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!

The problem I have isn't the sort of caller whose company is covered by the TPS; it's the companies I already have a "relationship" with: credit card, phone/broadband, charitites I already support, etc. It's frustrating, as I think at first it might be a genuine matter, and it's harder to get them off the phone afterwards, since I've already been accommodating. Moreover, it seems they can't be told to stop calling, as there is that "relationship" which in law means they aren't exactly cold callers.

I was a cold-caller as a student, doing pointless consumer surveys. It was the only job going, I hated it and it was probably the worst job there was for a shy person. However, it meant I wasn't signing on and had a pittance wage.
We were only allowed to read from a script, but most of us got away from that pretty quickly. Some people really seemed to get off on abusing us - I went home in tears a lot - and some were really funny, like the one where I abandoned the questionnaire but spent an enjoyable ten minutes talking about whether Northanger Abbey could really be described as a 'gothic' novel.

I just say "I'm afraid I'm really not interested: could you put me down as a refusal please?" and hang up. If they call back, I say "I spoke to your company before and asked that I was put down as a refusal, please do so again."
Random toddler speak is OK but threats are never OK in my book -not a nice thing to do to an 18 year old on minimum wage

I wonder if people who think it's ok to be rude to cold callers are also similarly rude to people who approach them in the street. Or whether they just do it because they can't be seen, like people who are vile on the Internet.

I work in telesales. I hate bothering people but it's my job. I would never ignore someone who told me they weren't interested. I always make notes to say don't call back husband just died or whatever. I also won't call anybody i know is TPS or anyone that has been contacted in the last 6 months. Nobody is ever rude to me, some people hang up but i don't take it the wrong way i just move on. It's not easy but every so often it works and someone is really happy i have called as they have been thinking about what im ringing them for.

I'm nice to both people who call, and people who approach me in the street - at first. When I say no, I mean no. I won't be polite if you keep pestering me. When I worked in telesales, if people said no, I apologised and hung up which is why I only earned £52 for 40 hours of work

If you are waiting for another call they are especially annoying. When pregnant I was often waiting for call backs from GP or hospital and they always had private numbers - so I would always answer. If you missed the call or let it go to answerphone no guarantee you'd get the doc back again.
If someone phones me from work it's also a private number.

The telephone preference servicestopped cold callers for me. Google it, take 2 minutes to register, job done.

It is very easy to say 'I'm not interested' and put the phone down.

I absolutely love the "do you have the password".... tehee...brilliant...........!

To OP, the reference to foreigners with barely a grasp of the english language, I think was unecessary, surely no matter what type of cold caller they are they are always annoying....
I do chuckle though when they are all called Peter, Paul, Michael or whatever, when clearly this is highly unlikely....

Personally I tend to be polite enough and just say no thank you I am not interested.... if they than keep on at me I do hang up though....

Must say the cold calls that in a way irritate me the most are those computer generated ones.... albeit, much easier to simply hang up of course :)

Now my hubby is scary with cold-callers.... he starts going on about unsolicitated calls and asks to speak to their supervisors etc. ....they either hang up or swear at him, lol

TPS only stopped coldcallers for about a week. I always start by being polite, but if they start being abusive... one man rang me, I could barely hear him, I asked him to repeat what he had said and he came out with a tirade of vile abuse. Another woman rang I told her I wasn't interested, and she rang me back FFS. I am polite to people who knock, or come up to me in the street, but when I've used TPS, been polite, said no thank you and they are still abusive then I feel I can say WTF I like

I have TPS and am ex directory, and still get calls as we changed nos about a year ago for personal reasons. And we get calls for the previous person who had the tel no. I politely tell them they have the wrong now and I am whoever they are looking for, so they decide to sell their crap to me. If they harp on, I reserve the right to be as rude as like. They have disturbed my family life/sleep/fave TV programme etc so tough.

not who they are looking for-duh :o

My mum used to say "You've called at a really bad time" in her most depressed voice. Worked every time!

