Right, well I have just had a landline connected up and I'm already getting nuisnace calls from a few different numbers it seems.
I've had calls from Witheld numbers and when I pick up, you hear a beep, pause of silence followed by a beep and so on for a bit and even after you put the phone to then pick it up again to make another call, instead of the dial tone, you will hear that same beep, silence, beep from the phone call.
Anyway, today, I had a call from what I think would be that same person or number, except the number was not appearing witheld today. I've not rung back but having done some research about the number on Google, it would appear that I'm not the only one receiving calls from that number. It has been suggested that it is a Fax number trying to send a Fax though to you but I'm not sure.
Having taken note of what was said on there, one poster identified the company as being called Freestart PLC from Wigan. The Caller ID shown was 01492 233134.
Some posters said that they had called back, only to be given some automated message about how phone calls are not compatible to that number. Also, it seems as though Freestart PLC have a website with some 0870 contact numbers so I can get through to them but I've also been given another number (local) which would get me through to the company I think is concerned.
I called 01942406129 which is a local number for Freestart but when I called today, their office was closed. So I will phone these people in the morning and see if they are able to confirm that the number listed above that has been calling me on a number of occasions over the past week is actually a number that they can be held responsible for. I will just ask to be removed from their call list. It's as simple as that, well I'm hoping that it is.
I have registered for the Telephone Preference Service and hopefully that will help. It cannot do any harm anyway.
I've also registered for Silent Callgard, you have to ring them to register and I believe that you have to register every 12 months or something like that.
I've spoken to BT about this problem also and they have said you have two options available to you that might block out the calls.
One is Anonymous Call Rejection at £4 a month, so that's £48 per year. This will block out all witheld numbers and you won't even need to give it a second thought about having any unknown callers hassling you.
Two is the Choose To Refuse service at £3.35 per month or £40.20 per year. This will allow you to block up to 10 phone numbers, that includes blocking Witheld numbers. You don't need to know the identity of the Witheld number to block it. I think you just put some numbers in on your phone's keypad and add the last caller to the blocked list, assuming it is the number that you have had a problem with. I believe that this option is also free for the first 30 days too so might be worth you giving that a go. This option might also be the better one if it is just one or two numbers that are a problem and you might not always want to block out private or witheld numbers.
Note that the two options listed above will not block out international calls.
