to be 'abrupt' with this cold caller

[QualityTime]

I told him he had the wrong number and he replied.

Well, maybe you can help me madam, I am calling from teh consumber 'somethign bollocks' service and we are updating our database.
-Well no, I can't help you, as you have the wrong number

I just say 'no thank you' and hang up on anyone who calls me. So no, YANBU. Why should you waste your valuable home time talking to someone you don't want to. That's what work is for!

We've been getting calls for the Hewitts since we got our phone number 6 years ago. And as often as we tell them we're not the Hewitts and to please update their records, the calls keep coming in. Sigh!

I also get calls sometimes asking if I know if a Mr X lives at number 39. They tell me they're updating some records or something, but I would guess they're debt collectors or some such. So even if I did know I wouldn't tell them, but I have no idea who lives at number 39.

Friend of my dad's kept getting calls for taxis. It was particularly irritating when some piss artist would call late on a Saturday night asking for a cab. Dad's friend would explain politely that no, it was not the taxi firm, the number was 2 digits different. Drunk person would often then insist that it was the taxi firm, he'd been using the same number for years etc.

Dad's friend got to the point where he'd tell them yeah, taxi'll be there in 15 minutes, then roll over and go back to sleep..........

Oooh, and once I got called by some company after I'd previously told them I wasn't interested, did my usual speech, "I've told you before I'm not interested" and hung up. The cheeky bugger actually rang back and said "oh, but you haven't told me you're not interested, so can I interest you in....". I went totally ballistic on his arse, asked to speak to his manager once I'd blasted his eardrums nine ways to Sunday, funnily enough he hung up that time!

Yep Proudfoot, i am never rude to them, but sometimes, when you have had several calls during the day they do push you to your limit. And they often call at the least opportune moments. I remember vividly the phone ringing at my grandad's house and it was a man trying to sell him double glazing. My poor grandad, who was in his 80's at the time, did not know what to say; it was the day of my grandma's funeral.

"I'm terribly sorry, but I have a policy that I never buy anything over the phone. Goodbye" [hangs up]. Polite, truthful, and brisk.

Or "I'm afraid this is a rental house full of students." Also works a treat.

Ah when dd was 2-4 she was fab and loved the phone!!! Any cold callers, I just said "hang on, I'll get the lady of the house for you" - hhanded phone ot dd who wuld rabbit on for ages about tweenies, teletubbies, naughty ds, yoghurts - whatever!!! They soon stopped calling. Unfortunately she now hates the phone as she is 7 and it isn't cool!! Now I just say No and hang up. Boring really - not half as much fun and doesn't give me peace and quiet from dd for 10 mins at a time!!!

I don't have a landline - so no one calls...but I have had a couple opn my mobile number, only they have asked for my alias and so I can automaticly tell them that I have no idea who they want and possibly they have a miss noted number

Whether I get a cold caller at the door or on the telephone I either say that I am the baby sitter and don't know anything or I say that i'm only 16 and my Mum isn't in ( i'm 28 and look it, but they never argue!) ... both work every time. What really annoys me is when people come round asking if we want double glazing even though they can obviously see that we have it!

proudfoot, the cold caller saying "I'm just doing a survey..." is often a prelude to either a sales pitch and/or them harvesting as much information about your income and general economic status so they can then sell your name and details onto yet more lists.

Either way they get short shrift from me and if it hurts their widdle feelings then, quite frankly, tough.

Netteyjc - ha ha, I am going to try that one next time!

Yes, I was fairly sure the 'sister company' thing was bibble - I think they get taught it as a script line, because lots of people will just accept it.

Proudfoot, I sold potatoes door-to-door as an impoverished student. It was a crap job - I was being paid a pittance to be a PITA. I realised this within the day & jacked it in.

