I must get at least one call every 2 days usually from one of our Indian
friends, am I alone? There must be dozens of these *******s going through
the electoral roll and I haven't yet found the best reply. Usually you can
hear noise in the background so I've tried slamming the phone down before
they can be bothered to speak. I've tried acting deaf/not understanding,
keeping them there for ages. Asking where they got my number, asking what is
their number. When you tell'em to effectively ****-off they carry on talking
as though reading from a card. It's ok when you can recognise the voice, you
just say 'oh no, not you again' and put the phone down.
How do you folks handle these bods? There must be a lot of cash to be made
in this insulation game.

On Tue, 26 Jul 2011 23:41:23 +0100, brass monkey wrote:

I must get at least one call every 2 days usually from one of our Indian
friends, am I alone? There must be dozens of these *******s going through
the electoral roll and I haven't yet found the best reply. Usually you
can
hear noise in the background so I've tried slamming the phone down before
they can be bothered to speak. I've tried acting deaf/not understanding,
keeping them there for ages. Asking where they got my number, asking
what is
their number. When you tell'em to effectively ****-off they carry on
talking
as though reading from a card. It's ok when you can recognise the voice,
you
just say 'oh no, not you again' and put the phone down.
How do you folks handle these bods? There must be a lot of cash to be
made
in this insulation game.


All our recent ones have been the same company going on about computer
maintenance.

'Fraid I have dropped down to saying "Hello" just so they reply and I am
sure it is not a valid call, then stay silent until they give up.
Unfortunately we have a number of possible valid callers who also withhold
their numbers.

Rod

"polygonum" wrote in message
news
On Tue, 26 Jul 2011 23:41:23 +0100, brass monkey wrote:

I must get at least one call every 2 days usually from one of our Indian
friends, am I alone? There must be dozens of these *******s going through
the electoral roll and I haven't yet found the best reply. Usually you
can
hear noise in the background so I've tried slamming the phone down before
they can be bothered to speak. I've tried acting deaf/not understanding,
keeping them there for ages. Asking where they got my number, asking
what is
their number. When you tell'em to effectively ****-off they carry on
talking
as though reading from a card. It's ok when you can recognise the voice,
you
just say 'oh no, not you again' and put the phone down.
How do you folks handle these bods? There must be a lot of cash to be
made
in this insulation game.


All our recent ones have been the same company going on about computer
maintenance.

'Fraid I have dropped down to saying "Hello" just so they reply and I am
sure it is not a valid call, then stay silent until they give up.
Unfortunately we have a number of possible valid callers who also withhold
their numbers.

Rod

My way of dealing with these pests is with the computer scan just say but
I don't have computer. With the insulation people I just say it is in a
terrace and loft is full of junk. If I'm really fed up with them I say find
someone who can speak English- They slam the phone down pretty quick
Robbie

On 27/07/2011 00:21, Roberts wrote:
wrote in message
news
On Tue, 26 Jul 2011 23:41:23 +0100, brass wrote:

I must get at least one call every 2 days usually from one of our Indian
friends, am I alone? There must be dozens of these *******s going through
the electoral roll and I haven't yet found the best reply. Usually you
can
hear noise in the background so I've tried slamming the phone down before
they can be bothered to speak. I've tried acting deaf/not understanding,
keeping them there for ages. Asking where they got my number, asking
what is
their number. When you tell'em to effectively ****-off they carry on
talking
as though reading from a card. It's ok when you can recognise the voice,
you
just say 'oh no, not you again' and put the phone down.
How do you folks handle these bods? There must be a lot of cash to be
made
in this insulation game.


All our recent ones have been the same company going on about computer
maintenance.

'Fraid I have dropped down to saying "Hello" just so they reply and I am
sure it is not a valid call, then stay silent until they give up.
Unfortunately we have a number of possible valid callers who also withhold
their numbers.

Rod

My way of dealing with these pests is with the computer scan just say but
I don't have computer. With the insulation people I just say it is in a
terrace and loft is full of junk. If I'm really fed up with them I say find
someone who can speak English- They slam the phone down pretty quick
Robbie


If anyone on behalf of Microsoft rings up about malware and asks for me,
I usually say I'll go and get him and put the phone on mute. It
normally takes a few minutes of hearing "hello .... hello" for them to
get the message!!

brass monkey wrote:
I must get at least one call every 2 days usually from one of our
Indian friends, am I alone? There must be dozens of these *******s
going through the electoral roll and I haven't yet found the best
reply. Usually you can hear noise in the background so I've tried
slamming the phone down before they can be bothered to speak. I've
tried acting deaf/not understanding, keeping them there for ages.
Asking where they got my number, asking what is their number. When
you tell'em to effectively ****-off they carry on talking as though
reading from a card. It's ok when you can recognise the voice, you
just say 'oh no, not you again' and put the phone down. How do you folks
handle these bods? There must be a lot of cash to be
made in this insulation game.

brass monkey,

No you are not alone unfortunately.

