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[ariadne]

These calls drive me mad and nearly always seem to be at teatime. We are registered with the TPS but it doesnt seem to have stopped anyone calling. Sometimes I decide to have a bit of fun with them but mostly they infuriate me, especially the recorded message ones or the silent ones that end with "Goodbye"

If they are polite and genuinely trying to promote a local business I am also polite. Its the scammers etc.  that I hate.

After a particularly "busy" evening of these calls I snatched up the phone and yelled "Did you know that 99% of calls to this number are not from people that I know!"

On Monday I answered one and an Indian man asked if I was "my husbands name". I said "No, because he is a man and I am a woman" He then said he didnt want anything from me but just wanted to ask me lifestyle questions. I politely asked that he remove our number from his calling list as we were registered with the TPS and he said "No Madam, I will not do that. I will continue to call you"     Grrrrrr!

It annoys me that we pay for the phone service for our own benefit, not so every Tom Dick and Harry can use it to try and sell us stuff we didn't ask for

Ariadne xx

[honeybun]

I have to tell them the full name...Telephone Preference Service, as when I try to use initials I keep telling the caller I'm with TCP 
Heck the amount of times I've done that and it cracks hubby up as he thinks it's hilarious 


Meno brain again.

Honeybun
X

[Dorothy]

I'd stick to TCP Honeybun - maybe they'll think it stands for Telephone Communications Police or something and it might scare them off calling again 

[honeybun]

Or think I'm a very smelly woman 

Doesn't work either way 


Honeybun
X

[SadLynda]

My Mum just puts the phone down on the chair and walks away leaving them talking to themselves, seems to work quite well.

We are lucky as the DH runs his own business so he has the business line for the PC's so we got rid of our landline when it drove me bonkers (mmh, I think that was about 3 years ago, that fits the pattern).  I also have a large sign on my door to prevent cold callers from knocking.

[getting_old]

I get really sick of these calls, and tend to answer numbers I don't recognise rather sharply. Did so today only to realise I was talking to the dentist's secretary - oops.

[ariadne]

I was reading some online tales of cold calls and funny things people say in response. Heres a few

Someone invented some security questions and insisted the cold caller answer them before the call continued. The last question was "What's my favourite colour?". Followed by " No sorry that's wrong so I'm afraid I can't continue this call"

In answer to the "Your computer has a virus" calls, someone said "Oh no, wait while I turn it on then"  fol!owed by "Oh no, it just caught fire - will you be able to put it out from there?"

A woman said she couldnt talk right now because she had just murdered her husband and needed to dispose of the body!

Having said all that though, we should remember that there is a real person at the other end just trying to earn a living and probably hating their job.  I just wish they wouldn't call me!

Ariadne xx

[CLKD]

DH told a man from Asia to 'bugga off' earlier, another 'windows' scam.

[Limpy]

Ah the windows scam 

Is that the one "your computer is at risk"?

Different possible responses

Me - Thank you so much for your time but I'll trust my virus checker software
OH - Hmm very interesting, do you have a number I can call you back on?

Both work - the caller puts the phone down

[Taz2]

That didn't work for  me - they called back three times each time I hung up and were very insistent. Luckily  my computer son was staying for the weekend and took the last call. He sat there patiently and did everything they told him to (took forty minutes)  - making all of the appropriate "OH NO" noises when they got him to log onto the page where you appear to see all of the virus attacks being made and at the last minute, when he was asked to pay the money, he gave them what for. The guy called his manager who came on the line and then insulted my son and then me and then the whole family. It was entertaining to listen to because we were in control but the fact that they kept calling back - and also that I couldn't cut them off because they  made the call - was really intimidating. That was around three years ago and they've not tried again.

Taz x

[Limpy]

Taz - It wasn't us who hung up, it was them.
Not a lot of comfort though, they do keep on calling us.
Mind you, they don't stick around long   

[honeybun]

I just tell them I don't have a computer as I'm 99 years old  . Usually works.


Honeybun
X

[Limpy]

A friend of mine who's got a pub tells them she's the Cleaner.
That seems to work.

[CLKD]

DH told the man that he doesn't have a computer before the Boff 

I tend to play along.  I got to recognise the man from India by the 3rd call, each one about 6 weeks apart .  'Oh' he said', 'you're the lady without a computer' ..... we had a chat and I've not heard since that was a few years ago.  It was his shocked silence when I told him in the initial call that I don't own a computer and 'where did you get your information from because you have been badly misled'.  After all, they are paying for the call to our land line 

1 bloke called and I could hear he was in a warehouse, "Are you in the bottom of a well?" asked I.  'click'