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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

Cold Calling on a Bank Holiday

29 replies

zeezeek · 06/04/2015 13:48

Have just had one! I know I was unreasonable and rude, but called the guy a wanker and told him to not call again. It's a bank holiday FFS. Are we not allowed any time without interruptions from people trying to sell us stuff?

OP posts:

Missymum6 · 06/04/2015 13:51

I've just had some knock at the door, ignored them. Cheeky fuckers

WorraLiberty · 06/04/2015 13:52

Wow that really was rude.

I hate cold callers at any time and I get particularly angry if they call on a Sunday or bank holiday.

But a firm "No thank you" as I shut the door, leaves me with my dignity intact.

MyArksNotReady · 06/04/2015 13:53

I can't stand cold callers on the phone or at the door. They are thieves of my time and energy. TPS is quite good.

EmpressOfJurisfiction · 06/04/2015 13:53

Ignoring fine but unless it was a scam call I think YABU to call him a wanker. He probably didn't want to spend his bank holiday on the phone any more than you wanted to listen to him. Write to the head office and call them wankers, that would NBU.

DisappointedOne · 06/04/2015 13:54

They call when it's most likely people will be home.

The Jehovahs Witnesses were perfectly happy disturbing people here on December 25th..............

DisappointedOne · 06/04/2015 13:55

Was it a UK-based call? Most of the cold calls we get are international, where they don't share our bank holidays. ;)

WorraLiberty · 06/04/2015 13:56

The OP doesn't say if it was telephone or door.

If it's telephone, I just tell them I'm registered with TPS and to take my number off their database.

DisappointedOne · 06/04/2015 14:00

TPS doesn't apply to international calls.

FarFromAnyRoad · 06/04/2015 14:07

Turn the ringer off and the answerphone on. Or dispense with your landline altogether - I have due to BT not giving a shiny shite that my phone was ringing all day and most of the night with idiots trying to sell me shit I don't want, talk me through accidents I haven't had, help me reclaim PPI that I'd already reclaimed myself for free, a chap from Islamabad who just wanted to be my friend with a view to a long term relationship and the helpful zoomer from who knows where who was kept awake at night by the horror that would befall me if I didn't allow him remote access to my computer to remove the virus that had infected it. For a long time, apparently. Fuck 'em. I'm all for trying to remain dignified when at all possible but sometimes dignity just has to take a direct hit!

Original poster

zeezeek · 06/04/2015 14:12

It looked like a UK number. I'm just so fed up with the constant calls. Yeah, I know I was rude, but this was the nth time that company had called!

OP posts:

Lweji · 06/04/2015 14:17

Recently, I have been tempted to reply to cold callers in the immortal words of the dead terrorist Achmed: "silence, I kill you".
Preferably using a recorded version:

googoodolly · 06/04/2015 14:19

We just got rid of our landline, and our flat is above a business so nobody seems to realise we're here, thank God! The only disadvantage is the delivery drivers have no idea where we are...

It is peaceful though!

Westendgal · 06/04/2015 14:29

Get caller ID and ignore the numbers you don't recognise. Works for us.

nochocolateforlentteacake · 06/04/2015 14:32

I had one put the phone down on me last week. He asked 'whyyyyyyyyy do you think you don't need your ppi checked?'. I said "after working in banking for almost 20 years I gave a fair idea of banking rules', and he hung up. I was just getting to the good bit about when I worked with the FSA...

Mrsjayy · 06/04/2015 14:35

We got an automated call 1 am friday morning i think i win i got such a fright when the phone rang

JemimaPuddlePop · 06/04/2015 14:43

As you said, yabu and were very rude.

'I must cut in, I'm not interested. Can you remove my number please' is enough for me. If they persist I repeat 'I'm not interested' and hang up.

No need to be a cunt to them. They're people too.

giraffesCantBunnyHop · 06/04/2015 14:44

Had JW round today.

Been left a leaflet where I can tick a box if I want someone to visit me to chat...2 choices of address to return the leaflet to - Ghana or Nigeria?!

So I have to post my leaflet from Glasgow to Nigeria to get someone in Glasgow to come and talk to me?! Seems a rather inefficient service! Unless they are going to send someone from Nigeria?

Missymum6 · 06/04/2015 15:40

Just to add to the tps comments, I used to work in a call centre ( big window company) only half the lines we had wouldn't connect to tps the rest would... Blimey people would go bat shit crazy, one man threatened to cut my head off and demanded where I got his number... So tps doesn't always work.

daisychain01 · 06/04/2015 16:15

DP and I were confronted with a cold caller about an hour ago. We use a similar approach each time

Us- hello how can I help?

Cold caller - hi I'm from the Home Energy Efficiency Team, can I interest you in a great deal we are doing in your area. I just need to take some details from you

Us - sure, before you go ahead and take our private information, can we have your landline number, website and email address so we know who we are talking with.

Cold caller - um I can't give you that information I'm afraid. Anyway let me tell you about our great deal.

Us - Thats worrying, so you are saying you can't give us any details about your company. Hmmmm. Did you know you are personally breaking the law making unsolicited nuisance calls even though we have requested 20 times this month to remove us from your database. Your employer can be fined up to £50000.

They out the phone down on us today, but we get50% fewer calls because we have reported several companies to the Information Commissioners Office, When they are naive enough to give their actual company name, so hopefully it is starting to get through ...

MrsItsNoworNotatAll · 06/04/2015 16:30

Must be pretty shite for them if it's their job. I'm sure they'd rather be doing other stuff on a Bank holiday Monday.

mrsmilkymoo · 06/04/2015 17:00

We just had one. Dd had finally settled for a nap (on me!) and it woke her up

ForalltheSaints · 06/04/2015 17:35

I wish you could frame a law to at least stop UK businesses from doing this.

alltoomuchrightnow · 06/04/2015 19:43

Last year i moved in with DP, to the middle of nowhere! It has its drawbacks, as being car less is not an option, you can't get takeaway delivered and have to drive everywhere
However... no cold callers ever bother to come out here! (actually I do find the odd catalogue left in the porch, but never actually get door to door chuggers and the like)

daisychain01 · 07/04/2015 20:24

foralltheSaints there is a law that came into force in April in UK, where it is against the law to make nuisance unsolicited calls to private telephone numbers. It was in the newspapers recently - but I can't remember all the details, sorry. Probably available on the web.

The trouble is a lot of companies off-shore their calls to India, but the law will eventually catch up and make that an illegal practice too (for not being 'in the spirit' of the law). Just have to keep on at them when they call - if you make it constructive they often give information they wouldn't otherwise give (catches them unawares!).

threegoingonthirty · 07/04/2015 21:03

I asked one of the "we know you've had an accident" brigade if his mother would be proud of what he was doing. He hung up on me. Scum.

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