I finally lost my patience last Thursday after having 7 calls in 4 days from
Tel no. *1706364265* - and on the last call (after giving them loads of
abuse from about their third call), I tried a different 'tack' and 'walked'
through their script with the Indian operator, ticking all the correct boxes
(with aforesaid operator nearly wetting himself with excitement that he had
a 'sale') - until we came to the stage where he said that he would contact a
surveyor to arrange a date and time to call.

At that stage, I asked for the operators company name and telephone number -
with no success - but I did manage to get the name of the Insulation firm
who would supply the surveyor.

At that point, I told the operator, that as I now had a point of contact, I
was going to inform the TPS, OfCom, and if the calls continued, the police
(to report his calls as harassment) - at that point, the operator's tone
changed rather rapidly and he dropped the 'phone as if it was a hot potato.

Later that day, I did an internet search using the name of the Insulation
company, obtained their contact details and then gave their customer
relations department a ring. I got through to a very nice operator there,
who listened to my complaint, took note of the dates and times of the
telephone calls (she agreed that the numbers of them were excessive), gave
here the above telephone number and asked her to call the agents that her
firm was using and tell them to stop.

To date, I have received no further calls about Insulation - but now I am
getting calls from another Indian telling me that Microsoft has contacted
them to tell my that my computer is 'infected' with a virus [1] (on the very
same day that I had just done a reformat and clean install of my hard
drive) - you just can't win with the b****rds can you? :-(

[1] He didn't appreciate it when I told him that I probably knew more
about computers then he would ever learn, and then proceeded to tell *HIM*
what his script would say concerning the information in the Prefetch folder,
Event Viewer, Temporary Internet Files folder etc - and that he would try
and remotely connect to my computer to download software that would falsely
claim that I had a huge number of 'infections' of my system - and then try
to part me from around £80+ for him to 'clear' those so-called infections.

He was most upset at the end when I told him that what he was saying was an
utter load of ******** and that I had disabled my Prefetch folder in the
Registry, and also disabled Remote Assistance to my computer.


All great fun!


Cash

brass monkey wrote:

There must be a lot of cash to be made in this insulation game.

Had a few of them pounding the streets here, I usually hear them
trudging up drives and knocking doors from several houses away, peek out
to see who they are and can ignore them when they reach me.

I heard my neighbour open the door to the last one, opening line "Hello
sir, I'm not selling anything" ... "Yes you are" ... "No, I'm not" ...
"who pays your wages then?" ... ended up with the guy demonstrating how
badly cut out for the job he was by storming off down the drive slagging
off the neighbour for all to hear ... then trying his luck at the next door!

That said my parents have had CWI installed for free, which I assume was
from the same sort of outfit.

On 26/07/2011 23:41, brass monkey wrote:
I must get at least one call every 2 days usually from one of our Indian
friends, am I alone? There must be dozens of these *******s going through
the electoral roll and I haven't yet found the best reply. Usually you can
hear noise in the background so I've tried slamming the phone down before
they can be bothered to speak. I've tried acting deaf/not understanding,
keeping them there for ages. Asking where they got my number, asking what is
their number. When you tell'em to effectively ****-off they carry on talking
as though reading from a card. It's ok when you can recognise the voice, you
just say 'oh no, not you again' and put the phone down.
How do you folks handle these bods? There must be a lot of cash to be made
in this insulation game.

Not interested. Goodbye. Phone down.

I usually have not got around to finding out what they are actually selling.

Colin Bignell

In article , Nightjar
writes
On 26/07/2011 23:41, brass monkey wrote:

How do you folks handle these bods? There must be a lot of cash to be made
in this insulation game.

Not interested. Goodbye. Phone down.

My approach too, I never engage them in any kind of conversation.
--
fred
FIVE TV's superbright logo - not the DOG's, it's ********

"brass monkey" wrote in message
eb.com...
I must get at least one call every 2 days usually from one of our Indian
friends, am I alone? There must be dozens of these *******s going through
the electoral roll and I haven't yet found the best reply. Usually you can
hear noise in the background so I've tried slamming the phone down before
they can be bothered to speak. I've tried acting deaf/not understanding,
keeping them there for ages. Asking where they got my number, asking what
is their number. When you tell'em to effectively ****-off they carry on
talking as though reading from a card. It's ok when you can recognise the
voice, you just say 'oh no, not you again' and put the phone down.
How do you folks handle these bods? There must be a lot of cash to be made
in this insulation game.



