British Telecom - Their failure to deal with Nuisance Calls, Silent Calls, etc in a satisfactory manner. I am harassed on the phone daily by ONE specific company, several times per day.

[NotQuintAtAllOhNo]

I am sick to the back of my teeth with BT.

I have registered with the Telephone Preference service. Twice. It makes no difference. I have spoken to BT customer service many times.

Why can they not do anything? The calls are mostly from withheld numbers or from abroad.

If I block calls from all withheld numbers, this will also cause problems. Not only nuisance callers use withheld numbers these days.

My GPs surgery do their outgoing calls from a withheld number. This means, if I have spoken to the triage nurse in the morning, the surgery cant call me back.

The only other thing they can suggest is blocking ALL international calls. I cant do that. I am from overseas. This means my family cant get hold of me. Or worse, my fathers nurse! Or from my mums carehome!

And that is all the BT can suggest. Neither solution will work.

Every day I get between 2-4 calls asking for a Mrs McXYZ. Mostly the calls are from First Call in South Africa. I have asked BT to block calls from them. They cant. I have even given them the number they are calling from, yet, they cant block it. I can block it, if I pay an extra fee. So I upgraded my service, and I pay the extra monthly fee. The calls keep coming still, as this First Call, which is a South African based call center who is persistently doing nuisance calls on contract from UK clients, clearly ring from many different numbers, but now, instead of saying the number on my display so I can block it, it just says "International".

Mostly. they want me to do my PPI claims.

1. I am not Mrs McXYZ.
2. I dont have any business doing any PPI Claims.

I have tried reason with them. I have tried telling them that Mrs McXYZ has died/moved/never lived here, can they please update the record to reflect this.

I have tried to put the phone down next to my tv so they can listen to the news.

I have tried ranting and screaming telling them I will sue them for breaking international telephone regulations for harassing me, because numerous calls every day IS harassment.

I have tried talking goobledigook and sound like an utter loon, in the hope that they will just strike me off the list as a time waster.

I have tried politely telling them that I have already done my PPI claims, so they are wasting their time calling me.

I honestly dont know what to do.

We are spending a fortune on telephone bills, calling our family overseas. We have a high end BT broadband package. But I think we have no other option than ending our relationship with BT, getting A virgin or other broad band account, do skype calls and use our mobile phones. Because this is getting beyond ridiculous, and BT is less than helpful.

Any one else with similar experiences, and advice what to do?

Oh, and today I had a new one. Some bloke from the Iranian Community of London, calling every number in the phone book to inform about Iranian breaches of human rights.

A worthy cause I am sure, but our number is listed with the Telephone Preference Service, and should not receive such calls at all?? He was also asking for Mrs Mc XYZ.

Personally, I am ex directory, because I dont want anybody to find me!

did you read www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-20068927 this

he went to quite a bit of trouble, but did win,

I am sure it must be irritating but the fact that you are getting so wound up about it must be making you even more stressed, can't you just put the phone down when First Call ring - have you told them that you are registered with the TPS and that they are breaking the Law by calling you?

You could always ask BT to change your number. I had to do this once as I kept getting silent calls every day.

Could you change your number? I appreciate you shouldn't have to and if they are randomly calling numbers they might 'find' you again but it might give you a break from it all.

A hassle in itself I realise, but can't you just change your number? You will probably have to if you move to a different supplier anyway. Less hassle than getting multiple nuisance calls every day. Also what Ragwort said, at least to any UK callers anyway.

They are a terrible pain aren't they. I would go for blocking withheld numbers, any legitimate caller can "unblind" their number including hospital, GP etc.
I work in a hospital and we use 1470 before the number.

Ragwort, I have told them. They say it does not apply to them, as they are not in the UK, and the TPS cant do anything.

They are not even asking for me.

Of course I am wound up. I work from home. I need my phone. Would you not be wound up if you were getting up to 4 calls per day, from a company wanting you to claim back PPI, and each time you told them you are not the person they are asking for, the number is registered with TPS, and can they please stop calling. And then they call again a few hours later, EVERY DAY??

I am not Mrs Mc XYZ, by the way.

I have reported the number, and the company to both the TPS and the ICO.

But I see from the article below that they have only managed to deal with 19 cases in 5-6 years, what a joke!

TPS used to work but not any more.

I get more calls every day from PPI companies than I do from people that I know!

I only ever get recorded voices though, never real people?

I just either dont answer or hang up as soon as I know its them I dont even say hello.

If I change my number, how do I know that the NEW number wont be riddled with similar problems??

We kept getting nuisance calls from abroad (India I think) they would ring in the middle of the night, sometimes several times a night. We finally stopped the calls by telling the caller that the police were monitoring all calls.

