How do you deal with unsolicited phone calls?
Pamthehound
Posts: 5,333 Forum Member
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In our house we have been getting plagued with unsolicited cold phone calls , mainly from foreign places.
My wife started just by telling them she was the "Cleaner".
My daugther has also started saying some really outlandish reasons, like Im the lodger and the landlords here are terrible people.
Ive just got a call looking for my wife, I told the girl she was dead, she then asked for another family member , I told her there was none , then she asked me "who are you". I said Im the funeral undertaker.
Its now became a bit of a laugh here. Question is , are we doing anyting wrong having a laugh like this .
Or , anybody else here do the same thing to these cold telephone calls.
My wife started just by telling them she was the "Cleaner".
My daugther has also started saying some really outlandish reasons, like Im the lodger and the landlords here are terrible people.
Ive just got a call looking for my wife, I told the girl she was dead, she then asked for another family member , I told her there was none , then she asked me "who are you". I said Im the funeral undertaker.
Its now became a bit of a laugh here. Question is , are we doing anyting wrong having a laugh like this .
Or , anybody else here do the same thing to these cold telephone calls.
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Now when I work out they're selling something I say 'thank you but I'm not interested' at the same time as cutting off the call. I reason that if thy're genuinely trying to get hold of me- my bank for instance- that they will call back.
This - and I may add (depending on mood), 'please remove my number from your database and don't call again'.
I never understand why people get into drawn out 'methods' of dealing with these calls.
End them swiftly = minimum annoyance to yourself.
You deal with your bank, over the phone?
No, not in the sense of giving out information. Although I have done in the past and so long as the relevant checks are done, it's fine. One time there was fraudulent activity on my account, they phoned and alerted me so that was good.
If they cannot tell me where exactly they got my number from then I tell them that in that case I am not prepared to help them with any information they are asking me to give.
IMHO it's good if you can get them to hang up.
In the meantime, there's this classic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7OgWcwgB50
Being on the mailing preference service wont affect your phone calls. You'll need to register for the telephone preference service if you want to try and reduce the unwanted telephone calls.
That is what I meant.
The 3rd and last time I hung on and finally a guy named Andrew (with an Asian accent and poor English) spoke and claimed he was from UK Finance and had good news that I had won my claim for overcharges (never had a claim) and were ready to be refunded to me, all they wanted now was my bank details. I told him where to shove it and he then started to holler at me about dogs shagging my sister and then hung up.
What checks do you perform?
I do, it's called tele banking.
I can't remember now, it's been a while since I used phone banking. IIRC It usually means you phoning them and using various passwords and info only known to you anyway. The phone call I was thinking of when they phoned me was when there was fraudulent activity on my account.
And even that only helps with UK generated calls.
That said, I am TPS registered, and don't get too many calls. If I find the calls are on the up again, I just re-register (shouldn't be necessary I know), and they seem to stop again.
One thing I will say, and have said on here before, in a previous job I needed to call people who had expressed an interest in a particular subject (it was clinical research). We only had phone numbers from people who had completed - by hand - a form, with their contact details.
Time and again, you would get abusive responses, and demands to know 'where did you get my number' - followed by abject denial that it had been supplied.
I know this isn't the case for most 'annoying' calls, but sometimes people just forget who they gave their number to (and yes, I heard time and again 'well I don't give my number to anyone', swearing, phone slammed down - as I looked at a hand-written form. Sometimes they would call back five minutes later and sheepishly say 'are you XXXXXXX ?')
How would they know, they were actually talking to the account holder?
And they all come up number withheld which is a real bummer as one major contact I get calls from also withholds their number so I have no choice but to answer the calls just in case.
If it's obviously a scammer or a recorded message, I just hang up.