I had a spate of these ringing every couple of days. Eventually, I told them
that their information must be out of date, as I had already taken advantage
of all the government grants, and had more insulation in my house than I
could ever have needed in the first place. And that seemed to stop them, so
maybe they have the ability to flag or remove phone numbers that are
definitely not going to be worth the cost of the call. For sure, I still get
the odd little flurry, presumably when some *******s that have my phone
number sell it on to some of these clowns, but I just tell them the same
thing, and they seem to go away.

Arfa

On Tue, 26 Jul 2011 23:41:23 +0100, "brass monkey" wrote:

I must get at least one call every 2 days usually from one of our Indian
friends, am I alone? There must be dozens of these *******s going through
the electoral roll and I haven't yet found the best reply. Usually you can
hear noise in the background so I've tried slamming the phone down before
they can be bothered to speak. I've tried acting deaf/not understanding,
keeping them there for ages. Asking where they got my number, asking what is
their number. When you tell'em to effectively ****-off they carry on talking
as though reading from a card. It's ok when you can recognise the voice, you
just say 'oh no, not you again' and put the phone down.
How do you folks handle these bods? There must be a lot of cash to be made
in this insulation game.

We all get them. I won't waste my time so will normally hang up
straight away. If they are calling from abroad then there will
usually be no CLI so I don't even answer the phone. If it's a UK
number I might complain to the TPS or the ICO, but that's pretty
pointless nowadays.

All this cold calling has had another bad effect in that some of our
aged relatives will often not answer the phone whoever is calling. We
have told them about the TPS and CLI but it is a waste of breath.
--
(\__/) M.
(='.'=) Due to the amount of spam posted via googlegroups and
(")_(") their inaction to the problem. I am blocking some articles
posted from there. If you wish your postings to be seen by
everyone you will need use a different method of posting.

On 26/07/2011 23:41, brass monkey wrote:
I must get at least one call every 2 days usually from one of our Indian
friends, am I alone? There must be dozens of these *******s going through
the electoral roll and I haven't yet found the best reply. Usually you can
hear noise in the background so I've tried slamming the phone down before
they can be bothered to speak. I've tried acting deaf/not understanding,
keeping them there for ages. Asking where they got my number, asking what is
their number. When you tell'em to effectively ****-off they carry on talking
as though reading from a card. It's ok when you can recognise the voice, you
just say 'oh no, not you again' and put the phone down.
How do you folks handle these bods? There must be a lot of cash to be made
in this insulation game.


http://www.truecall.co.uk/

--
Reentrant

On 27/07/2011 10:31, Mark wrote:
On Tue, 26 Jul 2011 23:41:23 +0100, "brass wrote:

I must get at least one call every 2 days usually from one of our Indian
friends, am I alone? There must be dozens of these *******s going through
the electoral roll and I haven't yet found the best reply. Usually you can
hear noise in the background so I've tried slamming the phone down before
they can be bothered to speak. I've tried acting deaf/not understanding,
keeping them there for ages. Asking where they got my number, asking what is
their number. When you tell'em to effectively ****-off they carry on talking
as though reading from a card. It's ok when you can recognise the voice, you
just say 'oh no, not you again' and put the phone down.
How do you folks handle these bods? There must be a lot of cash to be made
in this insulation game.

We all get them. I won't waste my time so will normally hang up
straight away. If they are calling from abroad then there will
usually be no CLI so I don't even answer the phone. If it's a UK
number I might complain to the TPS or the ICO, but that's pretty
pointless nowadays.

All this cold calling has had another bad effect in that some of our
aged relatives will often not answer the phone whoever is calling. We
have told them about the TPS and CLI but it is a waste of breath.

My mother used to be plagued by callers from charity fund raising
companies. She allowed me to set up TPS and no silent calls on her
phone. She is pretty deaf and probably wouldn't understand anyone
speaking with a non-standard accent.

