Outrageous! Options

[Violinia]

Earlier this evening the phone rang. It was a woman with a northern accent; she asked me if I was who I am; I said 'yes, what can I do for you?' She then said she was from BT something or other. I thought: 'oops, have I paid the phone bill on time' and then remembered I paid it just recently, so said: 'oh hang on a minute, are you about to try and sell me something - because whatever it is I don't want it, thanks very much.' At this point she got very uppity and said 'Actually I was about to ask you if you could teach my daughter the violin but I won't bother now!' and slammed the phone down.

I thought: 'whaaaat???' She says she's from a company starting with the initials BT and now she says her daughter wants a violin teacher? This doesn't make sense'. So I dialled 1471 and got a northern-looking dialling code. Rang the number and got an answerphone that gave me another northern-sounding number, so I rang that and got through to a call centre. Aha! Told the guy on the other end of the line what had happened and that I was very cross about it and that obviously the woman had lied about wanting violin lessons. He wouldn't tell me what the company was so I insisted he got his supervisor, who finally came on the line.

I told her what had happened and that I was very angry at being lied to on top of being cold-called and said: 'come on, the least you can do is tell me where you are and it's up north, isn't it?' She sheepishly admitted they were in Lancashire. I said: 'OK so this woman definitely wasn't wanting violin lessons for her daughter then, was she? I live hundreds of miles from there! So how did she know I was a violin teacher, how did she get my number and what was she trying to sell me?'

The supervisor came clean finally and told me they were selling advertising and would have got my number from a music-teachers' website. I said I appreciated her being honest but that I hadn't appreciated being lied to and having the phone slammed down on me. She promised to speak to the woman concerned and get my number permamently removed from their database.

I get so sick of cold calls but this one really took the biscuit. Has anyone else had one of these?

[controller76]

No, not one like that...

But it makes me mad when a company I already do business with phones me and then asks me security questions to prove I'm me.
I say; "YOU PHONED ME!"
And sometimes they get upset when I refuse to confirm that I am me.

Regards, Peter.

But I have to say, your call really does take the biscuit!!!

[Alicia Ocean]

Has anyone else had one of these?

Yes. Just this week I had a few calls from something call "Customer Street" - I think it's BT.

anyway, this woman rings up and leaves a message saying she's looking for a teacher. I ring them back - not a local number. She's looking for a music teacher and has a few pupils waiting to start. "Oh goody, give me their numbers then" - except they want 200 pounds to be included in their directory.

They/she rang back a few days later saying they had ten pupils looking for me now. "Well you managed to find me OK.", I replied.

Grrrr. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/mad.gif)

[DaisyChain]

In front of the BT directory is a "Call preference" notice. You dial the number and register your details so that calls like this will be filtered. It takes 28 days to clear, but it's worth doing. My cold-calls have virtually stopped (some still get through) since I registered.

[Alder]

They/she rang back a few days later saying they had ten pupils looking for me now. "Well you managed to find me OK.", I replied.

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)

Like DaisyChain mentioned, we're on the call preference list. But a few have been getting through of late, I think we need to ring it again to make certain we're on it.

Then any that get through you just say that you're on the list and they shouldn't have your number. They ring off pretty sharp after that...

[smd]

That's awful Violinia.

We're on call preference and it does sort of work, but lately we've had a spate of recorded messages calling us saying we've won a holiday or like like, the calls are number withheld - and I'm hardly going to call the premium rate number they give me to call them to complain!
We called our phone company who said the calls were actually coming from abroad and that there wasn't anything they can do to stop them except bar all calls from foreign countries. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sad.gif)

[Holz Gedeckt]

Like others, despite having registered with the Telephone Preference Service quite a while ago, I still continued to receive nuisance calls. I found the answer was to purchase an answerphone with caller display. If the number is withheld or looks suspicious, I let the answerphone take it. Most genuine callers will start speaking. The salesmen generally won't.

If I'm feeling mischievous I will sometimes pick up the 'phone and, if they sound suspicious, I'll have a bit of fun with them by leading them on a merry-go-round, without revealing any genuine personal details. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/muahaha.gif)

[SueHM]

Earlier this evening the phone rang. It was a woman with a northern accent; she asked me if I was who I am; I said 'yes, what can I do for you?' She then said she was from BT something or other. I thought: 'oops, have I paid the phone bill on time' and then remembered I paid it just recently, so said: 'oh hang on a minute, are you about to try and sell me something - because whatever it is I don't want it, thanks very much.' At this point she got very uppity and said 'Actually I was about to ask you if you could teach my daughter the violin but I won't bother now!' and slammed the phone down.

