Re: Getting harassed
 

As do my Bank, VM, BT and Sky.

At least they did until I barred them on my home phone. :)

Re: Getting harassed
 

I've been getting quite a few calls recently from some debt collection agency, for some random name - it's an automated caller, which asks for the person by name, press 1 if you are them, 2 if not. I pressed 2. Then it asks can I get this person to come to the phone, again quoting their name, 1 if yes, 2 if no. Pressed 2. It then just says get them to call back on this number, quoting this reference, and hangs up. I've mostly had voicemails with just the last bit of the recording, and just happened to be home when it called last time. I've had the number a few years now, and 90% of the calls I get are people asking for an all manner of random names - none of which are me.

I'm pretty certain I don't owe anybody any money - I'm very careful about such things - so I'm thinking it's a case of somebody having the wrong number. It's driving me nuts though, as I just want to tell them to naff off! I'm waiting for another message so I have the reference number so I can find another number to call back on (not their 0845) and tell them to stop it, if I can.

Any pearls of wisdom gratefully received!

Oh, and I'm on TPS, have been for ages.

Re: Getting harassed
 

I get a few from payday loan companys. Like you I owe nobody a penny.

Back in the day, when I bothered to speak to time wasters, after being pestered for weeks telling them the person they were seeking has never lived at this address I eventually got my number removed from there calling list.

Most other times, if anyone at all answered, it would be "Is so and so there" when I reply "No never heard of him" the caller hangs up. I then look up the callers number and it is always some loan company.

Now I do have a wayward offspring who in the past has tried and succeded in getting credit using my name or address so it may be down to him but that is the lenders problem not mine.

Anyway, these days I have a home phone with a call barring feature so after the initial call whether it be silent or not (most are) they get entered on the callers barred list. Usually there are 2 or 3 further attempts at contact after which they seem to give up.

Works for me, you will need caller ID enabled and a £50 home phone set. Mines a panasonic which has been superceded now but they still have models with the feature. Check out the panasonic range on amazon. I am well satisfied with mine and would recommend it if it was still available.

Re: Getting harassed
 

Well I do have a Panasonic handset, so I can probably do it (a pretty recent one). I just don't see why I should pay extra for Caller ID, just so I can stop it. But then, it could be worthwhile, just to get rid of these idiots in general. It's not my fault they've got my number! But such is life.

Something to ponder at least, thanks.

Re: Getting harassed
 

Just say, when they ask to speak to you, "hang on I will go and get him" and leave them to stew till they end the call - it costs time in a call centre with that scenario and you will soon disappear from cold calling lists ;)

Re: Getting harassed
 

I was previously with BT and now with Sky.

I have never paid extra for caller ID?

Even so I believe it is a relatively trivial expense and well worth it to stop nuisance callers and timewasters running roughshod on your phoneline.

Re: Getting harassed
 

The price I found on Virgin's website was £2.50 a month - an extra £30 a year. Maybe it's inclusive on some packages? As far as I know it's optional though.

Re: Getting harassed
 

Ouch!...Well that's VM for you. What they give in one hand they claw back with interest in the other.

They couldn't even provide a phoneline that worked while I was with them. :rolleyes:

Re: Getting harassed
 

Shame my line works, it would be OK then!

Re: Getting harassed
 

Got a crossline tonight, was really odd :p

Re: Getting harassed
 

I just got a call from someone. He said 'Hi I spoke to someone on this number a few days ago and they told me the 'nephew' will be back today, we've had a response from the accident claims panel'. I was going to put the phone down but instead dug him out or tried. I asked whats the name, he couldnt answer and persisted with nephew. I then said if he had a response from the accident claims panel then he would have a name. He started again i spoke to someone who said their nephew would be back today. Again I ask whats the name? he answers your nephew. I lost the plot and said 'you should know the name if youve had a reply from the accident claims panel, youre calling me asking for nephew..' i didnt get to finish because he opted to say 'f u u motherf c'. i told him karma would get him and put the phone down. 1471 = private number.. no surprise.

Re: Getting harassed
 

And I thought the calls I got were bad! Some people are just chancers!!

Re: Getting harassed
 

I have a Virgin phone, used TPS, I block withheld numbers, and it doesn't stop the calls - we get more than one a day.

I'm seriously thinking of investing in one of these...

https://www.truecall.co.uk/home.aspx

£100 seems a lot, but I would hope that in my configuration all I need to do is to handle international numbers a bit better and I hope that I'll be fixed. Does anyone have any experience of TrueCall?

Re: Getting harassed
 

I don't have any experience of true call myself (although I have been looking at it as we do seem to be getting an increasing amount of wrong numbers), but I do find it funny that if you watch their intro video and turn on the captions, the captions describe the device as "stalinist". Still, that's Google's Automatic captions for you.

Welcome to the forum, BTW.

Re: Getting harassed
 

Difficult to put a price on peace of mind but I would say, if you are bothered by nuisance calls, then it would be well worth it.

If my own strategy of merely blocking nuisance callers hadn't worked so well I would have gone down the Truecall route.