Stop Cold Callers

I don’t know what it’s like for you guys who do not live in the UK, however for those of us living in the UK I’m sure you’ll all agree with me when I say, we can be bombarded with Cold Callers. i.e. Unwanted sales and marketing telephone calls.

A few years ago, because we were getting so many cold callers, we registered with the Telephone Preference Service (TPS). Once registered with this service, your phone number is no longer made available to organisations to phone you with sales or marketing information. It was amazing, within just a few weeks of registering with the TPS, the number of these unwanted phone calls was eliminated almost completely. Even now we still get some of these calls however nothing like the same number as we used to.

Although we still get approximately one unsolicited phone call per day, if they caller gives us the name of the company they are calling from we can make an official complaint about that company to either the TPS itself or to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). They will then take official steps with the company/organisation who called, as they have broken the law.

So having been off work for a while (and therefore been spending most of my time at home) I’ve been aware that during we are still getting quite a few cold callers phoning us at all hours of the day. We have Caller ID on our home number so we normally know when we are getting an unsolicited phone call as we recognised the home and work numbers of our friends and family when they phone. All the same, we normally still answer the phone when it goes as we realise otherwise whoever it is will call us back again at another time.

I realise many people are employed to make cold calls to homes, however that should not mean that they have the right to continue to phone/harass people who have registered with the TPS to be excluded from the list of available phone numbers for them to call. Personally when I get one of these calls, I usually ask first of all who they are and the company they are working for, then when they inform me (or sometimes ignore me and carry on with their sales spiel regardless) I simple say “I’m sorry, but I’m not interested” and then hang up. This usually does the trick and they don’t phone us back, but sometimes it doesn’t – If they phone us back we inform them we are reporting them to the TPS for making unsolicited phone calls, that always gets rid of them!

Last night we got a phone call from a cold caller, which I answered, and when they asked to speak to someone by the name of “Mrs Nelly” (whoever that is?!) I did my usual and asked who they were. The guy on the phone gave me his name and company (a Glasgow based company) which we have no dealing with, so I knew it was a cold caller. I responded with my usual “I’m sorry, but I’m not interested” and hung up. I expected that to be the end of it, however about 30 seconds later the phone went again, with the same caller id (same originating phone number)! It was the same guy again. I’m sure you can’t guess what he said to me can you? Well here’s what we said…”What do you think I was trying to sell?” – What a cheek! I had at no time indicated that I thought he was trying to sell me anything, I simply informed him I wasn’t interested in his phone call!

Needless to say we have now reported that guy, and his employers to TPS, so hopefully others will not be subjected to these phone calls which almost verged on harassment.

So in conclusion, cold callers or unsolicited callers beware, don’t phone people who have registered with TPS or you will be reported!

And home owners, get your home number registered with TPS as this will dramatically reduce the number of cold caller that you receive. You can register at the TPS website: http://www.tpsonline.org.uk/tps/