My gast is really flabbered!

I had one yesterday from 'Microsoft (something)' - very Asian sounding....I just kept saying I couldn't hear him, then told him he must have a wrong number and hung up.
Some good ideas here though!

I was at the end of my tether one day and when someone called and announced that his name was 'Charles' I told him he was 'bl**dy' liar - I don't think it was HRH

I wish I had the patience to do some of the things that I've read that others do. My favourites, to date, are:

When they start off with being over-friendly and asking how you are, you regale them with every ache, pain, sniffle and symptom that you can possibly think of and don't pause for breathe

or

When they announce who they are, you go into police-mode and ask what is there purpose for ringing a crime scene, ask for their details, how do they know the victim, where did they get the number from

Cruel I know but ... it would be entertaining

Their, not there (again)

I have fielded loads of calls when looking after DS2's house - the kind that tell you there's something wrong with your PC. I just tell them (lying, of course) that they have an Apple computer. That takes the wind right out of their sails.

I must defend these people, they are just doing a job. They have kids/grandkids just like us and are trying to make a living. The computer makes the calls and they have to take the call not knowing how to pronounce the customers name, there are so many ways to pronounce names its difficult.
I do temp work and have worked in call centres and its amazing how much pressure these people are under.

If you are unemployed and DWP offer you a job you must take it or lose benefits, when you work in these places the management allow a few weeks of leniency to train and then the pressure starts. You are timed to the second so if you return one second late from a break you are penalised. You are given threatening warnings if you do not keep up the pressure (I worked as a debt collector).

You cannot leave these jobs or you will lose benefit. I have seen many people crying at their desks, a relative of mine was off sick with depression, my friends daughter was given counselling and all because of the nasty reaction from the public added to the pressure to succeed.
So I was surprised at some of the replies to this thread, some pretending they are elderly, some being rude. Can anyone defend this behaviour.

I can only think that anyone who is rude or gives silly relies to these calls must be socially inadequate or of very low intellect.

Why not just say 'no thanks' and put the phone down or simply just not reply to a strange number on the display. It cost nothing to be polite.

I bought a Call Blocker from Argos. Plug it in to your phone and programme in which calls you want to block. Only works if you have Caller Display but is a godsend. Friends and Family ring my mobile.

Cold calling is a fact of life....however I think that most of the incidents referred to in here are not about ordinary people trying to earn a living perhaps selling double glazing or energy saving devices etc, and I think you know that Silverfish! Your comments about people being 'socially inadequate or very low intellect' are , at best judgemental, at worst offensive.
We have all heard of deeply unpleasant cold callers who try to trick perfectly decent people into giving information over the phone that can lead them open to fraud. My own daughter had several calls that became threatening and left her feeling very vulnerable.
It costs nothing to be polite, it also costs nothing to be a little more tolerant of people who are fed up with nuisance callers who are trying to get something out of them.

How do you know which calls you want to block, though? And how can it only work if you have caller display? Why bother if your friends and family ring your mobile anyway...?

I had a computerised call this evening and normally I put the phone down immediately rather than listen to the drivel. Tonight I let it go to the end and it was a case of 'Press 1 for more info' or 'Press 8 to have your number removed'. I pressed 8 and was then informed that I would not be rung again. I hope it works and wish now I had listened to the whole message months ago !

Ana I block international calls as we were getting loads from "Out of Area" and when an unwanted caller rings you press a button on the box and it blocks that number. Apparently it uses the Caller display technology to recognise the number ringing so it knows who to block.
We do still get landline calls we do want to take eg. Optician, dentist etc. who have our mobile number but still ring on landline. I would love to get rid of the landline but it would cost us more for our TV/Broadband package without it. I should just turn off the ring really but have never worked out how to do it and have probably "filed" the instructions "somewhere safe"

Do you get the one that says "You MUST have a new FREE boiler installed before 2015..."
If this is true then why are they not just delivering them to our doors?

Silverfish, nearly all the complaints on this thread are not about cold-calling in connection with double-glazing etc., they're about foreign-based companies whose employees are trying to con us into believing that there's something wrong with our computers and they can fix it, if we pay! (and they say their name is John, or Sally, when it's not really probable...)

I see what you mean, pitticity - as with the spam emails, I'm obviously very lucky that I don't get that many nuisance calls!

When my grandson listens in, he says, "Granny, you're telling lies again, aren't you?"
I find telling them that I am very ill and likely to die tomorrow gets them to put the phone down quickly. Not in front of the grandson, of course.

When I have any foreign callers I reply in Gaelic. Soon stops any further chat.

When I get local calls I just say, no thank you. If they continue with their spiel Imputmthe phone down.

I do understand Silverfish's point about the poor souls who have no real choice but to take job like this if it's offered. She is right about not being able to turn down a job if it is offered, without losing benefit.

Most of the calls I seem to get are not scams, but people trying to sell me stuff, or energy conservation measures or to get me to apply for compensation for whatever accident or industrial injury I have.

Most of the real scamming stuff I get is internet based.

I must proofread and also stop pressing m instead ofmthe space bar!

I too feel quite sorry for people doing this horrible job and generally try to be pleasant but firm. I get really annoyed though when, even after I've said that I'm not interested, the caller ignores me and keeps rattling on, at which point I say "I'm putting the phone done now" and do so.

If I walked into a call centre and interrupted everyone's work while I gave them a sales pitch, or made them fill in a questionnaire, I think I would be escorted to the door and told in no uncertain fashion not to come back.

So why is it rude of me to object to receorded callers interrupting my train of thought several times a day to tell me of a new government initiative to exchange my old boiler for a new one. I am quite happy with my existing boiler, thank you. and it is a diffferent number calling each time (but the same recording!), sometimes even just "private caller" so I can't block them.

And that is just the boiler. There are a lot of others who think that my time should be spent answering the phone to insistent strangers.

It seems like cheating to not display their number doesn't it Elegran. I said that some people I want to speak to have 'Private caller' numbers so I have no option but to answer. Cold callers who do that deserve all they get IMO.

I decided to play one along yesterday but refused to tell him how old I am. He got very shirty with me because I was stopping him doing his job and he put the phone down on me!

They, of course, are not stopping us from doing our job by interrupting us with irrelevant requests for facts for their sales databases!

Do you get the one that says "You MUST have a new FREE boiler installed before 2015..." If this is true then why are they not just delivering them to our doors?

What annoys me is I pay for a telephone for my convenience, not to be used as a tool for someone else to try an extract money off me for whatever reason. No one has the right to phone me unless I have given them my number or permission to do so. Well that's how I see it

I feel for the people who are having to do these jobs out of desperation. I didn't realise it was like that, and I couldn't imagine who would apply for such a job out of choice.

It seems it's the same all over the world.

Here in Germany it is unusual to have a phone which does not display the caller's number and it is also now illegal for cold callers to suppress their number. So they have found a trick by which, even if they are phoning from abroad, it looks as if it's from a harmless inland number. If one of these numbers calls, we don't answer, and check on the internet if it's a suspicious number (which it invariably is) I then allocate that number the name "Don't answer!" so that we never answer them.

The foreigners also have astoundingly authentic German names, usually a very common first name and a single-syllable surname.

I just look at the caller display, and don't bother to answer. Or, sometimes pick up and just listen..... if you don't speak then nothing happens. If you allow the phone to ring it will only ring a few times for a cold call.The odd time I have heard a voice at the other end, I just say 'no thanks' and end the call.