How do I set my phone not to accept calls from witheld numbers?

[Aniles]

I'm getting funny phone calls from someone witholding their number. I'm sure there's a way of making sure these calls don't get through. Anyone know please??

Is there, didn't know that. We are getting them alot too, i answer and no one speaks.

ring BT and ask for it to be stopped.

Don't know about that, but we have a caller ID device (15 quid from Argos) so we know who's calling, and if it's someone we don't want to speak to it goes to the answerphone (and that can be set to just cut off calls).

ring bt and tell them u dont want to accept calls from withheld numbers.

are these silent calls?

Mine are silent, but i have noticed that 9 times out of 10, when we get one of those we later get one of those stupid recorded competition ones usually about an hour after.

my sister has it and our numbers are with held and so I can't ring her

She was told that we could put in a code that would then work but it doesnt

I don't worry about it though cos I never ring her and if I neeed to I use mobile

but it can be a pain

Also I worry about my nephews cos it means they can't ring home if in trouble and phone is with held

BT do this but it costs £4 a month .

If you get caller display (no charge mentioned but you need a phone with display screen) you can see if they have withheld and choose not to answer.

Thanks for the replies. I'm with ntl so gave them a ring but they're closed (do they do it as well as bt?). So I suppose there's nothing I can do about it tonight? I've got caller id so won't answer anymore number witheld calls. I'd rather not know that they are making the calls at all because it's making me feel edgy. I'll phone ntl in the morning though.

No, they're not silent calls, some men putting on silly voices and saying 'you know who this is' type of thing.

That's what I need JanH. ANyone know if ntl does it too?

cableforum - this thread says ntl do it too, for only £1 a month.

we've got a phone that cost £14.99, it's a BT Decor 310 phone and it has a display number area, so if a withheld number rings we can pick it up or not, international calls show up too, it's a BT phone and it's a one off payment and then you can monitor all your calls and choose if you want to talk with someone

I'm psychic you know, aniles!

well I rang BT paid my £4 per month and they've stopped all of those bloody calls automated and call centres, the only one's they apparently can't stop is witheld from outside the UK/ call centres from abroad.

One of the advantages of my local telephone supplier, Kingston Communications, is that all of these 1471,1571, with-held number barring etc are FREE

Word of warning - those damn computer voiced competition calls can still get through. They don't withhold the number, they simply don't provide it in the first place so they still slip through the net .

snugs - give BT a call I really moaned about the level of calls we were having and they put our name on a register of some sort so if we did get marketing/automated calls after 30 day's of registering we could take the ppl to court as it was illegal, don't know waht the name of it was thou. but everything has now stopped.

Telephone Preference Service

V good. Works for me!

Have been on the register for years (and the postal one ) but you can only report companies for breaking the rules if you know who they are. No way of knowing who they are so can't stop them.

I have been getting American ones, snugs - loooong pause and then an American accent says "congratulations, you have won blah blah" at which point I just put the phone down - are they automatic?

Yep, that's the ones Janh. I hang up on them, but they often block the line for a couple of minutes - very annoying to pick up the phone again and find that stupid prat still rattling away. They often ring back within a few minutes too.

Fairly new thing, only really had them in the last month or so.

It's when they ring with these damned recorded messages at 3am that it really hacks me off ... and the Telephone Preference Service can't stop them, as most of them are from overseas.