How to try and limit telephone sales calls

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A210AMG

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Hello

Recently my wife when off is getting more and more calls during the day, loans, windows (both actual and computer...) and general sales calls...

We are on TPS? and I though ex directory?

Is that all I can do to limit these.

I've even got back from work a few times and they ring (around 6pm) you know its an automatic dial as it clicks then someone talks... I listen to the first sentence and say one minuite it sounds good..

Pass the phone to my 18month old and he basically shouts 'hello', 'HELLO' and just keeps going... I at least find this funny.


However what else can I do, I did a quick search and companies will charge you to help remove them which seems a bit unfair?
 
Although its not in my nature to be rude, as soon as you realise its an unsolicited call, simply say, "sorry, not interested" and put the phone down smartly.
Works for me, and funnily enough the calls begin to tail off eventually.
 
We have done that for the past few months, if anything we seem to get more?

Normally around 5pm / 6pm as we are eating however now more and more in the day?

Its funny at first but becomes a pain as until you get to the phone you obviously don't know who it is.
 
Some of the new cordless phones will automatically screen out any unidentified numbers. That's a start but you could miss calls you want- although they are sent to the answerphone!
 
Also get loads. Rarely run for the landline anymore as my work calls now use VOIP.

I've tried being funny, and now go with VTD's method.

Although someone did call earlier this week and asked if I had a few minutes to chat. I replied saying that my tea was going cold. She then said it would only take 5 minutes. I pointed out that she was being somewhat cheeky!
 
How long is it since you registered with TPS? I've re-registered this year, the first time I did was around 5 years ago. It seemed to build up slowly over time, the calls have stopped again now.
 
Probably 18 months ago...

However I tried to register again and it said I already am.
 
TPS registration made no difference for us. We still get calls coming through regularly.

What's more, most of the calls we receive are just recorded messages. Some start with 'this is not an advert', followed by... an advert. We simply put the phone down.

We just got used to it. Part of life's little annoyances.
 
Perhaps we should all implement a new stategy for dealing with these, play along and get a representative to call, then after he has wasted some time say that you weren't intrested in the first place when you got the call, but since they were wasting your time you felt obliged to return the compliment. :D
 
I must say being registered on TPS is increasingly becoming of limited value.

The calls come through regardless. There are so many telemarketing companies now that TPS can't hope to stem the tide. Plus most of them are offshore anyway, thus outside TPS jurisdiction.

I have the calling number displayed, and if the number starts with 08... or is withheld I leave it to go to voicemail. Occasionally, if I'm superbored I'll pick up and if it's telemarketing I'll just leave the phone on the hall table and let the person on the other end talk to themselves for as long as they like.

I made the minor mistake of getting into an argument with one bloke once. The only result of that was that he phoned persistently for about an hour after I hung up on him. However I still reckon I had the last laugh because it meant that he phoned no one else for a whole hour, so clearly wasn't going to hit his targets that day! :rolleyes:
 
Occasionally, if I'm superbored I'll pick up and if it's telemarketing I'll just leave the phone on the hall table and let the person on the other end talk to themselves for as long as they like.

I like this, great idea :D
 
I work on the basis that virtually everyone who is important to me has my mobile number so any calls on my landline are likely to be junk calls (and 95% of them are).

So I rarely answer the landline nowadays - unless I feel like a little 'sport'.
 
I think they get round the TPS rules by saying they're marketing not selling, the rule for the home phone in our house is to let the answer phone take care of it and listen in, if it's anyone we want to talk to phone them back. It's almost every day between 1 & 3PM at the moment.
 
I just leave the landline phone unplugged, never really use it - once or twice a year maybe. Less hassle, anyone who needs to contact me knows how to :cool:

I would wager 99/100 of the calls received I can easily do without :)
 
We have caller display - the foreign ones come up as "out of area", so we ignore them.

Sometimes I answer and put the phone on the side (on speaker) and after a short gap, listen to the "hello, hello, er hello" - literally seconds of fun.
 
I did a quick search and companies will charge you to help remove them which seems a bit unfair?

These companies are a scam. Do not even contact them as they will take your money and will then at best, register you on TPS (which you can do yourself for free) and at worse actually add your number to the lists that get sold.
 
The problem we have is that my wife runs her business from home so we get lots of legitimate landline calls and can't afford to ignore any of them. Most of both of our families are overseas so we can't even ignore the "out of area" calls. We're registered with TPS.

What I've taken to doing with cold callers is starting by asking them their name and their company. Then I pause whilst giving the impression that I'm writing down their details. Then I say, "I have to inform you that we're registered with TPS and I'll be reporting this illegal call," They usually can't put the phone down fast enough. Some try the "This isn't a sales call" tact, but I tell them it's still illegal and ask if they want to carry on. They never do!

The really annoying calls are the computer generated ones that don't have anyone at the other end and always seem to happen in the middle of a meal. Ring ring. Ring ring. Ring ring. "Hello ....... hello ...... hello ........ f**k off". :ban:
 
Telemarketers = prime candidates for the next Golgafrinchan spaceship.----- Yes we are are actively recruiting now for a new call centre on Alpha Centauri. This will avoid any petty bureaucratic obstacles stopping our vital communications to humanity such as the benefits of double glazing, conservatories solar energy and ridding your computer of malware. Sign up now for a massive starting bonus paid one month after we start operations. We are not just selling----- this is a bona fide one time only offer--- honest!

10,9.8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1-zero ---lift off ! BYE.:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D
 

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