Something else to ban.(and please don't advise the telephone preference service ) You have a hard day at work, get home, rush to prepare a meal, sit down and the phone rings. Leave it?
What if it's urgent?
It's somebody trying to flog holidays, loans, double glazing as a rule. Last night was a first: some Accident Claims company wanting to know if I'd suffered any recent injuries to which I replied "what's that got to do with you?" not taking the hint, there came the follow up: "I wondered if you may have suffered any recent accidents at work" Not being very inventive I said "mind your own business" and put the phone down.
When all the Politicos are banging on about choice why can't I have the choice not to have people invading my property, taking up my time and using my equipment and causing me stress.
If soliciting for prostitution is illegal so should soliciting for accidents claims....b****y parasites.

i get teleco phoning me at least twice a week along with other cold callers best thing you could possibly do is block all calls with witheld numbers that should cut down the amount of calls you get:) :) :) :)

That only works if they are UK based, if they are, as most of these damned things seem to be, based abroad it doesn't work.

Just tell them to hang on, and go back every five minutes or so and see how long they stay on before they get fed up.

You know, it took me years to realise that there was one simple solution:

Just put the phone down.

How many times did I attempt to bluff and bluster my way through these damn calls? Then suddenly it came to me - I have the power! Just put down the phone!

Of course, it's still annoying that you've had to get up and answer the phone in the first place, but at least it's over in a split second. ;)

I keep getting calls which start of saying:

"You have one new message"
(As if it's BT 1571).

Then it goes on to a pre-recorded message (as if it's been left on my machine) telling me that I have won this or am being offered that.

I hang up and wait 30 seconds before picking the phone back up to find the same ******* message being played!

Anyone else suffer from this?

Yep, walk away from the phone so they can't dial out again. Or lead them on that you are interested for ages. This causes them to get a flurry of excitement at the thought of a sale, and will do some serious a55 ki55.

Then when you tire of this, just say a cool "no thanks" and hang up

Originally posted by bonny
Yep, walk away from the phone so they can't dial out again. Or lead them on that you are interested for ages. This causes them to get a flurry of excitement at the thought of a sale, and will do some serious a55 ki55.

Then when you tire of this, just say a cool "no thanks" and hang up

Everyone should do that as a matter of course.

Lead them on ... make them think they have a prospective buyer ...

If everyone did that with cold callers (and also with emails from prince who-ever in nog nog land who has just inherited 65,000,000 mil us dollars and needs your help to process the funds) ... well ... it would just make life more interesting for all concerned.

If you want to stop cold calling, just sign up for the Telephone Preference Service (http://www.tpsonline.org.uk/). You can also sign up to stop junk mail. It really does work, though with the junk mail, it only stops stuff directly addressed to you, so loads still gets through.

Originally posted by chill
If you want to stop cold calling, just sign up for the Telephone Preference Service (http://www.tpsonline.org.uk/). You can also sign up to stop junk mail. It really does work, though with the junk mail, it only stops stuff directly addressed to you, so loads still gets through.

The Telephone Preference Service doesn't work. We signed up to it, and we have had a few "cold calls" in the last couple of weeks. My fiancee scared one woman who rang by threatening to report her for calling us when we are signed up to the TPS.

Originally posted by Patchy
The Telephone Preference Service doesn't work. We signed up to it, and we have had a few "cold calls" in the last couple of weeks. My fiancee scared one woman who rang by threatening to report her for calling us when we are signed up to the TPS.

I'm sorry, but to just say "it doesn't work" is stupidly misleading. Of course you may still get calls, the only way to be sure that someone won't call you is to unplug your phone. But if they do call you, they are breaking the law, you can report them, and they will be punished. For this reason, the vast majority of cold calling companies will give you a wide berth.

Originally posted by Patchy
The Telephone Preference Service doesn't work. We signed up to it, and we have had a few "cold calls" in the last couple of weeks. My fiancee scared one woman who rang by threatening to report her for calling us when we are signed up to the TPS.
There is a complaints section on tps. If you get the name of the company calling you, report it and they can be fined.
TPS works OK for us, though.

If you go ex-directory on your landline that stops a lot of cold callers.

We're ex directory and we only get double glazing ring up once in a blue moon.

Wierd thing with us though is that we get people ringing up wanting Going Places the Holiday company, cos our phone number must be similar to theirs or something :loopy:

How much does ex-directory cost these days?

Originally posted by hotphil
How much does ex-directory cost these days?

Nothing, but let's hope BT didn't read your question - it might give them ideas! :rolleyes:

Originally posted by Dirk Diggler
I keep getting calls which start of saying:

"You have one new message"
(As if it's BT 1571).

Then it goes on to a pre-recorded message (as if it's been left on my machine) telling me that I have won this or am being offered that.

I hang up and wait 30 seconds before picking the phone back up to find the same ******* message being played!

Anyone else suffer from this?

Yup, "this is a marketing message from BT." "If you do not want to continue with this call, please hang up now"

Another thing is we keep getting confused with a builders firm in Belvedere, very annoying.

Alex