To be a bit rude to cold-callers?

[Vagabond]

I loathe being cold-called at home. You get up from your comfy position to be propositioned by a foreigner (who can barely speak English) who wants to offer you cash-back on PPI insurance. Drives me mad. I used to be polite. I'm now a demon. I demand to know where they got my number, I tell them they've woken my baby up with the call and I tell them to never, ever phone me again.

Hmmm, I suppose that's quite tame! What do you say?

BTW, even if you register with that hotline number to never get cold calls, it's entirely legal if they call you from foreign call centres. That must be why I get so many foreigners (or computerised messages) calling me at home. Drives me crazy!

Once I had the strangest cold call. A man said 'it's on our records that you have had an accident in the last three years and didn't complete your claim'

I said 'no I didn't'
He said 'yes it was a car accident'

I said 'It wasn't me love, sorry'

And he then got really irate with me and said 'how is this possible?!?! It's here on my records! How is this possible?!?!?'

He did sound genuinely upset.... If very unprofessional. I just hung up.

Do you think this was a scam or someone being given false records and told they are true?

We've had the Microsoft one, twice. The first time I just said 'I'm fine thanks', and hung up. The second time, I asked the guy exactly how stupid he thought I was, then told him to piss off, then hung up. I save my rage for the scammers.

I kept microsoft on the line for ages while I turned on the PC etc - then informed them I had a Mac ... went down well

I had a man ring up and demand to speak to a Mr 'X' - I told him there was no Mr 'x' here - he then demanded to know if I was Mrs X - I informed him I wasnt - he insisted I was so I hung up ...he called back and shouted at me for being a rude bitch!

My dh works from home and gets sick of them. He has been known to put the phone in the other room and not hang up. But I am also now going to use the password thing. Especially with those that appear at the front door

i pretend to be an even older lady...'hello love? what is it? let me get me glasses? now, what were you saying? oh, an claim? i thought you said 'me brain'. i'm a bit deaf without me glasses....' they ring off.

ooh, except for bt. i give them an earful because they should know my number is ex-directory as they are the service provider, yet they still think they can ring me with their 'offers'!

a foreigner (who can barely speak English)

Most of "them furriners" are better educated than you or I, and have a better grasp of grammar.

No need to ever be rude to anyone, although I did tell "Dave" the other day that I knew he was Davinder and I didn't appreciate being taken for a fool.

Have you ever tried engaging; name, company number, all details - then throw in the whammy that you're TPS and for them to cold call you id a 5K fine? I find that gets you removed pretty quickly from their records.

gordyslovesheep

microsoft cold call? that is a scam and should be reported to the police. They are after your CC details. They ask you to hit CTRL R and then they can access your PC down your phone line, install key loggers, the works. Its been around for ages. They use a mask for a Madras phone number so it comes up 01471 and you think its a northern UK call centre.

I had a cold caller this morning wanting to give me financial advice. When I told them that I do not take financial advice from cold callers, they told me that they weren't a cold caller.

It almost made me laugh, I then explained that whatever else they were as they were calling unsolicited and therefore by definition a cold caller, and as far as I knew they might have no qualifiations to advise me about anything. They hung up on me pretty quickly after that.

I used to hang up on them, but if I am not to busy it is more fun to get them to hang up on me.

I give the phone to mny 3yo DD - she loves to chat :o

It is just someone tring to do their job FFS My DD worked in a call centre, you would not BELIEVE how rude people were to her, shes only doing her job, for minimum wage, there aren't enough jobs around for her to think "well yeah, this is crap, i'll not do it" because she has bills to pay and rent to pay.

A polite no thankyou, or go ex directory and you wont be bothered, i never get cold called, is surely enough.

lovebunny being ex directory means just that, you are not in the telephone directory. Call bt, ask them to be removed from marketing lists and they will register you for tps with no consent for bt to call. Then they won't call.

It's hard to be polite when it's the umpty-ninth call that week, when you've got out the bath to pick it up thinking it was someone else, when you've said no thankyou for the same thing until you're blue in the face...It's harrassment

Just don't have a landline, tbh I am not sure why anyone does?

I mostly tell microsoft scam callers that I don't have a computer, they seem amazed that I'd don't! A friend plays with the survey type calls, when they ask what car he drives he says a porsche or something equally over the top and when asked about his income he says an outrageous figure plucked from thin air and the same if they
Ask how much his house is worth, 100.000 etc! He enjoys his little game!

I think it's fair to say "Oh do fuck off kindly"
After all they call my house, so it's my rules.
I do loathe the computerised ones though. No one to tell to piss off.

ex dir & tps red`d and still get calls grrrhhh

I have caller display, call screening and an answer machine. My family always text me before they ring.

If I'm in the mood I'll answer the phone to an 'International Call' and stick it in a drawer while they're rabbiting on.

I wouldn't blow a whistle.

I often just hand the phone over to one of the kids, there's nowt like random toddler chatter to make them hang-up. In fact the other day DS2 answered the phone and I heard him say "hello...my mummy?...no she's not here...she's in the toilet, having a poo...ok, bye". Bet they were thrilled to have taken that call .

Thankyou for the "what's the password?" line. Will definitely be using this.

It would be great on chuggers. Might scare them a bit,

I use to work in a call centre when I was 17, I thought it was hilarious, people would either swear, be VERY chatty or do similar stuff to the suggestions on this thread. A good few funny hours work after college often cheered me up after a bad day.

I got sacked for not 'pushing people' though.

I think yabu, they are just doing a job. Why not just say no thank you and hang up?

Dozy - I have had the car accident one. I have had a (quite bad) accident and the call actually upset me quite a bit. I denied the accident.

Lol there's going to be some confused PPI cold callers tomorrow when everyone they call asks them for the password! Dh works from home too and gets seriously fed up with them so he's definitely going to be trying that!