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.

YABU.

This thing about causing tinittus in the hearer is total nonsense.

I do screen calls, but I do get sick of hearing the phone ring, or constantly getting up to see it is yet another sales call.

I wish there was a reject button on a landline, like on a mobile. On my mobile, I have a contact labelled 'Block' with 50+ different numbers saved to it that I know not to bother answering. I can block calls on the landline, but not when they are international, or witheld numbers.

I have tinitus and while loud noises aggravate it I doubt very much a one off scream would cause it

The noise can only be as loud as the phone's speaker at the far end.

IYSWM.

The full volume of the whistle (or whatever) is not what comes out of the phone at the far end.

call centre operatives are 'just doing their job' but that's what the bastard companies rely on... and they NEVER give you a chance to say 'no thank you' at least not in the first few minutes because they spend the first few minutes pretending they are not selling you something when they always are.
i am now in a situation where despite being on the TPS (what a load of bollocks that is) i cannot actually answer my landline phone as it's a cold caller 90% of the time. i have just started working from home and cannot risk giving business contacts the landline number because if i did i'd have to answer it and deal with all the call centres

People who are doing legal, if unbelievably annoying, jobs, deserve a polite "no thank you".
People who are attempting to rob you, like the guys from
"Microsoft" deserve everything they get. I personally might draw the line at assault, but have been known to ask whether their mother knows what they're doing for a living, and if she's proud of them.

If they drew breath long enough for people to actually say 'no thank you' it might be easier.

It's a shocking thing to do, but I can completely understand how the constant calling drives you batty. I've just taken to telling them I'm dead.

QueenElizaBeatHer lol, I told one that dh had gone to live in a monastery in outer mongolia

solar panel companies, just tell them you live in a HA house, they drop the phone

That could, work QueenEliza!

bit of rogue comma there, for some reason.

Why do you need them to stop talking/to say no thank you? You can just hang up you know, you don't have to say anything to them at all.

Because half the time, they then call straight back!

Yanbu, it's a horrible thing to do and there can be no defence.

funkybuddah - people are saying 'don't be rude to them', imo putting the phone down is rude... imo they set up the "script" with no closed questions and no room to say 'no' so that you can't be anything but rude.

Obviously lots of people are saying that this is a dreadful thing to do to people who are just doing their (very annoying) jobs, and actually a criminal offence, and I agree.

Would you be ok doing it to people who are actual thieves? Where do we stand on that?
Of course the problem is that every now and then people do ring up like the PP to offer "too good to be true" deals that sound like scams but aren't. And some callers (like the PPI, and the mobile phone companies) tread a fine line between legal and fraudulent.
But the "Microsoft" people who are 100%, no shadow of a doubt, in the act of attempting a crime against you personally (which the UK police have a negligible chance of prosecuting them for). Would you go as far as assault?

For those of you who don't think blowing a whistle down the phone causes damage to the ear/hearing can you please pop along to my Doctors and the ENT department at my local hospital and let them know as they are obviously wrong and you are right.

My ear damage must have just been a total coincidence, silly me!

I have many, many years of experience of working on the phones. Some in cold calling but most on helplines etc and I cannot begin to tell you how disgusting some people are, the rudeness, nastiness and down right aggressiveness of people.

I have dealt with everything from death threats to suicidal callers and will never be shocked by what some people feel is acceptable behaviour.

my mum had a caller 2 weeks ago that she very politely told that she wasn't interested in answering his questions. He replied that she might as well answer them as he would be ringing back until she did!
He then rang back about 5 times to which she got progressively less polite each time. I picked up the last call and was very abusive down the phone laying it on heavy about elderly mother having to get up and answer phone blah blah blah and that there was no way we would answer any of his questions ever. After that I did suggest if he rang again that she should whistle down the phone but luckily that was the last call. I think that would have been fair enough as he was harassing my mum. but I would not suggest whistling down the phone normally and certainly haven't ever done it but I have putt he phone on people before mainly because they won't let you ask a question. I normally ask what company they are calling from and if they don't answer me because they are following their script, I put the phone down.

We are registered with TPs and still get at least half a dozen cold calls a day.Nobody with any sense of decency would work as a cold caller.

If you know it's "them", why on earth do you answer the phone? :S

Not everyone has caller display

No, but if someone says "I'm going to keep calling you until... " - it doesn't take a genius to join the dots.

1. I rarely answer the phone.
2. Unlike a vast majority on mn, I don't campaign to abuse minimum wage employees or get them fired.

To all the people saying call centre staff deserve abuse because they choose to work there in the first place -

There's not always much choice. An article I read in a local paper last year said that about 1 in 20 people in my region work in call centres. We had the highest unemployment rate in England between Jan and March this year, and unemployment is likely to rise as the public sector starts to cut jobs, given that they're one of the biggest employers round here.

Realistically, a lot of these call centre staff have a choice between staying at the call centre and going on the dole.

I registered with TPS due to a spate of cold calls. I have had none in over a year since doing it. Handful of texts to my mobile since then too. Same with anyone else I know who has done it. I don't believe people are still getting called night and day have really registered with them.