AIBU to be rude to cold callers?

[Yambabe]

Seen a few topics on the subject of people being telephoned for various scams, selling purposes etc recently, and I am amazed at how many people engage with the caller. I assume this is mostly because of good old good manners?

My phone is registered with the TPS but I still get cold calls (I think the foreign ones aren't subject to the regulations and some UK companies know that they can be hard to trace so just don't care) so to me they are fair game. I am perfectly happy to cut them off, speak sharply to them (although I never swear) or sometimes if I'm bored string them along for a bit for comedy value.

DH is even worse than me.

My Dsis works in a call centre (although it's for one of the big energy providers so she doesn't cold-call) and says I should have some sympathy for the people making the calls, they are just trying to make a living. I kind of get this but my perspective is I have opted out of having to deal with them and if they persist in still calling me despite this they certainly don't deserve my respect or any more of my time than I care to allow them.

AIBU to not care about the person, just get rid of the call?

I say YABU

It's quite simple. When you pick up, if there's a second gap before anyone speaks: hang up.
If they do catch me, I simply say clearly - I'm not interested. Thanks. Bye.
These poor people must get loads of abuse. It's a miserable job. I do not want to add to their misery.

I engage with them, but normally turn it around, I can save you money, I say no actually I can save you money, who is your internet with, then I mirror questions, or randomly ask what the weather is like, what are their plans for the weekend, then I might go into my education history, to show them how I can save them money with sound financial information, they usually hang up on me. I am with TPS but the overseas calls still come in, stopped a lot now though !!

It's hard, but don't take it out on the caller. They're doing a job they probably don't want to. To be curt and cut them of is fine. But don't add to their crap.

Need to clarify something here: I have worked in a call centre when going through uni. The big trap people fall into is thinking that they need to say 'remove me from your database' and that is it done. Not the case. I worked for Ipsos Mori (not the worst of them tbf) and the rules there were if someone got aggressive, nasty and said something along the lines of 'don't call back' and then hung up, then they would be coded as a 'hard refusal' (meaning they may end up having their number come up again in the future). If you want to make sure your number is removed from these places, your best bet is to state 'I would like to have my number removed from your list'. Any decently run company would take that seriously and normally you would be transferred to a supervisor so they can make sure they have your details right and confirm that you wish to be taken off the company system.

I bloody hate cold calls, and I have also worked in a call centre (many years ago). My phone number is also registered with the TPS and I still get calls - as far as I'm concerned, if they call TPS registered numbers, they are dodgy... I do feel sorry for some of the workers because I know what a horrible job they have, probably commission only and under horrible pressure. So I try to be humourous (SP) and maybe wind them up. One guy thanked me for making his night! Trouble is, if you are rude to them, they may put you on their RTH list (ring to harass!) .One company I worked with was extremely keen on this - fake baked beans surveys, evolving into questions regarding flatulence... Glad we now have the ability to block numbers!

Just a moment, the kettle is coming to the boil, hang on.

Thirty seconds

Hello, I have just rung my office on my mobile, I work for the International Fraud Investigation Division of OFTEL, we can ahve any call from nay number traced in sixty seconds and the callers phoned in ninety seconds, anywhere in the world, are you sure you want to talk to me?

if they persist

Referee's whistle down the phone.

Before I tell you my ploy, please, please, please do not blow whistles down the phone or any other loud noises, this can and does cause acoustic shock, which can cause deafness and tinnitus.
In this country call centres a few have acoustic dampeners but abroad they may not.
I listen to Radio 4 extra I just say hello put onto speaker and leave by the radio they tend to think that some conversation is happening and hang on a bit. I usually get about 3 calls before they give up haven't had a call in weeks now.

I say "No thank you!" and bang the phone down. Same as when people knock at my door with surveys. I'm polite but firm and don't give them time to reply.

DH was when he first saw me do it as he would stand and listen and then apologise and explain why he wasn't interested.

God half of them have buggered off from boredom by the time he's finished!

YABU

No one does that job if they really dont have to. "No thank you, I am hanging up now" is enough.

They are people too. They have bills to pay and kids to feed and they know that 99% of the calls they make will garner nothing, but they do it because they have no choice.

Oh and the reason that they try to continue to engage you when you have said that you are not interested is because if they dont get enough hot leads from their cold calls then they will get sacked, with no notice.

Walk a mile in someone elses shoes before you judge them.

www.tpsonline.org.uk/tps/mobile/index.html

what is TPS that people are registered with?