"brass monkey" wrote:
I must get at least one call every 2 days usually from one of our Indian
friends, am I alone? There must be dozens of these *******s going through
the electoral roll and I haven't yet found the best reply. Usually you can
hear noise in the background so I've tried slamming the phone down before
they can be bothered to speak. I've tried acting deaf/not understanding,
keeping them there for ages. Asking where they got my number, asking what is
their number. When you tell'em to effectively ****-off they carry on talking
as though reading from a card. It's ok when you can recognise the voice, you
just say 'oh no, not you again' and put the phone down.
How do you folks handle these bods? There must be a lot of cash to be made
in this insulation game.

I find that flirting outrageously works. Flirt so hard you make the staff
cry (male or female, doesn't matter!). If you can upset the staff enough to
make them cry then chances are they won't be calling back :-)

On Jul 27, 12:21*am, "Roberts" wrote:

* *My way of dealing with these pests is with the computer scan just say but
I don't have computer.

It's even better if you tell them you don't have an internet, because
you don't have a phone. Then see how long you can go before they
realise you've been taking the ****. Getting them to cut the call
immediately is no fun - you have to make them only realise _later_
that you took the **** some time ago, they have wasted their own time
since.

A friend claims 37 minutes for one of these calls. Now that's art.

On Wed, 27 Jul 2011 11:10:59 -0700, Andy Dingley wrote:

On Jul 27, 12:21Â*am, "Roberts" wrote:

Â* Â*My way of dealing with these pests is with the computer scan just
Â* Â*say but
I don't have computer.

It's even better if you tell them you don't have an internet, because
you don't have a phone. Then see how long you can go before they
realise you've been taking the ****. Getting them to cut the call
immediately is no fun - you have to make them only realise _later_ that
you took the **** some time ago, they have wasted their own time since.

A friend claims 37 minutes for one of these calls. Now that's art.

I plan to start using this:

http://www.voiptechchat.com/voip/286...-telemarketer-
torture/



--
Use the BIG mirror service in the UK:
http://www.mirrorservice.org

*lightning protection* - a w_tom conductor

brass monkey wrote:
How do you folks handle these bods?

I leave the answer machine running 24/7.

Friends and family all have their names in the phonebook, so I get to
see who's calling and can pick up. Local numbers may get answered,
particularly if I'm expecting a local business to call.

Withheld or International get ignored. I do have a couple of friends who
withhold their number, but they've been trained to always leave a
message and I'll pick up when I recognise their voice.

Really persistent buggers (Yes Anglian and BG, I'm looking at you!) get
added to the phone's 'block list' which means they get silently dropped
(apart from a feint chirp from the one hard-wired handset). I've just
looked in the missed calls list, 5 calls today from an 0800 number
belonging to BG...

I remember once answering one of these calls. Chap at the other end said
"You're a difficult man to get hold of". "Why so?" said I, "The answer
machine's been on the whole time and there's no message". "Oh we don't
leave messages" he said. "Well there's your problem right there" I
replied and I put the phone down.

Fred

On Wed, 27 Jul 2011 19:37:51 +0000, Huge wrote:

On 2011-07-27, Bob Eager wrote:
On Wed, 27 Jul 2011 11:10:59 -0700, Andy Dingley wrote:

On Jul 27, 12:21Â*am, "Roberts" wrote:

Â* Â*My way of dealing with these pests is with the computer scan
Â* Â*just say but
I don't have computer.

It's even better if you tell them you don't have an internet, because
you don't have a phone. Then see how long you can go before they
realise you've been taking the ****. Getting them to cut the call
immediately is no fun - you have to make them only realise _later_
that you took the **** some time ago, they have wasted their own time
since.

A friend claims 37 minutes for one of these calls. Now that's art.

I plan to start using this:

http://www.voiptechchat.com/voip/286...-telemarketer-
torture/

It would be worth setting up an Asterix machine solely to do this.

I have it anyway. Telemarketers already get a hard time, but I plan to
add this as an extension to which I can transfer someone who annoys me
and manages to get through.



--
Use the BIG mirror service in the UK:
http://www.mirrorservice.org

*lightning protection* - a w_tom conductor

On Wed, 27 Jul 2011 22:52:55 +0100, FredCarnot wrote:

brass monkey wrote:
How do you folks handle these bods?


As I found out a couple of years when my Father died, an answer of "I'm afraid he's passed away" is
a very effective answer to the "Is that Mr.X" opener...

I also found that being dead is a good way to bypass utility call-centre muppets and get straight
through to someone that can deal with things efficiently.

