Morning all

This is driving me mental. Registered with the telephone preference service but receiving a high number of sales calls in the evening. As we have a 7 month old baby girl this is even more infuriating as always seems to disturb her sleep and then it takes at least an hour to calm her down again as she hates being woken once she's asleep.

Rang BT to complain and they told me to activate call barring, sat on the phone for 20 minutes trying to talk to India only to be told it's £50 per year. At that point I nearly ripped the phone from the wall and launched it.

Short of disconnecting the phone in the evenings as soon as I walk in from work which means we can't ring friends etc any ideas.

BT as expected were ruddy useless.

Any help appreciated as next step is to just tell BT to go and do one.

Any assistance appreciated, thanks in advance.

did you speak to them about changing your number?

My parents have a similar problem, and all they do, is not to answer the call, and let the answer phone take it, if its a normal call, ie me, my sister etc we just say hi, and wait till they pick it up, if its a crap call it goes on to message and they delete it

I believe the only sure way of getting rid of them is to change your no, (they wont do that)

Steve

Has your registration with TPS gone through? Sometimes it takes a while to add you to the latest lists. It might be worth registering again.

Speak to TPS about the nuisance calls. Its their job to stop these people.

I've always found with cold callers that if you tell them that you're registered with TPS, they stop. I used to get about 2 calls per night before registering but now get about one a month. Much more bearable.

I have a house full of mobiles, free minutes galore etc.


I never answer the landline, nobody but sales tossers need to ring it.


Mine is for the tinterweb and thats about it.


Consider unplugging/switch off when your home from work. And leave your mobile on.


The tps takes a while to kick in, my son insists on giving my number to every company he speaks to, it got bad for a while but now its down to one or two calls a week.


Top tip, answer and say nothing, if nobody speaks within a nano second its an auto dialler, put the phone down.


My landline is still unplugged from me being on nightshift last week......

^What Smart51 said..

When you get a cold call, ask them to clearly say the company name, they normally rush over it. Them tell them you're registered with the TPS. They're supposed to be fined £5000 for each call to someone on TPS, you'll soon get taken off their lists....

HTH


Vince

quote:

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Originally posted by smart51
Has your registration with TPS gone through? Sometimes it takes a while to add you to the latest lists. It might be worth registering again.

Speak to TPS about the nuisance calls. Its their job to stop these people.

I've always found with cold callers that if you tell them that you're registered with TPS, they stop. I used to get about 2 calls per night before registering but now get about one a month. Much more bearable.

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Been registered with the TPS for 7 years. Everytime I ask for the company details to be repeated they hang up.

The problem is the call in the first place as at 8:30 in the evening my daughter is in bed and the phone ringing wakes her up. It's been as late as 9:45 in the evening, add the hour to settle my daughter back to sleep and the evening is buggered and my wife and I are both stressed.

BT were no help at all they just pushed me from one customer services rep to another and then transfered me to India.

I shouldn't have to keep unplugging phones etc to enjoy a peaceful evening. TPS seems a complete waste of time

TPS are powerless to stop people calling from abroad.

I get regular phone calls from India asking for the previous resident of my house (they've not lived here for over 10 years).

I keep them busy as long as I can (or 'til I get bored) before telling them to fornicate off, my record is 8 minutes.

Childish, but satisfying

If the call are from abroad TPS has no way of stopping them thats why an increasing number are now from overseas

We used to be able to buy phones where you could switch off the ringer but a light on the handset flashes. Used in broadcasting, recording studios, etc

Get a cheapo wireless house phone and take it into another room far from your daughter when it's evening? and change settings so it's not ringing very loud

A lot of Cold Callers withhold their number - you can use this to bar calls (or you can on my Virgin Media line).

I had the same problem last night. Don't get them very often but got small kids that can be disturbed etc.
I am also with TPS. the company that rang was weatherseal. They have had loads of complaints against them and been asked by tps to stop cold calling people, looks like they are ignoring the fines.

Chris

I particularly hate the ones who gabble the intro so you think they are from BT or some well-known company, then they say they are "calling on behalf of...". I usually push them to say who exactly they are working for, then tell them I am registered with TPS, remove my name from their call list, etc.

My wife used to work in telesales so sometimes for a laugh she strings them along that she is interested in the offer. It's hilarious to listen to as she uses really exaggerated enthusiasm, then talks down to them like they are a kid to tell them that we don't need double glazing or whatever as we've already got it.

A bit like the scambaiter tricks, but slightly less time-consuming

Check this site out...its helped me a lot over the years......and saved me a small fortune.


Stop Junk Mail and Cold Callers.

Well !!

I just tried to do my Parents no and its allready registered with TPS

yet they still get at least 2 calls a day

how does that work ??

steve

Seen this on Dragons den a while back, bit expensive but probably does what you need ( it looked impressive when it was shown on DD)

True Call

thanks for all the assistance

You can get various plug in things which ask for the name of who is calling then either diplays there number and puts them direct through or asks for there name and says .... is calling.

there class and stop most calls cos you can block the number and leave them on hold for ages costing them :O)

ye true call as mentioned above.

sorry didnt see it. get one of them.




dave

[Edited on 13/8/10 by jossey]

we had a 2nd line put in (works with the home hub somehow. got a 2nd phone number, but no actual 2nd line) ALL the junk calls go to that now. don't get any on the main line now.

My very cheapo BT Duet 20 phone has a switch on the side that says Ringer High, Low, Off. When Off there is still a light when a call comes in.

I don't know what the position is now but the TPS only worked with firms actually selling things. They got round it by saying they weren't selling, they just wanted to enter you in a competition or answer a questionnaire.

Also, I think it only worked for companies based in the UK so all a seller had to do was set up a front company abroad.

Reminds me of this blog from a few weeks ago. The guy runs a telco and was getting calls to their TPS registered office numbers. He then set up a load of unused numbers that he registered on TPS and they started taking the calls.

If you have time it makes amusing reading and listening and starts here:
http://revk.www.me.uk/2010/07/something-has-to-be-done.html

no one except my dad rings my landline, so i unplugged it ages ago! I only got about one a day before then, but still very annoying.

I dont know any of my friends landline numbers, i dont think people really use them nowadays.

Only use for them is for calling 0800 numbers but usually:

http://saynoto0870.com/

will also have geographical numbers for 0800, so you can call free off your mobile.

quote:

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Originally posted by UncleFista
TPS are powerless to stop people calling from abroad.

I get regular phone calls from India asking for the previous resident of my house (they've not lived here for over 10 years).

I keep them busy as long as I can (or 'til I get bored) before telling them to fornicate off, my record is 8 minutes.

Childish, but satisfying

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