How to block unwanted marketing calls?

[daemon]

Hi,

I, and probably many others, are receiving a lot of "Lifestyle Survey" calls from what appear to be Indian callers. They identify themselves using English-sounding names and represent fictitious organisations. In reality they are attempting to gather personal information.

Recently, these callers are becoming more persistent and harder to turn away. They will not accept that you do not want to talk to them and I often have to resort to telling them "We do not disclose personal information to third parties. Your call is a waste of your and our time!".

On one occasion I gave a really persistent caller (I recognised his voice despite him using a number of fake Names) absurd and bogus information in response to his questions. When he finally realized what I was doing he threatened to persistently call me at unsociable hours just for annoying him.

I am registered with the TPS, FPS and EPS but, of course, these offshore call centres ignore any lists provided by them.

Enough is enough. We have a right to our privacy and I would like to see Virgin Media provide some effective means for customers to block these unwanted calls.

Regards,
Neil Darlow

[madmax215]

You have 2 choices, get a call blocker or just don't talk to them. I just leave the phone off the hook for a few days. I have not had a call from india for over a year now. And never register for TPS all they do is foward the list to india and have them call.

[007stuart]

Buy an answering machine and screen your calls/

[Mick Fisher]

On a mobile, set it to reject anonymous calls and then list other numbers in the reject calls list as you get them.

On a land line: Get a phone with a reject/block calls feature and do the same.

After a little while the pests and time wasters will get the message and cross you off their lists. That will just leave the odd payday lender, marketing calls from your bank, your media and telecoms co to annoy you but you can just do the same for them as well.

Don't expect a telecoms co to do anything as they make big money out of nuisance calls same as Royal Mail make a mint out of junk mail.

[Mr K]

Probably too late now, but never give your land line number out- except obviously to family . It annoys me the number of people that want your phone no - but don't need it - think we can guess the reason why. (I find 01234 567890 is very handy for web shopping, when they won't let you ignore the tel no. field.) If somebody must have a contact give them a mobile no. In addition to the registering with TPS and being ex-directory, get caller display. I never get any marketing calls.

The only problem I ever had was with Virgin Media, who obviously have my phone no. They ignored my preferences and kept calling me to try and upgrade my phone package each month. It took a couple of complaints for them to stop.

[Maggy]

Buy an answering machine and screen your calls/

:tu:

[rhyds]

If your not already, go ex-directory. I did when I had my phone line installed and have had no cold calls. The only unsolicited calls I have are customer surveys from my bank (usually 2 days after my last visit) or my local water supplier warning of burst mains etc.

[garethp]

If you've got caller ID set up on your line, then a call blocker such as this would do the trick:

http://www.abilityanswers.com/cpr-nuisance-call-blocker-p-2228.html

[Chris]

I've been quite tempted to buy one of those Gareth. Do you use one by any chance?

[garethp]

No, not used one personally as thankfully I get very few spam calls. Any I do get are usually taken by my answer machine when I am out. Or if I do take the call, the few seconds of silence at the start of the call is a dead giveaway and I hang up before I hear the click of being connected to the next free agent.

However, I am from the same city (Swansea) as the manufacturer, and have seen them featured in the business section of the local rag recently singing its praises. Now, I am normally quite cynical when it comes to believing what I read in newspapers, but reviews on the net seem to back them up.

Take from that what you will, YMMV, etc. :cool:

[Jimmy-J]

I found that no longer having a land-line does the job, and it saves me money too. If you can manage without a home phone, just get rid. :)

[garethp]

True! I cannot remember the last time I used my landline for outgoing calls.
Giffgaff on the mobile covers me well.
Only problem is that with virgin, I believe it works out cheaper to actually have the landline on your package than not in most circumstances.
Cancelling your phone line could actually end up costing you more per month.

Keep the line, just don't plug a phone into the socket, or just turn the ringer off :)

[Chris]

I found that no longer having a land-line does the job, and it saves me money too. If you can manage without a home phone, just get rid. :)

I am getting increasing numbers of nuisance calls on my mobile, which is frustrating as I rarely use the thing. In fact the last two calls I took on it were both marketing.

As Gareth says, the silence followed by the >click< of being connected to the next available agent in the call centre is a dead giveaway. I don't hang up though, I leave the agent hanging on saying "hello?" as long as possible. If a few more people did that, then these companies wouldn't be able to phone and annoy quite as many people per day.

[Wild Oscar]

Buy an answering machine and screen your calls/

Exactly!! I've been using an answering machine for many, many years now and never get any rubbish calls!

[progers]

We've found that by not answering withheld numbers (having previously told our friends who use this facility to dial 1470) or those obviously wrong like displayed as 00000000 or nonsensical STD codes we have eliminated most. There are some persistent companies that we have saved as Telepest1, 2, 3 etc which are not answered either.

[Matth]

The CPR callblocker is cheaper than Truecall, but not as versatile (Truecall has a fielding mode for unknown numbers, where it asks the caller to identify themselves, then asks you if you want to accept the call - though that will inconvenience genuine callers until you have whitelisted all the ones that it will put through. So it also provides silentbusting even on unknown numbers.

CPR is a blacklist only solution, preprogrammed plus what you add

[Jimi]

Won't say who told me this as he's a mate of mind but he told me that Virgin send out silent calls in the hope that you will take their phone blocker calls,sad if true.

[Milambar]

@ the guy who suggested never registering with TPS, I registered with TPS and saw a dramatic drop in marketing calls. From like 3 or 4 a week, to 1 a year, if I'm unlucky.

[progers]

@ the guy who suggested never registering with TPS, I registered with TPS and saw a dramatic drop in marketing calls. From like 3 or 4 a week, to 1 a year, if I'm unlucky.

We are registered with TPS and ex directory but still get these calls. I think many orgs are wise to UK rules and are employing Asian and American call centres to get around the law here

[Qtx]

Registered with TPS and never get any random calls. Worth registering imo.

The call centres outside of the UK can ignore the TPS so the best way is not to give out your number in the first place. Not something you should have to do but it does help. When you fill out a form or a company asks for your phone number, ask yourself if they really need it and if it would be necessary for them to call you at any point. If the answer is no, give them a number with a few digits switched. If you ever get pulled up on it, you can say it was a typo. Most companies will happily sell as many of your details on as possible for profit.

Doesn't help your current situation but if you change your number at some point, something to keep in mind.

[STONEISLAND]

The last time I got a cold call I had the guy talking to the TV for a good minute as the hands free went to my TV speaker.

I FOUND IT VERY ENTERTAINING.