For the last week, three or four times a night our phone has rang. When I have answered there has been no one there, just silence. I did not get an impression anyone was been 'silent' on me, nor did anyone hang up, because the dial tone did not suddenly come in.
I have been told that a lot of direct sales calls are a made automatically by computers and may not connect as soon as you answer.
Can anyone tell me if this is true, and give me more specific details?
Or probably more important, has anyone had the same sort of problem over the last week?
If not I can probably assume an idiot is harassing me:mad:

Ok sorry. I thought it was funny. Will quit doing it now.

Edit: Should be useful I guess. Yes it often is the computer autodialer. Apparently they dial multiple numbers at once and if they pick up another number and no one picks up yours you end up with a dead line. something like that.

Apparently, some telesales places ring several homes simaltaniously. The first person to answer is the one that gets connected, the others just get dead air before being cut-off.

We have a phone number monitor thing on our phone that tells you who's calling before you answer, which anyone can get with a BT phone. If the display says international, I either ignore it completely or leave it to go 4-5 rings before I answer. That normally does the trick. If I do end up talking to someone, I normally just do the old "oh look we've been cut off" routine and unplug the phone from the wall. :)

Sounds like that is the answer, then. Thank you both:thumbsup:

Stop people cold calling - register with TPS.

http://www.tpsonline.org.uk/tps/

AND - stop people making "silent calls" like the OP was recieving:

http://www.tpsonline.org.uk/tps/news2.html

Thanks andy - registered with TPS a couple of days ago, but did not know about 'silent call guard' - will do it tomorrow:thumbsup:

Tele sales have to meet a certain number of calls a day.
So you maybe getting someone who is just dialling numbers to meet their target.

I get a least one a day.

They also hang up if they don't get the right sex, eg if they want Mr Blank and a female answers they will just quit the call.

My partners name is on all the paperwork, morgages ect...
So my trick (when their is no number coming up on the display) is to pick up the phone and not say a word, they then speak after a few seconds.:thumbsup:

I keep getting calls from my book club trying to sell me cut price calls with BT.

I just tell them I don't pay the bills, Dad does.. Which is the truth.

Or it could be someone in your house having an affair.

Sorry to have to break it to you that way, if it is true!

I hope not!!:confused:

what annoys me more is the people who have secretaries phone you.

You answer and they say "please hold"

I'm sorry, YOU wanted to speak to ME not the other way around. If you can't be bothered to make the call yourself it can't be that important, so *click*

This has happened to me several times. The most annoying thing is that when you hang up and then try to use the phone again, they're still there and you can't cut them off to use the phone. The only way you get a dial tone back is by waiting for them to hang up or by unplugging your phone line. And yes, the problem has been specifically over the last week or so.

What I do is ask say, sorry I am interested in what you have to say but I'm tied up at the moment, tell you what give me your number and i will call you back.
If they say that they will ring you later then insist you take there number and you will call them back.
The answer will probably be sorry but we are not allowed to take incoming calls, so my answer would be neither am I so don't call again.

If you wait a little longer on the 'silent' call you may find that someone speaks and says 'Seven Days' :o

You can protect yourself from this by only watching DVDs, and not videos :P

Originally posted by t020
This has happened to me several times. The most annoying thing is that when you hang up and then try to use the phone again, they're still there and you can't cut them off to use the phone. The only way you get a dial tone back is by waiting for them to hang up or by unplugging your phone line. And yes, the problem has been specifically over the last week or so.

If you need to get a dial tone; here is another way which usually works and is quicker than unplugging the phone or waiting for the computer caller to hang up.

Instead of putting the phone down, tap the button in the handset cradle quickly (as you would when single-clicking a mouse). The line should now sound totally dead. Now replace the handset. Pick it up again and you should have a dial-tone.

(I've been plagued by computerised fax machines in the past and found this worked)

Originally posted by Squiggs
what annoys me more is the people who have secretaries phone you.

You answer and they say "please hold"

I'm sorry, YOU wanted to speak to ME not the other way around. If you can't be bothered to make the call yourself it can't be that important, so *click*
You need to get yourself a secretary to receive your calls Squiggs ;) :thumbsup:

Originally posted by Squiggs
If you need to get a dial tone; here is another way which usually works and is quicker than unplugging the phone or waiting for the computer caller to hang up.

Instead of putting the phone down, tap the button in the handset cradle quickly (as you would when single-clicking a mouse). The line should now sound totally dead. Now replace the handset. Pick it up again and you should have a dial-tone.

(I've been plagued by computerised fax machines in the past and found this worked)

Thanks for that, I'll give it a go next time.

In my line of work, we often do market research over the phone. However, I have been told that people who have suscribed to the TPS service, will still receive market research calls, which may be just as annoying as actual sales calls. I thought that the TPS service blocked all calls of this nature, be it sales or market research, but I have been informed otherwise.

Originally posted by caprice
In my line of work, we often do market research over the phone. However, I have been told that people who have suscribed to the TPS service, will still receive market research calls, which may be just as annoying as actual sales calls. I thought that the TPS service blocked all calls of this nature, be it sales or market research, but I have been informed otherwise.
I'ts because my wife did a telephone market research questionaire that we are getting all these subsequent follow up calls. Originated from an Indian call centre.
Beware!
:huh:

I thought it was just me getting all these dodgy phone calls! Either the line is silent when i answer, or it goes dead straight away, or it's someone phoning from India trying to sell me a mobile phone. I'm registered with all the TPS services. and have been for a while, yet these monsters STILL phone me all the time.

And, yes, t020, it has increased over the past week or so. I wonder what's going on... :confused:

I recently registered with TPS.
It said if you still get sales calls 28 days after registering, go to the 'complaints section' at http://www.tpsonline.org.uk/tps/
I think if you compain the company can get fined (so get the name of the company)
Lot of hassle, though:mad:
Have also just registered with the 'silent calls' place. Link in an earlier reply tp this post

And whats more annoying is how these companies get your number even if it's ex-directory. I was on leave last week and 3 times a day at roughly the same time the phone rang, was silent for a few seconds then a little muttering voice said 'Hello, can I speak to Mr Biggerstaff'.. When prompted who was calling he reluctantly gave me his name and said he was from Phones Direct.

After numerous encounters I lost my cool and ranted at one of the operators, funnily enough since then Phones Direct haven't called back.. :D

Funnily enough Deejay, I had that pleasant Indian woman a few days ago (not literally), and I carefully explained I was on the "dole" and was only doing a "bit of work on the side" has anyone tried explaining dole and bit on the side to someone from Mumbai?
Anyhow after about 20 minutes she blessed me and told me I was a very nice person and would enjoy visiting her country when I got back to work.......it's amazing what you can do when your bored.

hehe, never thought of that at the time you see.. still I shall note that for the next unsuspecting company that phones several times a day.. :thumbsup: