stopping a company from calling?
 

In the last 3 days I have had a withheld number calling me asking for a mr bolan or boland etc

Its an indian accent I have told them already that its the wrong number and they gave me the address I told them it was the wrong address they I live at a different one...so they keep calling about 10x a day starting at 7am and going right through till about 2am

I've told them everytime to stop calling and asked to speak to the manager which results in them hanging up.

Today first time ever they actually called with a number when I tried to ring that number back it said "sorry wrong number"

This is becoming a real pain and I dont want to block withheld numbers as I work for the NHS when I ring home or they need to contact me it automatically withholds the number as they need to push 9 to ring out.

I am sometimes on call with the acute team so may be called in should there be an emergency.

What can VM do to stop these calls if I give them a call

Re: stopping a company from calling?
 

Nothing as the company is calling from outside of the UK, you would get the same response form BT and these companies know this and play on it.

Re: stopping a company from calling?
 

I find shouting angrily down the phone at persistant wrong numbers usually stops them from calling

Re: stopping a company from calling?
 

Just say that Mr Bolan died 16 September 1977?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marc_Bolan

I have done this before with other surnames and it seems to stop them?

Re: stopping a company from calling?
 

Re: stopping a company from calling?
 

Or a foot ball rattle:redcard:

Re: stopping a company from calling?
 

Or an app called CallZapper if you have iPhone, iPad or probably iPod

It's great fun too!

Re: stopping a company from calling?
 

I'm not sure that this is really helping Gavin78. Seems to be a really genuine cause for distress given that he works for the NHS. If my understanding of "Acute" is correct then it's serious. Does anyone have some sensible suggestions please?

Re: stopping a company from calling?
 

Given that the chances are they are calling from abroad there is really only 1 serious option available if you cannot block number withheld and that is to change your telephone number.

Normally if you ask to change numbers I believe you get charged for it, but if you are suffering from nuisance calls they will not charge you.

We suffered from nuisance calls and did not want to change so had to opt for blocking incoming number withheld, but that does not work in all instances. We were offered a number change but chose not to, but that can have its own difficulties as well as you may get a recycled number that someone with bad credit had before you which could mean debt collectors calling you.

There is no easy answer to this unfortunately

Re: stopping a company from calling?
 

This will stop them but at a price and it does actually work.

http://www.truecall.co.uk/

Re: stopping a company from calling?
 

Thanks for the help I'm thinking of considering it...I'm going to ring the company on Thursday for some advice about it.

Re: stopping a company from calling?
 

how can you block witheld numbers?

Re: stopping a company from calling?
 

I think with virgin you have to pay for it not much about £1.75 a month or so. you'll have to contact them to add it to your account

---------- Post added at 13:47 ---------- Previous post was at 13:46 ----------

unless your home phone has the ability built in...mine does I can blacklist numbers I dont like

Re: stopping a company from calling?
 

I also have receive calls from what sounds like an indian bloke to say theres some thing wrong with my computer, and I have also tried all the tricks but they still ring back.
It got that bad one day with more than 10 calls so I ask for there number to call them back and they gave me it. When I ring it they did answer and yet still saying my computer will shut down.
I now found this site to report things like this www.actionfraud.org.uk give it ago see if they can help

Re: stopping a company from calling?
 

thanks, but £1.75 on top of a all ready heavy bill will give it a miss
blacklist MIL mmmm

:D

Re: stopping a company from calling?
 

That will not work in cases like this where no number is sent from the incoming phone, you would be wasting money, also your phone would be ineffective as well as it needs to see the number in order to block it.;)

Re: stopping a company from calling?
 

Never give your phone no. out is always a good idea; especially your land line. Apart from close relatives, and for financial fraud checks (i.e. credit card companies/ your bank) , no need for anyone else to have it. Always take time to make sure you opt out of all marketing and register with TPS. If anybody your are buying something from demands your phone no., just give them 01234567890. If you have to give a number given them a mobile no. (which you can always switch off), or a work number (they can talk to me all day at work if they want ;) )They'll just flog it on if you do give them your home number. I do all this and never get any of these types of calls. Once you get on a marketing list you've had it. It amazes me how people are so lax with their personal info., and then complain they get these calls.

Re: stopping a company from calling?
 

Excellent advice.

Apart from investing in a Truecall device I think the next best thing is a new phone with answerphone and call barring built in.

I have all the VM spammers, Barclays Bank spammers, Sky spammers, BT spammers and the inevitable selection debt collection nuisances eternally asking for unknown people on my calls barred list and leave the answerphone to deal with the withelds and overseas carp.

I'm happy to say, after a short while, it seems most get the message and give up. :)

Re: stopping a company from calling?
 

Well I never gave my number out these people started to call me out of the blue....the wife got the phone a couple of days ago while I was at work and gave them a few words they haven't called back since

Re: stopping a company from calling?
 

When he rang me I said "Which computer? There are five in the house."

He said "The one which you first used to connect to your ISP."

I said "Oh, you mean the one in the garage that hasn't been switched on for a year?"

He eventually gave up and I've never been bothered again.

Re: stopping a company from calling?
 

I find the best way is to pretend to be a police officer attending the scene of a murder and ask them who they are etc, you would laugh at how fast they hang up and most of the time they dont call back !

Re: stopping a company from calling?
 