Ragwort if the call is from overseas they aren't breaking the law as TPS only applies to calls within the UK.

NotQuint Can I suggest you get Skype to ring your family. Even if they don't have broadband it is still cheaper to ring a landline abroad with Skype.

The recorded voices dont wind me up the same way. I get 1-2 per day of those.

So, maximum in one day is 4 from PPI claims, 2 prerecorded messages, 1 or 2 silent calls per week.

Amber - I used to get lots of recorded PPI calls at work and was told that our super fancy held together with a rubber band phone system couldn't block them. Then someone told me that if you actually listen to the call there is usually an option to press 9 at the end to be removed from their system. I was skeptical but it has worked.

I discovered that I can add calls to a barred list on my house phone (one of those digital walk about ones from Panasonic) so I just bar the numbers as they ring. Any feature like that on your phone? It rings out their end, but the phone doesn't ring here

I've also barred any withheld numbers via BT. A few friends have withheld numbers but they just put in a code. I've never had problems hearing from the hospital or doctors surgery, they just use the code

BT can't do anything because the company isn't in the UK so hasn't signed up to the UK TPS scheme. In the same way as BT can't do anything about the 'computer virus scammer calls' because they are acting illegally and therefore don't care that they're breaking the law.

Changing your package won't help this, I'm afraid.

Changing your number probably will. At least for a while.

The best way to deal with this is to call screen I'm afraid - don't pick up unless you know the number, and check back the message if you don't know them. Don't engage, don't try to have a conversation - the person on the other end of the line doesn't care and the calls are dialled by computer - that's why you keep getting redialled.

I appreciate it's stressful, I really do - but BT really doesn't have any power to act here.

The TPS have no jurisdiction over calls originating from outwith the Uk, thats why so many of these companies use foreign call centres
Telling them you are registered with TPS doesnt bother them at all, sadly.

OP, I think changing your number may be the only option

Another thing to beware of is handing out your number to companies when getting deliveries etc etc
Always check which box to tick to say you dont want the number handed on to "similar" companies or "deals you may be interested in"
I have a cheap PAYG mobile phone which I now only use for Amazon, shopping deliveries etc etc. It can be switched off if too any PPI calls come in.
I have another mobile where only friends and family have the number
I do not give out my landline number unless its the doctors, family or trusted friends.

Its annoying that we have to take such precautions to stop annoying nuisance calls. I do wonder how many people sign up for PPI on cold call basis, must be enough to keep them doing it but I'm sure there are many people like me who take a note of the company name and vow NEVER to deal with them.

Can I suggest you get a lebara sim card? They are pretty cheap to ring abroad on. That would give your family a number to contact you on and free you from BT but I dont know how to stop all these other calls. Try CAB, see if your MP knows what to do, maybe even MEP?

It is a right old pain in the bum and I can empathise as in my last house I was getting maybe 4 calls a day. Nothing worked - telling them to f off, saying I'd call the police, telling them I knew they were scammers.

Eventually the landlady changed the phone number for other reasons and it was completely bliss. Silence. In the last year of living there there were no calls like this.

Yes, BT should be tackling this but realistically they won't. Pissed off on your behalf they won't block the number you're given them though unless you pay. That's not on. For me moment, for some peace and quiet change the number and hopefully you'll not be bothered. And if it starts happening again, leave BT.

I would block international calls FOR A WHILE, using Skype or whatever to ring your family, then unblock international calls in 3 months or so to see if the matter has been resolved. Making your number unobtainable for them may be the best way to get them to stop calling.

I sympathise, I'm getting endless spam texts from a PPI reclaim company. They actually rang the mobile last week and the bloke had the nerve to get very aggressive when I told him to get lost. Apparently he was 'trying to help me'. I rang and told them to take me off the database, but lo and behold there was another text yesterday.

I had a lot of overseas calls when we moved here. I was registered with the TPS but they said it doesn't apply to overseas callers.

So I got a new number. I never get sales calls on it at all. Still with the TPS I think (haven't updated for a couple of years) and ex directory, even though stupid BT put my old number and full name and address in the phone book, having been Ex-directory for many many years, they really are fuckwits imo.

They gave me yet another new number and compensation after that.

ps I don't know if it was because the previous tenants were from abroad, so clearly their number was out there, somehow - mind you, I get loads of spam texts on my mobile number, it used to belong to someone called Joseph, I know a lot about him now, more than I ever wished to!

Change your number and don't give it out when, say, buying stuff online.

Or change your provider - my phone is with Virgin and I don't get any cold calls.

Oh yes Eds, my old phone number was owned by an - ahem - player. Some very interesting texts there!

OP, if you do change your number make sure you do as rat says above, I have slipped up a couple of times recently and now am getting the PPI texts....

I am also completely Ex-directory.