does anyone have any experience of these devices that plug into your phone line, and apparently block calls from sales companies, etc?

They seem to get good reviews on amazon, etc

Which ones in particular? We've had a truecall for years and haven't had one sales call since we got it, but they're not cheap!

I looked at the true-call. But they're about £100..

also, I don't want to confuse my callers with all this "say your name", "press 5"....... from what I gather, they seem to think its an answerphone, and try to leave a message, rather than just their name!

Another thing, I don't even want to be interrupted by cold callers leaving their name and me having to either allow or block them!!!

There is a simpler system called a CPR call blocker, it comes pre programmed with the numbers of most common call centers. Then you can add any other numbers, and block international, unknown, etc. type calls.
It gets good reviews on amazon, and can be bought for £39 on ebay, so may give that a go.

Has anyone tried filtering calls with ring tone selection on the handset? (As I understand it) you select silent or no ringtone as the default, then assign ringtones to numbers in your address book/contacts.

Found an example here (post 12):

http://www.urban75.net/forums/thread...-phone.288166/

I do that with my mobile, but I couldn't find a landline phone that has a silent ringtone. I spent ages looking and in the end the Panasonic 'night mode' was the closest I found. This was a few years ago though.

First thing to do is go ex directory, second thing to do is use caller display, third thing to do is have a whistle and as you answer the cold caller BLOW.

I have Call line Identifier. If I do not recognise the number, I simply don't answer.

I am ex directory and registered to the TPS. I also make sure that any companies I have dealings with make sure they mark the marketing peferences to "Do not call".