Today's silly phone call

We used to get lots, including faxes which would come in after midnight and wake up the household. We have truecall now so that has helped stop the sales calls and nuisance calls. There are also phones you can get with a call blocker and call screening. Basically the calls from family & friends will be put straight through.

Had a call from Hilarys Blinds, trying to sell me a blind. I said I wasn't interested. He then snapped "maybe you should have thought of that before entering one of our competitions!" I had the feeling he had to call hundreds of entrants that day and had had enough.

Last time a young man called to dis usz my 'recent accident' I agreed that 'yes I had had a most unfortunate accident but had found some clean pants and trousers and was feeling much better now'.
Embarrassed silence from the other end.

Nanny27!

I had a sticker on my door, supplied by the Metropolitan Police stating that I did not buy or sell at the door, no cold callers etc. The doorbell went one day and there on the step was a young man with the typical case full of dusters, spanner sets etc etc. I was furious - I’d been in the middle of something important. ‘CAN YOU READ?’ I yelled at him pointing to the notice. ‘Do you think if I could read I’d be doing this job? he replied. I gave him a fiver. Not sure why - maybe sympathy, maybe admiration at his chutzpah or maybe just acknowledgement that I’d lost the argument.

My brother in law loves to wind these people up. Many years ago he agreed to let a salesman come to his house to discuss double glazing. The rep duly arrived, looked at the house (which had brand new d/g) and wanted to know why he was there - he was told "you said you wanted to discuss d/g - you didn't ask whether I needed any".

I had a phone call this morning "you have had an accident", I am crippled with pain and spending most of my time in bed so I told the woman I was bedfast, I could virtually hear her rubbing her hands together and she asked if it was the result of an accident. I stopped talking and she shouting "hello, are you still there ?"

I got 3 phone calls from whoever they are and my BIL got the same. Wonder if BT know. Wondering if I should ring them.

Good point minesaprosecco it’s somebody’s job after all, drumming up business.
In fact that’s exactly what I say on the phone to them (‘ I’m not interested thanks’ )and then put the phone down.

Or you can say "I'm the housekeeper and the Duchess ìs out right now taking tea/lunch or whatever with Her Majesty" !!
There are many ways to have fun with cold callers.....but they have to make a living somehow too.
As long as they're paying taxes and not taking benefits from my taxes.

If I get a phone call from someone selling something, I say , I have a vacuum cleaner/ fridge here for sale , would you like to buy it,, they soon hang up !

Tell the religious callers that you are not interested as you are RC or orthodox Jews, both scare even Jehovah's Witnesses away!

I agree that the cold callers trying to sell something are only doing their job, but, although I’m not rude to them and do as minesaprosecco says, they are phoning me without my asking them to and usually at a most inconvenient time such as mealtimes! They are invading my home - why don’t they stand around in shopping malls, supermarkets etc?

On the other hand, the scammers are doing something completely different, they are trying to steal from vulnerable people and deserve all the time wasting and rudeness they get.

I had a new scam call yesterday. ‘Shirley’ (recorded message) called from my ISP provider to say that my ISP address had been compromised by several different countries but that they would provide a new ISP address and router. All I had to do was press 1 and speak to their technician. I hung up, then reported it to BT, my ISP provider. They asked if the caller had said they were from BT, and as they didn’t, they were unable to investigate. Oh well, I tried!

I only get nuisance calls on my mobile phone. The landline is part of our Sky package. I can recommend Sky Shield which asks the caller to state their name and you can then take, reject or block the call. For some reason cold callers don’t like to give their name and hang up.

I`ve had a few calls telling me that my BT phone bill was being quite substantially reduced. I thanked them, saying that it was very generous of them, seeing as I wasn`t with BT. She then asked who my provider was, I said it was none of their business, she then named 4 providers, saying that I must be with one of them which also came under their wing, I again said none of their business and hung up.

When asked by cold callers to give a minute of my time to answer some questions, I say "I'm sorry I don't answer questions over the phone - it's a a waste of my time and yours" often they carry on trying to persuade you to answer their questions, so then I hang up. I did have long conversation with someone who wanted to speak to my husband about an accident he had, when I said he was out she proceeded to discuss it with me, I told her she should not do that, and she asked "don't you share things if you are a couple" - what impertinence!

I live in a Mobile Home (Park Home) & had a phone call trying to sell my solar panels. I politely explained that as I live in a Park Home we can't have them fitted. His response......"we don't deal with Gypsies"....& he then put the phone down. I was furious at the time but laugh about it now....prejudice from a cold caller

I have no problem with Jehovah's witnesses, when DH was alive I could use the Jewish reason (his DF was an Austrian Jew). Now I have politely requested that they don't call on me as I have no interest in what the have to say (I am a Methodist), I have had no more calls.

I recently had the 'I am phoning about your computer problem', I replied 'no your not, you are trying to scam me, goodbye' and put the phone down! Hopefully my number will have been scored off their list as a 'she is on to us' lol!

minesaprosecco, I'm so glad you came on board with this as you well be able to salve my curiosity. Do people actually make purchases from these cold calls? I find that incredible considering all the scam warnings we are constantly being given and yet I also imagine if there were no results logic suggests that cold calls would disappear. I'm hoping your children enlightened you in general when they did the horrible (in my opinion) job. Presumably they are paid by the hour and not on a commission basis? I've often wondered about this. Makes no sense to me.

Kim, my son and daughter were paid, very little, by the hour (and they didn't actually do many hours in the end as they couldn't stand it!). The idea, as far as I can remember, is that one sale a day per employee is worth all the phone calls. I agree about the scammers, being rude to them is totally acceptable.

We always told Jehovah's Witnesses we were blood donors (true). They didn't stay long.

Many years ago my DD got a holiday job making cold calls for a 'Home Security' Company. It did not take her long to become suspicious when she considered the 'script'. It included questions such as 'Have you any existing security or alarms?' 'Do you have a dog? 'Is your home often empty in the daytime/evening'? Do you often go away for weekends? What kind of locks do you have on outside doors?

Given that she was working from the phone book, with names and addresses and there did not seem to be any protocol to follow up on the very few people who seemed interested in having security devices fitted, she guessed that she was working for housebreakers and she was 'casing the joint' for them. Couldn't get out of the place fast enough and of course they refused to pay her for the work she had done.

I have blacklisted over 50 numbers with BT Call Protect for my elderly father over the last few months. BT have blacklisted over 100 numbers. I answered the phone the other day for him someone telling him his computer had a problem.....what computer I said , my dad does not even have broadband.

map, thank you. I've always wondered about this.

I've got call screening on now and so don't get bothered any more but one of the last ones I had was from a company offering to help me with making a claim for my recent motoring accident (which I'd never had). I went along with the call for quite a while and when they got to the part where I had to give details of my injuries, I said that, tragically, I'd died. Stunned silence; phone down. I quite miss them now; it was fun thinking up new ways to wind them up.