Getting cold called from Club La Costa Timeshare, what to do?
The Wizard
Posts: 11,071 Forum Member
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I had a call last night from number 02089065239. It rang about 4 times then shut off. I stupidly called it back to an automated answer machine message saying it was Club La Costa, all their operators were busy and someone would call me back. I don't want anyone calling me back. They've since rang again twice.
I have not completed any surveys or given my landline number to anyone. AFAIK the only people who have my landline number are doctors/hospital, the vet, my landlord and my family. Oh and of course Sky which I have my phone with. Anything else we usually use our mobile for.
I'm a bit concerned it may be linked to Sky seeing as we moved our phone over to Sky last month. We're supposed to be opted out of marketing calls and were ex directory but that still doesn't stop some companies selling your info. Prior to this we've never had one single sales call in all the years we've lived here while we were with BT. I fear now were gonna get bombarded. I've read posts about people getting 3-4 calls a day. Once you get on a junk calls list it's very hard to get off it and it just gets sold on and passed round to someone else.
Don't know what to do when they ring again. Don't want to answer it and let them know there's someone here. Don't want to register with the TPS as I've heard people say this sometimes causes more problems but I want to know where they got my number from as I don't give it out to anyone unless it's someone important who I can trust. Maybe they got lucky but now i've called them back (even though nobody answered) this confirms this number is live.
I have not completed any surveys or given my landline number to anyone. AFAIK the only people who have my landline number are doctors/hospital, the vet, my landlord and my family. Oh and of course Sky which I have my phone with. Anything else we usually use our mobile for.
I'm a bit concerned it may be linked to Sky seeing as we moved our phone over to Sky last month. We're supposed to be opted out of marketing calls and were ex directory but that still doesn't stop some companies selling your info. Prior to this we've never had one single sales call in all the years we've lived here while we were with BT. I fear now were gonna get bombarded. I've read posts about people getting 3-4 calls a day. Once you get on a junk calls list it's very hard to get off it and it just gets sold on and passed round to someone else.
Don't know what to do when they ring again. Don't want to answer it and let them know there's someone here. Don't want to register with the TPS as I've heard people say this sometimes causes more problems but I want to know where they got my number from as I don't give it out to anyone unless it's someone important who I can trust. Maybe they got lucky but now i've called them back (even though nobody answered) this confirms this number is live.
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Comments
Hardly anything to worry about and you certainly shouldn't have wasted money calling them back.
Perhaps the best thing to do if they ring again is to point out they are wasting their time and money as you do not want anything to do with them.
I had a similar problem with calls from the USA trying to sell me a holiday in Disneyland.
As for the TPS - they can't help with overseas calls however registering with them does cut down the number of these nuisance type calls to some extent and I have never had any problem with the service.
My suggestion would be to pick up the phone when it rings, but if its them, simply hang up. Perhaps if you keep doing this, they'll give up.
My daughter used to work for CLC a long time ago, it's a holiday time share company. They cold call to try and get leads.
It would seem from some Google research that this tactic works with Club La Costa so no reason for you to delay registering.
Have a read of this from Ofcom: http://consumers.ofcom.org.uk/2012/10/live-marketing-calls/#tpsreg
p.s. Have you opted out of the Electoral Register, as this could be where they are getting your number?
I could never not answer the phone just because I don't recognise the number. It could be a hospital calling to tell me somebody close is ill or has been in an accident. Or any one of a myriad of legitimate other reasons. Cold calls are a bloody nuisance but it only takes seconds to get rid of them. Better than missing something important.
They'll leave a message. Cold callers won't.
The point is there are many calls from withheld/unknown numbers who can't or won't leave a message, yet can be important. Or even if they leave a message, getting back to them is not so easy (engaged or gone out or on hold, or perhaps they've phoned someone else instead, if they are offering work).
My son has just gone to bed. It's a good job the phone never woke him up as this is a ridiculous time to call someone.
It's very much of a coincidence how I've not had one single sales call in 7 years yet a month after my move to sky I'm now getting these. To answer an above post we are opted off the electoral register but as far as I know they don't have my phone number anyway.
How much of your life is it making a misery over a whole day? Are you living in fear of them?
Yes its sales tactics and they are annoying just speak to them next time in a calm collective manner and say please remove me from the list.
I was thinking of telling them that this is a business or office so hopefully it will put them off.
I'm currently on hold to sky so I can ask about my privacy settings and if there's anything they can do to block unwanted calls. I'm not holding out much hope though.
You may have to write to them to confirm you want your number removed and the operator has to give you details of who to contact.
http://consumers.ofcom.org.uk/2012/10/live-marketing-calls/
Thanks. Sky have just said that they don't share my number with 3rd parties and suggested the TPS but also said they operate a number barring service which I can bar up to 10 numbers but at a cost of £3.50 per month. He suggested the first thing to do is speak to them and tell them not to ring again. If they continue to do so they are then breaking the law and can report them to the TPS or direct to offcom. However the Offcom kink you provided said that TPS doesn't cover silent or abandoned calls which so far this has been the case. They either ring a few times and hang up and when I called back it went to an automated message with no option to opt out. They said instead to call Offcom direct to report them which I will do tomorrow as well as register with the TPS.
I explained that I don't give my number to anyone and he said they've most probably been phishing and because I rang back to see who it was that called then it may have registered on their system as a live address.
Also I was just advised that if possible I record the conversation and inform them that the call is being recorded so they can't deny that I've asked them to stop calling.
The only problem I have with registering with the TPS is who has access to that list of numbers. I want as few organisations knowing my number as possible. Once my number is on a list then who knows who has access to it, whether they're allowed to call me or not.
http://corporate.tpsonline.org.uk/index.php/tps/technical
I remember specifically asking them not to pass my number on to anyone or use it for marketing calls and the guy on reception told me that my number was only used to confirm my booking or in case there was a problem with my payment and they needed to get in touch with me. Yeah right! Thank God they never had my mobile as I may be getting junk texts as well.
Thanks CLC because you've just managed to do yourself out of any further business from me. I don't deal with people who use harassment to sell me things. It has the opposite effect.
Just say it's a private number and they shouldn't be using it. That should be the end of the conversation; no need to go into further explanations.
Alternatively just say the person they want is not available, or hasn't got any money.
We're not in the telephone directory.