I thought: 'whaaaat???' She says she's from a company starting with the initials BT and now she says her daughter wants a violin teacher? This doesn't make sense'. So I dialled 1471 and got a northern-looking dialling code. Rang the number and got an answerphone that gave me another northern-sounding number, so I rang that and got through to a call centre. Aha! Told the guy on the other end of the line what had happened and that I was very cross about it and that obviously the woman had lied about wanting violin lessons. He wouldn't tell me what the company was so I insisted he got his supervisor, who finally came on the line.

I told her what had happened and that I was very angry at being lied to on top of being cold-called and said: 'come on, the least you can do is tell me where you are and it's up north, isn't it?' She sheepishly admitted they were in Lancashire. I said: 'OK so this woman definitely wasn't wanting violin lessons for her daughter then, was she? I live hundreds of miles from there! So how did she know I was a violin teacher, how did she get my number and what was she trying to sell me?'

The supervisor came clean finally and told me they were selling advertising and would have got my number from a music-teachers' website. I said I appreciated her being honest but that I hadn't appreciated being lied to and having the phone slammed down on me. She promised to speak to the woman concerned and get my number permamently removed from their database.

I get so sick of cold calls but this one really took the biscuit. Has anyone else had one of these?

Well done you for managing to track them down and get to the truth!

[notmusimum]

I've had this happen at work. Everyone is selling hard at the moment and some don't accept a polite no thank you.

A couple of months ago I got over 400 emails to the business address from the same company. It obviously was a company so I opened one of them and it revealed their telephone number. The excuse their ISP provider (BT) had caused the problem (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) They didn't know what to say when I said that they had typed the email addresses in and were therefore the spammer.

I imagine as times get toughter and the little business that's out there gets faught over that the tactics will get worse.

[Roseau]

Not music related but ...

My name which is common in English is unusual and old fashioned in French. From time to time I get cold calls from people asking me if I am over 70 (which is not the case). Once, someone refused to believe me, said that I didn't have to lie about my age to them and when I persisted suggested that I make an urgent appointment with my doctor since someone unable to remember their age was clearly suffering from dementia (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wacko.gif)

[sbhoa]

Like others, despite having registered with the Telephone Preference Service quite a while ago, I still continued to receive nuisance calls. I found the answer was to purchase an answerphone with caller display. If the number is withheld or looks suspicious, I let the answerphone take it. Most genuine callers will leave start speaking. The salesmen generally won't.

If I'm feeling mischievous I will sometimes pick up the 'phone and, if they sound suspicious, I'll have a bit of fun with them by leading them on a merry-go-round, without revealing any genuine personal details. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/muahaha.gif)

Yes, it does only cover calls from someone selling so you still get the survey ones and some others.
Also where the call centre is not in the Uk you can't do anything but for cold call selling from the Uk you take the name of the firm and the caller and report them.

[Susie]

I would be wary of giving out ANY security details if a company phones me rather than me phoning them because they might be phone spammers pretending to be the company you do business with hoping to get ID details from you - like spam emails. I can't believe how many spam Abbey and Halifax emails I get!! Luckily I don't get too many cold phone calls.

Well done Violinia - I do object to all these calls and won't buy anything over the phone.

I could not believe a call I had the other day from my local building society. I do have an account there. Some adviser type phoned, checked my name and asked me to confirm various details - fairly innocuous ones, like date of birth, but I wouldn't give them out, and asked his number, checked in the phone book and rang him back. Why do they do this when it's on the television anti-fraud programmes telling us all to be ultra careful and not give out details? Bah - they need to watch the TV a bit more.

[maggiemay]

Well done for following it up, and thanks for the warning - shall be aware.

[AnnC]

Like DaisyChain mentioned, we're on the call preference list. But a few have been getting through of late, I think we need to ring it again to make certain we're on it.

Then any that get through you just say that you're on the list and they shouldn't have your number. They ring off pretty sharp after that...

Except the one who said to me, "Well, it doesn't work, does it?" before slamming the phone down! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/ohmy.gif)

Or the one who said, "It takes time for the number to filter through after you sign up - how long have you been on it?", to which I replied, "Only eleven years!" (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)

[rachelviolin]

Well done you for managing to track them down and get to the truth!

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/agree.gif)

Thanks for the warning. I think I would have been really upset if I'd had one of these.