If I've been working from 7am until 5pm, dashed home to feed my kids & put them to bed, & I'm grabbing half an hour's mindless leching at Cain Dingle before stating the evening's 2 hour marking stint - & then some callcentre rings me to waste my time attempting to rip me off for shite I don't want, when I've signed up to TPS precisely so this doesn't happen - well, I'm not abusive, because as I say I've done shit McJobs too.

But I reserve the right to be curt in the extreme!

We have caller ID display on our phone and if it is witheld or international I dont answer it. We have an answer machine so they can leave a message - they usually dont bother - so cant be of any interest or use to me!!

dd1 is 17 and if a cold caller knocks and she gets the door her standered line is

" we are having a spiritual meeting and you are welcome to join us, it will take around 4 hours and you can allways be oour new sacrifice"

she is dead pan they are not sure and leave rather quickly...

I just give the landlords number - of course it is a number I aquired through a friend for a long wait on the phone

Phone calls that say you have recently taken part in a survey, grr. Get lots of silent ones on the answer-machine and ones from our god awful bank.

I say, "Am not interested" and put the phone down but dh requests to speak to their manager/advises them on better career choices.

YANBU. Wish I'd done the same yesterday. We get lots of calls from strangers as it's a rental so I am too polite. I ended up with a stupid man yelling (yes, really) at me that I didn't understand and he wasn't selling anything. I honestly thought he must be a friend of the guy who lived here before because I couldn't believe a cold caller would be so rude. But he was: customer survey for Nationwide. Really shook me, so karmically　(if that's a word), I am glad you were 'abrupt' with your guy.

Oh good, it's the first time i've out and out lied so felt bad!
I used to open with 'doing a survey' or 'not selling anything' i also did door to door npower thing, that was not good.
I still got paid if people were rude to me, i just got more for a sale, if people being rude to you upsets you then you shouldn't be a cold caller imo. Just call them rude names after they have hung upthe phone, or have a punch bag in the corner of the office like we did!

Proudfoot, if you work from home and have joined the preference scheme, then I think you have a perfect right not to have your work time interrupted by people who first deny they are trying to sell you anything and claim they are just doing a survey, then waste 10 minutes of your time in circumlocution before they get round to ....errrr...trying to sell you something. I would say only about 10% accept at once my statement that I am not interested- the rest try to carry on the conversation regardless. That imho is 90% of rude cold callers.

We have had our number for about 7 years. We still get calls for Mrs Young about once a month. This last time I said 'For the last time. Mrs Young does not live, has not lived here for at least 7 years. Please update your records.'

I'm sure I'll get another call next month...

'Good afternoon, my name is so and so and I'm from calling from such and such, how are you today?'

'Its none of your business, I don't know you and whatever it is you are selling I don't want it so remove my name and telephone number off your system and don't bother me again'

Then hang up

Door to doorers get a similar treatment.

I like asking banks to let ME have their security code and date of birth

For the past year we have been getting an International number which rings 3 times, when you answer it is a fax machine. Who the hell still uses FAX in this day and age?

And yes I do shout at it! DH wants to change our number, but I said no, most people call on the mobile phone anyway, only a few use the landline, so I am not changing it.

I cant ignore it though, as we do get international calls...

And this just happened as I was typing this!

Intl number, answered, "Hello is that Jax?"

yes... "This is Michael... from Sky TV, how are you today?" (said like he was an old mate)

So, I just said, I dont buy anything over the phone, thank you. hung up!

FFS!!!!

My dad answers the phone by saying "Jablome home for the criminally insane, how may I help you?"

People who know him are used to it, cold callers are scared and don't call back.

I just hang up. I didn't ask them to call me.

My dad used to answer the phone with "Hello, this is the morgue."

It was his joke to those who know him, but it had an interesting effect on cold callers.

Loving ivykaty's DD!

Renting is a good one, my mum says it truthfully but I've adopted it too, works quite well for double glazing etc.

The b* timeshare people on hol get my goat, it wasn't until we said 'we're going home in 2 hours' and they scarpered that we wished we'd been saying it all fortnight!