General Chat

After a week of unwanted phone calls they have started big time today :-S :-S.
So far there have been 4 and without sounding racist or not politically correct (or whatever ) they all sound dare I say Asian/Indian……I really don't want to offend anyone but never know quite the right way of describing these calls.

The best one was just now ."Am I speaking to Mrs R*** ?" No ,I say she is not in..
"Am I speaking to a family member"? …..NO ,I say…"can I take a message,and who is speaking"…….reply "My name is Alec and I am calling from the UK,do don't worry ,I am not trying to sell you anything and this is not a Mother's Day call.It is just a survey" .Mothers day call???? what is that all about LOL.That is a new one for me .
Anyone else suddenly being bombarded again by these calls?

,

just leave the phone off the hook - put it to one side - they can't make any more calls and it's costing them - don't even speak to them :-D :-D

Used to do market research surveys, and when arthritis stopped me walking the streets I did some telephone surveys, real surveys! but this was 13 years ago when there weren't all these intrusive and phoney calls - I should think it must be impossible to do real surveys on the phone by now, there is legitimately such exasperation caused by the current overload - I should hate to try and do them now!

I always just put the phone down as soon as I hear nothing for a second or two as I know it is one of these calls.But today I just wanted to test them lol
Elizabeth I think there are still 'real' surveys done by phone but these particular calls 'you know darned well ' they are NOT :-D…and of course there is no record of the callers number :-S
No doubt I will get more tomorrow !!

I had 2 yesterday and 2 today - it usually shows 'international' on the handset, so I know what to expect.
I now say, in reply to 'Can I speak to Mrs X '-
'No, sorry, she doesn't live here any more.'

Jane, Why don't you subscribe to Caller Display, It costs about £1.75p
a month and I find it's worth every penny, numbers that I haven't put in
the address book come up as unavailable or withheld so I don't answer
them, anybody else who wants to get in touch who I haven't got numbers
of have only to leave a message on the answerphone.


F.

We are with Virgin Media and are ex directory .number withheld ,and the phone wont accept number withheld calls either.
The house phone and both mobiles are on the telephone preference too BUT these cant stop non UK calls

We get very little nuisance calls

I'm registered with the Telephone Preference Service (TPS) but some of these calls still trickle through.

The callers are usually working to a very rigid script so I ask them things like what have they had for their tea, what type of curtains I should get. Sometimes I just tell them that their call is important to me but I have to put them on hold and just wander off and have a cuppa and a fag. I have even sang to them. Sometimes I just tell them to eff off.

TPS does not stop BT from giving out your phone number to their "partners" even when it is ex-directory

I just tell 'em that the weather is terrible here and ask 'em what it's like in Bombay?

We must be lucky, we never get them...although we do get the recorded message ones, they are no fun you cant swear at them

Since retiring, I enjoy answering International calls and just having a chat. I pretend to be old and feeble (not that hard these days). I am so friendly and so interested in their survey and want to put double glazing in my house, though I have no sky, no TV, no computer. But I do have a radio. I am having problems getting Radio Luxembourg, can they help with that? They get my number by looking at electoral rolls and the local phone directory. So I suppose that means my openness encourages people to try to mess me about.

Seldom do I get more than 30 seconds of fun before they either
a. transfer me to a supervisor who has a command of English that includes words such as "Fair play", What's occurrin'?, butt, butty, cock, duck.... Or
b. like you, dear reader, they cut me off.


Dummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm :-( :-( :-(

When I was with BT I was also with the Telephone Preference Service (Still am)
and the only UK based nuisance calls I got were from BT trying to sell me add ons to my account. I complained and still got the calls, complained again, still got the calls, on the last call I told them that from the following week my account was going over to Sky as I was fed up with all the nuisance calls, they said they could stop them for me, and I answered with the comment that the only nuisance calls I was getting was from BT such as the call I was currently on. The BT operator went silent, apologised and hung up.

Now the only nuisance calls I get are from overseas. I answer, find no one there and just hang up.

If there is someone there, I just swear at them and hang up. May be very rude, but I feel very happy after!!!

I spoke to a lovely Indian gentleman a couple of weeks ago,

He did not even have the right surname for me but those who had owned the house 13 years ago. Did not tell him that right away but let him talk for a minute or two.

He was calling about my claim for a car accident.

As soon as I said I did not own a car the phone went dead.

You could always tell them you were a Chinese Take away And ask for their order. :-D :-D It works for me.