Telephone Preference Service. It means that you opt out of UK based marketing calls. List brokers/managers (people who sell lists of numbers/addresses/emails gathered from such as Bounty) "clean" their lists regularly so that TPS numbers do not appear, but direct marketing companies have got wise and thats why most DM calls come from outside the UK and EU as the TPS rules dont apply there because they are not enforceable.

Blowing a whistle down the phone causes actual, physical pain. Would you punch them in the face?
As others have said, people who work in call centres have families to feed and rent to pay and bosses breathing down their necks because they aren't hitting targets. It's a grim job, they have enough to deal with.

Do not whistle down the phone, you could seriously injured someone, that's fucking disgraceful. This is a human being doing their job trying to feed and clothe themselves. Just politely ask to be removed from their list - keep repeating it until they confirm they'll remove you. Don't be harsh, but don't engage if you don't want to.

Injure*

Don't be rude, they are people too. However there is no law that says that you either have to answer a call or open the door so don't. Genuine callers will call back or leave a message.

Yes, the people working for calling companies who ignore TPS rules are human beings, but they are also committing an offence. One of the last times I said to a caller that he was committing an offence, he replied ' And I am coming to kill you'. I am 100% not making this up. I reported this to BT but they did not care. Instead, they tried to sell me a phone that will only answer named numbers. But that's no good to me. I have a very elderly mother; in the past 2 years she has been taken to different hospitals; she has several caring friends and a 'panic button' call service; also, the people in the place where she lives have many different land-line and mobile phone numbers. Any one of these kind and caring people - from a hospital sister on a ward mobile phone onwards - can and have - phone(d) me to report my mother's condition and ask me to help. So I need my phone to be able to accept calls from unknown numbers.

At a human level, of course I am sorry for call centre workers. But if anyone else worked for a company breaking the law - selling dodgy goods, for example - would we be so sympathetic? If so, why?

Genuine cold callers I simply tell them I am registered with TPS and kindly take me off their database. If they say that I need to re-register with TPS I tell them that is not true and please don't treat me as if I came down with the last shower.

If they are scammers e.g. the Microsoft/Windows scammers I am ruthless because they are crooks. I tell them to get an honest job before they end up in jail. Funnily enough I had a Windows scammer this morning. I raced downstairs to take the call as I was expect news about an ill relative only to find it was a woman with an Indian accent who said her name was Jennifer! I told her that if she was going to call herself Jennifer she had better improve her English, because I don't know too many Jennifers who speak with such a lousy accent, but better still bugger off.

but they are also committing an offence

Not necessarily. If the call doesnt originate within the UK then they are not committing an offence, which is why so many companies who use direct marketing calls are now outsourcing them to non UK (and often non EU) call centres. Party because they are cheaper but also because they can totally disregard the UK laws.

At a human level, of course I am sorry for call centre workers. But if anyone else worked for a company breaking the law - selling dodgy goods, for example - would we be so sympathetic? If so, why?

I would be yes on the basis that I very much doubt anyone would knowingly work for such a company unless they absolutely had to.

it was a woman with an Indian accent who said her name was Jennifer! I told her that if she was going to call herself Jennifer she had better improve her English, because I don't know too many Jennifers who speak with such a lousy accent, but better still bugger off.

Being pissed off with scammers gives you the right to be racist does it? Well you learn something new everyday......

Bogey - cold callers from overseas are doing so in order to escape the explicit intention of the UK law. That absolutely does not excuse it. Are you really suggesting that because someone lives in another country, being fraudulent or intimidatory is not a crime for them? That is surely discriminatory, in that it implies that people overseas are not able to make a valid moral choice between being honest and dishonest.

If someone became a professional shoplifter, for example, 'having to do it' would not be a valid excuse. Even worse, those cold callers who exploit uneducated/unaware/simply stupid people, or who are just a nuisance, present a real, practical danger. One of these days, a fragile older person like my Mother will trip and fall and die in their hurry to answer a pointless phone call. People like them belong to a generation when phone calls were important, and could not be ignored. However much I, and other people caring for older friends and relatives, tell them to 'just let the phone ring', they find it difficult to do so.

I am not racist by objecting to the fact that people - from whatever country - who have an intent to defraud are phoning me at home. Do you even know which ethnic group I belong to?

The racist comment wasnt aimed at you.

And yes I do feel sympathy for the workers. The people you should be directing your anger at are the people who own the company they work for, or the UK companies that outsource their DM to avoid the rules, not the poor bugger on the end of the phone, who lets face it is unlikely to know the ins and out of the TPS rules if they are not from the UK.

The fact is that (scammers apart) these companies are not breaking the law. Calling you from India to try and sell you PPI claim services is not illegal whether you are registered with TPS or not.