot of work from home and i am plagued with calls from oversea's companies, that i know are a scam, so these people are phoning me with the intent of misleading me and in some cases of committing an illegal act, there shouldbe new laws implemented to cover this.

I deal with very vulberable people, who are at risk of being taken in by these companies.

The trouble is, Celia - they will simply keep calling ad nauseam if you do that.

HoneyDragon that is awful. I hope you didn't drop the charges against them.

"We screen all our calls via answerphone"

The phone still rings though ,so if you are on nights, or working, you are still disturbed.

I had a cold call at 7.30am, it would be illegal to knock on my door to canvass at that time, so what is the difference?

I don't really have a lot of sympathy for call center staff. They CHOOSE to do that job. I get 6-7 calls a day for sales. I am registered with the TPS. I've tried saying no thank you, I've asked them to desist. I told one woman I was eating my dinner, and she simply said this won't take long and STILL launched into her sales spiel. It wouldn't be so bad if staff were taught or permitted to take no for an answer, and not continually repeat calling.

With my phone I can reject the calls. With the landline I have to either answer it or keep listening to it ringing until it goes to answerphone. I get sick of it. If I pick up and immediately drop it they STILL call back.

So, while I wouldn't go as far as a whistle, but after one company called me every day for a fortnight, I answered the phone and turned the he oover on. Unlikely to cause damage like a whistle, I shouldn't think, but they didn't call back again.

So put the phone down, Chops ?

People don't necessarily choose to do that job, many people do it because there are few jobs in their area or it fits in with studies.

I did put the phone down, every day for a week. I've tried picking it up and immediately putting it down, and they've called back 3-4 times immediately, because they then KNOW someone is there! I speak to them and politely tell them to stop calling, then a few months later, they start again.

I am registered with the TPS, it is a legal requirement that companies do not make such calls to numbers registered on the CTPS. But they still harass me!

So leave the phone off the hook if you're busy. Anyone who needs to get in touch will call your mobile.

It's really not that big a deal.

Why on earth should I have to leave my phone off the hook because unscrupulous companies are calling me illegally?!

Can I add I have no sympathy for call center staff if they do get abuse either. I don't think they themselves should take it personally, and they'd be fools to. They should know that the rage is directed at companies who think it's their right to disturb people in their homes uninvited. And unfortunately, that will affect the staff. Two wrongs don't make a right, of course, but to be fainthearted when you know that you are doing a job that upsets people is a little naive.

How I solved this (although I still get a few calls, but very few) was:

a) asked them to suppress my number from their database. Apparently, these are the precise words you should use - can't remember now exactly why.

b) asked the individual for their name and their company name and advise them I would be reporting them to the Direct Marketing Association, who manage TPS. The phone got put down presto pronto and the company never called again.

It used to be advice to blow a whistle down the phone to creepy callers - ie if someone was harassing you. In which case I think it's called self-defence.

But for call centres? I agree that is extremely aggressive - these people are just doing their job. If you don't want to receive the random calls then register with TPS - you don't get them. And if you do get the odd one, just put the phone down and go about your life if you don't want to deal with it. Or pass the phone to a small child .....

I am old enough to remember that keeping a whistle by your phone for unwanted phone calls was the done thing

I think phone sales are the height of rudeness as is anyone trying to sell something door to door. You take your chances as to what mood you find me in if you do either...

Yellow-You obviously don't have court papers to fill in at home, have to be contactable on both your mobile and landline, but have oversea's call center's call every 15 (literally) minutes and they don't always hang up so i have to wait for my phone to do so.

Or work occassional nights. It is an infringement of a Human Right, the amount some companies harrass you and for vulnerable people, it is a worry to have these calls.

The 'Support Me' calls have been proven to be a scam, why haven't they been stopped?

Tinitus can be horrific and people have committed suicide because of it. If anyone blew a whistle down the phone to me (I don't work in a call centre but you never know where you may end up working), I'd hunt the cunt down and do something far worse back.

I think we must be the exception - we've registered with TPS and have had only a handful of calls this year.
One was "We see from our records that you've had an accident this year"
Dh replied "Where are you getting your information from?"
Dial tone..............

If people are bothered by sales calls why do they not screen calls? I let every single call I have go onto answer phone before picking up - I am sure that's why we rarely get any sales calls, they just don't bother after trying a couple of times and you don't pick up.

YANBU

I think anyone who behaves so badly towards call centre staff needs to stop a minute and realise the caller is just one individual trying to do their job. I used to work at a market research call centre at weekends and some evenings when I was a student. Some people were really horrible and actually made me cry a couple of times at the beginning. I learned to just accept massive rudeness, shouting, swearing etc as normal but I would not be impressed if someone blew a whistle at me and caused actual ear damage.

Also, I got sick of people ranting on about telephone preference service etc and telling me I was breaking the law. I wasn't. I was at a well known research company which is exempted from TPS so that the samples are not skewed - it has to be a full cross section of people who are asked.

Yes it is annoying when you constantly get cold calls but I would never be rude to a caller unless they were really rude to me first!