I just put the phone down or say I'm not interested. Only get them occasionally though. Being abusive is a bit unnecessary, unless it's a company that has persisted in calling you despite being asked not to.

It isn't scary to be told about undoilicited phone calls, sueing etc. companies know if they are breaking the law or not. Usually not.
On the phones most uk companies use there is a block that means they physically can't call people who have TPS. So if they get through then ya don't have TPS.

Noblegiraffe -

I treat cold callers, chuggers and door knockers all the same and couldn't care less if it's "rude".

Telephoning someone and pretending you know they had an accident/ loan problem/ possibility of ppi claim is rude. In fact it is fraud. I've never had an accident or a loan in my life so they certainly don't have "records that show" that I have and I will tell them so. When the same company ring again and again after I politely asked them to remove me from their call list I have every right to be rude to them as they are taking up my time with their fraudulent claims.

I have a sign on my door that says
NO UNIVITED TRADERS,
We won't buy from you &
We don't need your advice.
PLEASE DON'T KNOCK JUST LEAVE
AND DON'T RETURN
Failure to do so is a criminal offence
If anybody ignores the sign then I do open the door and say "Can't you read?"
If Jehova's knock I say I like to celebrate with cake and donate my blood to vampires.
If charities knock I tell them I don't donate at the door to strangers.

I politely tell chuggers no in the street unless they start to come towards me and them I remind them of the 4step rule - they can take no more than 4 steps towards you

Why on earth should anyone be polite to fraudulent phone calls or Cold callers breaking the law?

www.moneysavingexpert.com/phones/no-more-junk

Glass you sound like a barrell of laughs.
How do you know which ones are doing things that are illegal and which ones arnt?

I've never had a loan so I'm not owed PPI, I've never had a car crash so I'm not entitled to a claim... calling somebody and claiming you have it on record that they have had the above is Fraud. Continuing to bombard somebody who has asked you take them off their call list is harassment.

Trading Standards says ignoring a sign on a door saying no cold callers is a criminal offence...

Oh yes right barrel of laughs, everybody enjoys being harassed by people doing their "jobs"

"jobs"?

like it's not a job? Eh?

I am extremely polite to almost everyone.
But the people on here who have never experienced a rude or pushy cold caller or a rude or pushy chugger are quite lucky.

I get cold called a lot. Irritatingly and in particular a charity i donate too seems to have sold passed my details on. Also aol call me every day for about three weeks. I repeatedly asked them to stop calling to no avail and several of them were bloody rude. I was also told I was selfish by a chugger and while most are polite I get stopped all the bloody time because I live near a busy town centre which gets frustrating when you have just nipped out to get some milk.

The 'if cold callers are rude to you the you have probably asked for it' line up thread is total bollocks.
I get that people are just doing their job but when they phone your home unsolicited and are then rude I think they have more than asked for rudeness in return

Actually bumble, I don't consider it to be a job.

I used to get this every night. Someone would call from a foreign call centre and ask for Mrs Grant (not my name). This went on for months, every day.

Eventually I handed the phone to my seven year old son who talked at the man on the phone about dinosaurs, for ages. Eventually the man must have hung up. I do this every time they ring and they haven't rang for over a week now.

I have never had a cold caller be rude, just persistent but that's their job.

Ruby, was the company you worked for *K#t#h#n's D##e#t? They rang me every day for weeks before I went on the TPS. I kept demanding to be taken off the call list, but to no avail, so I started hanging up in the end. One or two of the male callers there were very unpleasant indeed.

I do find saying 'I don't take cold calls' or (if it is a company you do use), 'I don't ever deal with these things by 'phone, but you can write to me' usually works.

For PPI and accident claims, I just tell them I'm a barrister and if I need to make a claim I'll represent myself.

For the scammers, I pretend I'm a lawyer with the CPS and start asking for their names and company details. Works every time.