How to try and limit telephone sales calls

[johnsco]

We make ourselves as difficult to call as we can.
We are ex-direc.
We have registered with the TPS and the fax preference service.
We also use the answering machine as a filter for screening incoming calls.
Incoming callers announce themselves and we decide if we really want to speak to them.
I think we have had about 2 junk calls in the last 12 months.

 

[snail]

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.

Most of ours come up as INTERNATIONAL. We can't ignore them as some international calls are legit, but I usually pause for 3 or 4 seconds just to see if it's a recording. If it is I let it play out.

 

[camerafodder]

There's only one way to deal with telemarketers
[YOUTUBE]kAb8vGSRBoE[/YOUTUBE]

 

[brucemillar]

What about these people who say "I just need to take few personal details to verify who you are for security" . They then refuse to verify who they are for my security. That is just plain bonkers. I mean you called me on my phone at my house I answered the phone giving my name. But now you need to know all sorts of things about me before you will tell me why you are calling me....AAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHH.

 

[NW_Merc]

I dont know about other networks, but BT and O2 have a witheld number block, seeing as most of the telesales companies use witheld numbers, they can no longer get through to me and it only costs an extra 50p a month.

The other alternative, if you wish to amuse yourself is to answer the phone, use the speaker setting while having a soundboard site on your computer. If you dont want to listen to the telemarketeer then they can have a conversation with the character on the soundboard and it annoys them something rotten.

 

[Stratman]

Ah yes, the 'security' scam. You can have great fun with that one. I have asked them all sorts of questions to prove who they are, all of which they refuse to (read cannot) answer 'for security reasons'.

 

[NW_Merc]

Ah yes, the 'security' scam. You can have great fun with that one. I have asked them all sorts of questions to prove who they are, all of which they refuse to (read cannot) answer 'for security reasons'.

You could use that answer when they ask their questions citing, "Classified information due to past employment" and see what they say to it.

 

[Parrotman]

Fortunately I do not receive spam calls to my mobile but after becoming inundated with such calls to the landline I took a free subscription to an 0870 number which is diverted to the landline.

The 0870 number is my official telephone number for everything ie, banking, insurance, billing, etc etc ad infinitum.

I have'nt received a spam call on the landline for several years now.

Just google ' free 0870 numbers '.

 

[Clkrichard]

I had a deluge of these on a previous number and used to say " sorry, who did you say is calling ?" when they told me I said " thank God, I thought it was he bailiffs again ".
You could almost hear the cogs turning as their tiny brains absorbed that they were talking to someone with no money .....
Funny how the " market research " calls fizzled out after that !

 

[John]

Although "marketing calls" are not covered by TPS (wtf not?), I've sometimes asked them if they have any idea why I am signed up to TPS, which is there to prevent unsolicited calls, to see if they can detect the irony...

They still think that because TPS does not cover marketing calls that you are suddenly going to start wanting calls from them.

 

[Aoraki]

What I do when called by these people is to interupt their opening speal by offering them a great deal on a set of my "fully automated gate systems", that throws them to start with, then I continue with the "audio/visual intercom sytems". They have usually hung up before I get to the state of the art "GSM systems" I can install!

 

[neilrr]

Fortunately I do not receive spam calls to my mobile but after becoming inundated with such calls to the landline I took a free subscription to an 0870 number which is diverted to the landline.

The 0870 number is my official telephone number for everything ie, banking, insurance, billing, etc etc ad infinitum.

I have'nt received a spam call on the landline for several years now.

Just google ' free 0870 numbers '.

How much do you make per call received?

 

[Parrotman]

I have'nt received any commission though this was'nt the prime motivator. I think the minimum commission paid is £5 and to achieve that there would need to be quite a few calls of long duration.

 

[John]

I thought 0870 no longer had charges associated with it i.e. it is a standard rate call now?

 

[juux]

This involves a bit of set up, but if these things really bother you then it almost guarantees you won't get any nuisance calls.

Like Parrotman, when I bought my last house in 2003 I signed up for a free 0870 number. This was a revenue share thing where they paid something like 1.5p/min of the 10p/min call cost back to me.

When we moved house I only ever gave out the 0870 number to companies. Only family/friends got the actual BT number targeted by the 0870.

Some companies complained that they couldn't put this prefix in their systems and they needed an 01/02/07 number, I said fine; you'll not be calling me then. Often this was a company that insisted I call their 0845/0870 number!

Telemarketers may be a lot of things, but they're not about to pay 10p/min for the privilege of trying to sell to me.

I'll not lie and say that I've not had any nuisance calls in the intervening 9 years, but they are very few and far between, maybe one or two a year.

Another few advantages:

• When you move house you don't need to update your phone number with anyone, just re-target the number to your new BT/whatever line.
• I've actually creamed off about £100 from the kickback. Paid for the re-target fee when we moved house last year and still allowed me to take Mrs Juux out for a spot of lunch
• If you do get any calls and are feeling mischievous then keeping them hanging on for a while could net you a free pint!

Even though 0870 calls can now be free to many consumers, for companies they are usually still chargeable and the number range itself still probably 'off limits' to their dialling software.

 

[@MARK]

This involves a bit of set up, but if these things really bother you then it almost guarantees you won't get any nuisance calls.

Like Parrotman, when I bought my last house in 2003 I signed up for a free 0870 number. This was a revenue share thing where they paid something like 1.5p/min of the 10p/min call cost back to me.
.

Unfortunately this has all changed now and revenue sharing on 0870 numbers no longer exists.

There are still options but these will all cost you money

Get an 0844 number - This will give you revenue share of 3,4 or 5ppm
Get an 0871 number - You need a license for one of these as are now classed as premium rate and the rules are pretty tight
Get an 0845 number - You can still get revenue share but nobody gives these out for free

So the option of making money out of these calls has all but gone however as Juux said, often the autodialers used by these companies will not call an 08xx number so at least it should reduce the amount of calls you get.

 

[juux]

Unfortunately this has all changed now and revenue sharing on 0870 numbers no longer exists.

There are still options but these will all cost you money

Get an 0844 number - This will give you revenue share of 3,4 or 5ppm

Looking at it today 0844 is the equivalent of 0870 when I got mine. They are still available for free on a revenue share, 2p/min peak, 4p/min off-peak.

It's not really about the money though as you say.

 

[allegoricus]

It's worth noting that, for cold calling, whether or not you are ex-directory is irrelevant. If a caller isn't trying to reach a specific individual, they don't need to look up a number in order to dial it.
Call handling systems can take care of it by sequentially dialing whole blocks of numbers (although IIRC this infringes regulations for sales calls).

 

[@MARK]

Call handling systems can take care of it by sequentially dialing whole blocks of numbers (although IIRC this infringes regulations for sales calls).

It breaks every rule in the book assuming you are a UK company calling from the UK

If however you are an offshore company calling from overseas, all bets are off and there is little regulation to stop it.

 

[DITTRICH]

All very informative. I too registered with the TPS which is increasingly ineffective. Luckily Mrs D's English causes them no end of problems. If the phone is handed to me I may or may not decide to have some fun with them...and waste their time.