Sales call - cheek!

If they opened the front door and stepped in, calling out "I've come to sell you a funeral plan/fix the non-existent fault on your computer/tell you about a scheme for the government to pay us to install a new boiler if you jump through the right hoops" we would tell them to get out right now and not come back. We should not accept the invasion of our telephone either.

It is quite irrelevant that they are trying to earn a living, it is an aggressive way of getting us to buy their product or use their services. The individual caller is not to blame (unless they get abusive) It is the owners of the business that they are representing.

I believe that they can be prosecuted if they ignore a direct instruction to stop calliong you, so the way to get rid of them (well, from that firm anyway - there will be more) is to say politely but firmly "No, I do not want xxxx and do not call me again. Please remove my name from your calling list and make sure that I do not hear from your firm again. And what was the firm's name again? How can I get in touch with them?" That at the very least puts the wind up them.

They are legally obliged to tell you the name of the firm they are calling for, and their own name, so that the call can be identified. If they don't/won't they have something to hide. If you can be bothered, make a note of the caller's name, the firm's name and contact details, and the date and time.

Hilda I get what you are saying , but for every smart person who can cope with the calls , there is some poor soul conned out of their money . We do not ask for them to call so are under no obligation to speak to them .I have tried to talk politely to some , but they are so belligerent I put the phone down

lefthanded I agree that is a good idea (I have caller ID myself) however I have family living abroad and two have recently had health scares and as a result I get phone calls from mobiles whose numbers I don't have which come up as unrecognised or unavailable, which is why I tend to answer them. Surely with the technology we have these days it can't be impossible for BT (or whoever your provider is) to stop all calls where the number is deliberately withheld (those I don't answer)!

I do not know why we generally feel the need to apologise for 'engaging' with these nuisance cold calls that purport to be from insurance companies/ computer companies/etc etc. (A)They have chosen to call us and are often most insistent with their questions, (B) they are either trying to sell us something that is hard to sell (either its a service that does not bear close scrutiny or would not survive in the legitimate market place) (C) Sometimes its just an out and out scam trying to catch out the venerable. Thus my argument is that as long as we are polite what harm is there in playing along should we feel in the mood - hey sometimes I'm just a bit bored!

Call me a grumpy old git if you like (and many people do) but I never answer ANY call from a number I don't recognise. I have done that ever since the introduction of caller ID. If anybody needs to contact me they will write when they can't get through by phone.

Callers asking to speak to DH have more or less stopped now as he has been dead for 4 years, however, shortly after he died I had a call from someone asking to speak to him, I broke down in tears and said he had recently died and they then went on to try to sell me whatever it was they were selling!! I'm afraid I did rather lose it and told them where to go in no uncertain terms!

I think I may have mentioned this before; fairly soon after DH died I had a cold call from someone asking to speak to him. I said no, and was asked why. Because he's not available. Why? Because he's not here. Is there any good reason why I can't speak to him? Yes, because he's dead. Silence....... I felt quite good after that.

We get a lot of cold calls here in France - lunch time being a favourite time. The last time I had a Microsoft call obviously from India I asked him if his other knew he was doing this for a job - trying to con people out of money - the line went dead and I have not had any of those for a while.
However the phone rang Tuesday evening about 9pm and as it came up with a masked number I was quite short when I answered - and this voice then said was it Madame - and I agreed and he quickly said this is Dr L- our GP - he was ringing from home to give me my blood test results - we both had tests that morning - he gave them to me for OH too and then told me how he wanted to adjust my pills as my sodium was too low - he also said to put salt on my chips!
I apologised to him for my attitude when I picked up the phone and explained I thought it was a cold call as it was masked and he said that was fine - he was like Zorro and had a mask!! This is a Frenchman with a good sense of humour.
It is common for the doctors in the Practice to call with results especially if something needs doing or if it is the sort ot test where they know you will be worried and they call to tell you it is OK or not. I am so glad I live here and it is the most worrying aspect if we did decide to move back to UK.

One of DDs friends worked for one of these companys for a short time and told us if the call she made lasts 2 minutes she got paid, so now I tend to let them finish their spiel and then ask them to repeat it in English.
When they ask me why i do not speak French, always seems to be in french, I just tell them they called me so I expect them to speak my language, if I called them I would speak to them in French or Dutch.
One young man said yes fair enough, have a nice day.

I had a cold caller yesterday who said he worked for a legal firm and someone at my home had recently had an accident - I stopped him mid spiel and asked the name of his company, he said he didn't understand, so I asked him who he worked for, he said the line was breaking up and he couldn't hear me (although I could hear him perfectly). Eventually he got fed up of my asking for the name and hung up.

In my defence I was feeling a little bored as normally I would just say no thanks and hang up!

I didnt know it was possible to do that, prepay and therefore decide a funeral to that extent. hmm, how interesting.

The last cold caller I had asked me "why are you being so rude to me ?" I honestly didn't think I was It depends on my mood I'll either say "No thanks" and hang up or I'll string them along a bit.

With regard to funeral plans, mum pre paid for her funeral which we were grateful for because she got to decide exactly how she wanted things. DH and I keep meaning to do ours.

I got yet another call today asking for Mrs. Smelly. As if I wouldn`t change it if that really was my name! And another asking if they were speaking to MR. S, my voice isn`t that deep!

We have caller recognition and have named the nuisance callers so that they show as Microsoft scam, double glazing, ambulance chaser and so on. Today all the calls were from Microsoft scam and they rang nearly every hour but I did not pick up the phone. When we don't answer the house phone our mobiles often ring straight after, I would like to know where they get my mobile from as I never give it to tradesmen.

Which is why it's not particularly helpful to play them along. If you're not interested, just say so and put the phone down.

Some of the callers may actually be trying to make a living out of cold-calling.

I assume that these folk work on commission- I doubt if they make enough each day for a cup of tea if they listen to our antics.

I find that if I respond literally and at great length to inane questions like "how are you today?" they hang up on me before they even get to tell me why they are ringing me. It works every time and is very satisfying!

I just say 'No thank you!' as soon as they start their spiel and that's it. Why bother engaging with them at all?

Coolgran65 , almost exactly what I said earlier.

I dont answer a whole bunch of calls.
Any that do get through, dont get past second question. I just put the phone down.

It's weird durhamjen, I had a spate of those, twice a day for about a fortnight which nearly drove me potty, but they seem to have stopped [fingers crossed]

We usually say we are moving when they offer home improvements. They don't persist.

Its very annoying. I usually say I am just going out or busy or I have already got what they are selling but for some reason I didn't this morning.

I have often found that the calls about home improvements (windows, conservatories etc) can be cut short by saying that you are a tenant, just renting the place etc

Might be a tad difficult if you were to claim that you were only a short time tenant in the body!

I had a phonecall last week from someone saying, "I hear you get lots of unwanted phonecalls."
I said, "No, I don't. Who told you that?"
The phone went dead.
Since then I've had at least 3 a day, and one a day from funeral plan companies.
Is it a coincidence?