:D

Re: stopping a company from calling?
 

No. I do NOT want to make a PPI claim!!!!!!

Re: stopping a company from calling?
 

But what about claiming for that accident you had - obviously led to loss of memory since you can't remember it!

Re: stopping a company from calling?
 

having recently got Virgin to block witheld calls at a monthly cost £2.70 pm maybe i will look at truecall

---------- Post added at 11:02 ---------- Previous post was at 11:00 ----------

my wifes few words last for hours so they would never phone back!

Re: stopping a company from calling?
 

That only stops calls from within the UK not outside which is where Truecall comes into its element..

Re: stopping a company from calling?
 

I'd personally just get a phone that can block any number you put in its block list. and then you don't hear it ring at your end. only they hear it ringing.

I have about 14 numbers in mine, and never hear a sound from any of them. even though they're still calling.

Re: stopping a company from calling?
 

You do realise that the calls we are talking about do not send any numbers as they are usually foreign and for the extra few pounds the Truecaller device actually works with any call and is like a virtual secretary.

Re: stopping a company from calling?
 

Think I saw that a while back on Dragons Den.

Why don't you google the number Gavin, see if that sheds anymore light on the company or reveals another number you can call them on, also can't you block international calls anymore or are they routed through the UK to bypass this these days.

Re: stopping a company from calling?
 

That can be like clicking an email they then know the number you are ringing from is a live one so they may use it to callback, being Devils Advocate here.;)

Re: stopping a company from calling?
 

hi there,
i have been getting the same calls.
my son told me to go a site called tps its free and easy to use. they will block calls .
tex

Re: stopping a company from calling?
 

They will only block calls originating in the UK not ones from outside the UK especially if they do not transmit a phone number as they will always get through.

Re: stopping a company from calling?
 

TPS don't block any calls.. all they do is publish a no call list that all UK companies should abide by.. It still won't stop non-UK nor will it stop the usual "I'm not selling but doing market research" excuse that a lot of companies are trying on people to get their details/interest in their products/services..

Re: stopping a company from calling?
 

I thought barring numbers that are anonymous would help stop a lot of nuisance calls but virgin want nearly £3 a month to actvate it
TPS is a wate of time as you can't report companies that don't leave a number
BT here I come

Re: stopping a company from calling?
 

You will find that you will have exactly the same issue with BT as they are in exactly the same boat in that they cannot prevent these calls either as the companies involved know not to send an id which would be blocked.

Check out the BT forums for the exact same issues.

I find it hilarious that people actually think that by going to a different provider they will get away from these calls.

What they tend to forget is that the are no new numbers out there so you are likely to get one that may have been used by someone with a poor credit history and are surprised to get calls from debt collection agencies.

My daughter got a line from BT recently and had to get it changed a week later because of such calls, you could be jumping from the frying pan into the fire.

Re: stopping a company from calling?
 

You are right BT charge even more than virgin
My gripe is that it was free

Re: stopping a company from calling?
 

I wouldn't call TPS a waste of time at all. The number of unsolicited calls we receive reduced dramatically after we registered with the TPS. And if (UK) companies call you, they are generally off the phone the moment you mention the TPS. India, not so much, but UK yes. As it happens I received a rare call from a UK company this week, and he pretty hung up without a saying another word when I mentioned TPS.

Re: stopping a company from calling?
 

It does not stop the type of call the thread is about so a waste of money.

Re: stopping a company from calling?
 

Truecall, as mentioned earlier in the thread, is a slightly expensive but absolutely effective device. I've had mine for over a year and I have not had a single spam call get through. Prior to buying this we were plagued by unwanted calls at all hours of the day.

In addition you can browse your call history online, look up any unknown numbers, and then add them to your star/zap lists (if they go in your zap list they are told to get lost if they ring again).

Re: stopping a company from calling?
 

I have Virgin media down on my list. they're constantly calling me. and they're getting a constant ringing out in return. I'm on TPS too.

08000522160

is this in the UK

Re: stopping a company from calling?
 

Presumably you have to subscibe to caller display for this to work

Re: stopping a company from calling?
 

Yes that's right, you do need caller display for this to work.

Re: stopping a company from calling?
 

Market Research companies in the UK are supposed to use the TPS dont call list too so that excuse is rubbish.

Re: stopping a company from calling?
 

Not according to what is on the TPS website

i.e. "As TPS registration only prevents marketing calls, organisations will still be able to call you for the purposes of genuine market research"

Also probably depends on what is meant by "organisations". Rather a big loophole I think:D

Re: stopping a company from calling?
 

TPS was mentioned on the Panorama programme on Monday night.
Basically it's a free recommended system for the UK but there is nothing legally saying they have to abide by that list.
So it may help a bit but it's not going to completely wipe out cold calling

Re: stopping a company from calling?
 

Interesting as TPS say different

"The Telephone Preference Service (TPS) is a free service. It is the official central opt out register on which you can record your preference not to receive unsolicited sales or marketing calls. It is a legal requirement that all organisations (including charities, voluntary organisations and political parties) do not make such calls to numbers registered on the TPS unless they have your consent to do so."

Re: stopping a company from calling?
 

I have the Truecall box that another helper mentioned. It has many options on screening calls so it should be possible to block all such calls or put them on hold and you can decide whether to accept or not.

Chris