[happygolucky]

I have noticed that cold calling etc has become much more aggressive lately, and the amount of scam E Mails is increasing, some are almost believable, loads from Pay Pal, just glad we have not used it for a while.
I had a phone call from our telephone provider, I changed my service some time ago, and live to regret it as I believe to have been mis sold it, but, after phoning them in the cooling off period around 14 days after taking up the service I was told I needed to pay a huge cancellation figure,  I could not afford to pay the huge sum they wanted for the rest of their 18mth contract, so I thought I would cancel at the end of that, and when I phoned they told me I needed to have cancelled 3 mths before the end of that contract as now it had rolled into another 12 mth contract, a rolling one that's now illegal...this contract ends in December and we move out very soon, so when the some one from the company phoned yet again to offer me something!! I said we were going to finish with the service as from the date given, he demanded the name of the people that are moving in, I said he did not need to know that, he kept on that he did and became very aggressive, I was able to tell him when we were leaving but refused to give him any names as I could not see why I needed too, he said, in his hard sell way, well I will phone next week when you know their names as otherwise they will have to set up a connection at a great cost to the new owners, I said I would check that out as never heard of it.
 
I did phone BT and he was way out of order.....my husband had similar hard sell stuff at work, they are certainly upping their ways of getting more customers....
The horrid part about all this, we are open to sales people in our homes all the time, I have a few on line bills come in so have to look carefully at my E Mails, otherwise most are just rubbish, just like the stuff that used to be posted out.......well I am ready for the sales man today, he is no way getting any names off me!

[Alistair]

We have signed up to telephone preference service, it's cut it down, but one got through the other day, and she was so aggressive it was funny so I let it carry on, basically wanted to speak to my wife, who wasn't in, so after telling her she wouldn't be in till 8, she asked if she could ring at 6 to speak to her, (this went on for a bit, she couldn't seem to grasp the concept that people arn't in at 6), anyway she rang back at 6 and asked to speak to her, so I said she wasn't there, she asked when she'd be back, I said she wouldn't be back, she asked for a mobile number, I didn't give it, I told her she was dead, she put the phone down then pretty quickly, anyway their number wasn't blocked so I've reported it to the tps.

Wife's not dead though. Checked that, she came home last night and everything

[Fowgill Farm]

I like the ones from the power people,   let them ramble on for ages trying to sell me a dual fuel policy and if i have time ask loads of questions and then at the end i say " hey that really sounds great, i'd love to save money on a dual fuel supply, problem is theres no Gas within 20 miles of here so tough poo sherlock do your home work first" and then put the phone down and have another glass of wine!!
Mandy

[Bodger]

I always talk to them about cricket, especially when they are Indian guys who tell me that their name is Robert Jones.

[Backinwellies]

Apparently I've had a car accident within the last 3 years ..... and have been told so 4 times now despite telling the first , second and third ones to take me off list.  ..... with 4th one I reminded him the call was recorded and that I had already asked to be removed 3 times ....... so far not had a accident since!!

[happygolucky]

I keep getting told the  bank owes me money on the PPI claim thing, well I did get my small amount of money back and have not had any loans etc since, then I get loads for the people who lived here over 6 years ago, one chap said " Good morning Mr Christopher, my name is James, how are you? " I feel horrid but I now put the phone down, I know its there job and they probably get commission.......trouble is, I have been waiting for phone calls from 2 lots of solicitors and if I miss them and phone back, its hard to catch them in, so I run to the phone. One day I may try some of the funny ways of dealing with them, like pretend its a crime scene or ask them questions......its getting harder to sort them out lately.......I hate being rude but sometimes you just have too!
 

[ellied]

I'm on ex-Directory and TPS listing and still get a few every week - if they come up international or unknown that's easy to ignore, and I've got an answerphone that puts off a few more but between the government funding of some power scheme which the government apparently haven't funded strangely, and the number of PPI claims I might be due if I'd ever accepted the PPI cover in the last 20 years.. it is still annoying.

The most recent one came up as coming from a local number and I picked up on that basis so was raging when I later realised it was supposedly coming from my own landline number!!  That is outright fraud but I have no number to report and the Chinese accented gentleman was completely incomprehensible so I didn't even dare ask who he represented..

Frankly I want to terminate my landline and save the hassle but Sky provide it as a way in for my broadband so I imagine I'm stuck with it and the associated monthly fees     I had for some reason unplugged the phone from the socket at some point to test the broadband connection and it was off a week before I realised but anyone that knows me has my mobile number and knows I prefer it due to being outdoors a lot, so I'm wondering if the easiest thing would be simply to unplug it whenever I'm home and plug it in to run to answerphone only when I'm outside, just in case..

[happygolucky]

Its pestering after all, if these were people at our doors we would be calling the police......I was a bit short with a man who turned out to be a guest......he sounded like a sales man and I was in the middle of my great bake off cake cooking...ha hah......I often put slightly different ways of spelling my name or use other names on stuff that requires signing up to on the internet, that way, you can see who has passed your details on, I registered as Mary on one site and get a few things for her........mobiles phones that you only give the number to friends and family are better, although I  never have mine with me inside the home but do on walks, then I end up with job offers coming in from agencies!

[doganjo]

I don't answer out of area or international calls, but if I answer when it is seems to be a proper number, and it appears to be a sales call my reply is 'I know you are doing your job, but i don't want whatever you are selling' and immediately put the phone down.

However, I had a call the other day from an 0800 number, the girl asked if i was Mrs Maisie, so I immediately thought it was a sales call since she couldn't pronounce my name correctly.  Turned out it was the hospital to book me in for a test.  How stupid did I feel - I apologized all the way through to the end of the call, but she just laughed it off - lovely girl.

Remember never give anyone the name and contact details of another person as that would probably break the data protection act.

I get loads of junk email and it has definitely increased in the last few weeks from about 3 or 4 previously to 20 this morning  - I have my settings such that i just delete the lot automatically.  If there are any correct ones they'll try again anyway.

[happygolucky]

I sometimes say "if you don't know who I am I am not interested"  ha aha, never would I give out some ones name, no need too but I did think about calling Ofsted about the man who was getting angry that I would not give him the names of the new people moving in...cheek,  I am actually waiting them to call  me back so I can find out how much I need to pay for the cancellation...that's a concern as they are probably practising what they are going to say........well, I am ready and have my I pad to record the telephone conversation and I will inform them of that at the start of the call, as I also know that's data protection too!!

[doganjo]

Surely if they rolled the contract forward without your permission and without you being told there will be no cancellation fee?  I wouldn't pay them anything.

[NLL]

I have found that if you find the phone is playing up, lots of sorry say that again and no didn't get that they get really irritated and one has even slammed the phone down

[happygolucky]

Ihave found that if you find the phone is playing up, lots of sorry say that again and no didn't get that they get really irritated and one has even slammed the phone down 

    I will try that and I just rushed to the phone for yet another call 
The rolling contract is illegal now, but it only came into force as mine was put onto another roll of 12 mths, they now have to give you written notice that your contract is due to be renewed...that's much better as well all forget I am sure!!   I was not a happy bunny when they did it to me and should have pursuded it with OFSTED, anyway it now only has one month to go so not that expensive, they make up all sorts of additional fees...its very very maddening......back to good old bad old BT

[happygolucky]

  I have just noted what time I started this post as that's a while after I phoned to cancel the phone provider, they said they would ring back, so, I just rang and they said they are still busy, really?

[devonlad]

we registered with tps a few years ago and cold calls stopped instantly. my parents were also being driven mad by endless calls so asked me to register them and their calls stopped instantly. the ones I can't do anything about are companies I already deal with ( e.g my bank, BT, heating oil supplier) ringing trying to flog me something else. I hate this constant "up-selling" I rarely fill up with petrol without a "can I interest you in some chocolate, or biscuits or something on special offer etc. etc".
A friend of mine recently started work in a tea room where all staff are encouraged to Up-sell- a tea room for goodness sake. a few months ago we saw some really attractive looking baths in a lifestyle magazine. I rang for a brochure. beautiful alright, but pricey- there was a bath in there for £14,000 !! since then we get rung most weeks by Albion Bath company. It does seem that showing an interest in anything is fatal these days. is it the "recession" or is everybody just hungrier ??