On 27 Jul 2011 15:31:07 GMT, Simon Finnigan
wrote:

"brass monkey" wrote:
I must get at least one call every 2 days usually from one of our Indian
friends, am I alone? There must be dozens of these *******s going through
the electoral roll and I haven't yet found the best reply. Usually you can
hear noise in the background so I've tried slamming the phone down before
they can be bothered to speak. I've tried acting deaf/not understanding,
keeping them there for ages. Asking where they got my number, asking what is
their number. When you tell'em to effectively ****-off they carry on talking
as though reading from a card. It's ok when you can recognise the voice, you
just say 'oh no, not you again' and put the phone down.
How do you folks handle these bods? There must be a lot of cash to be made
in this insulation game.

I find that flirting outrageously works. Flirt so hard you make the staff
cry (male or female, doesn't matter!). If you can upset the staff enough to
make them cry then chances are they won't be calling back :-)

Personally I think that is a waste of time. You might upset one or
two people this way but there's 1000s more waiting to give you a call
;-)
--
(\__/) M.
(='.'=) Due to the amount of spam posted via googlegroups and
(")_(") their inaction to the problem. I am blocking some articles
posted from there. If you wish your postings to be seen by
everyone you will need use a different method of posting.

On 27 Jul 2011 22:37:17 GMT, Bob Eager wrote:

On Wed, 27 Jul 2011 19:37:51 +0000, Huge wrote:

On 2011-07-27, Bob Eager wrote:
On Wed, 27 Jul 2011 11:10:59 -0700, Andy Dingley wrote:

On Jul 27, 12:21*am, "Roberts" wrote:

* *My way of dealing with these pests is with the computer scan
* *just say but
I don't have computer.

It's even better if you tell them you don't have an internet, because
you don't have a phone. Then see how long you can go before they
realise you've been taking the ****. Getting them to cut the call
immediately is no fun - you have to make them only realise _later_
that you took the **** some time ago, they have wasted their own time
since.

A friend claims 37 minutes for one of these calls. Now that's art.

I plan to start using this:

http://www.voiptechchat.com/voip/286...-telemarketer-
torture/

It would be worth setting up an Asterix machine solely to do this.

I have it anyway. Telemarketers already get a hard time, but I plan to
add this as an extension to which I can transfer someone who annoys me
and manages to get through.

The article seems to suggest that you need a valid CLID for this to
work. Can you trigger the torture another way?
--
(\__/) M.
(='.'=) Due to the amount of spam posted via googlegroups and
(")_(") their inaction to the problem. I am blocking some articles
posted from there. If you wish your postings to be seen by
everyone you will need use a different method of posting.

Mark wrote:
On 27 Jul 2011 15:31:07 GMT, Simon Finnigan
wrote:

"brass monkey" wrote:
I must get at least one call every 2 days usually from one of our Indian
friends, am I alone? There must be dozens of these *******s going through
the electoral roll and I haven't yet found the best reply. Usually you can
hear noise in the background so I've tried slamming the phone down before
they can be bothered to speak. I've tried acting deaf/not understanding,
keeping them there for ages. Asking where they got my number, asking what is
their number. When you tell'em to effectively ****-off they carry on talking
as though reading from a card. It's ok when you can recognise the voice, you
just say 'oh no, not you again' and put the phone down.
How do you folks handle these bods? There must be a lot of cash to be made
in this insulation game.
I find that flirting outrageously works. Flirt so hard you make the staff
cry (male or female, doesn't matter!). If you can upset the staff enough to
make them cry then chances are they won't be calling back :-)

Personally I think that is a waste of time. You might upset one or
two people this way but there's 1000s more waiting to give you a call
;-)

To quote Tesco's advertising, every little helps. Eventually, the cold
calling places may run out of people who are willing to put up with
being upset for the minimum legal wage wherever they are. In which case,
either the wages will go up, or they'll just give up. If I answer, I
keep 'em going for as long as possible before saying somethng that will
kill the deal. If I don't, there's a paperless fax machine attached to
the line.

--
Tciao for Now!

John.

On Thu, 28 Jul 2011 09:16:19 +0100, Mark wrote:

On 27 Jul 2011 22:37:17 GMT, Bob Eager wrote:

On Wed, 27 Jul 2011 19:37:51 +0000, Huge wrote:

On 2011-07-27, Bob Eager wrote:
On Wed, 27 Jul 2011 11:10:59 -0700, Andy Dingley wrote:

On Jul 27, 12:21Â*am, "Roberts" wrote:

Â* Â*My way of dealing with these pests is with the computer scan
Â* Â*just say but
I don't have computer.

It's even better if you tell them you don't have an internet,
because you don't have a phone. Then see how long you can go before
they realise you've been taking the ****. Getting them to cut the
call immediately is no fun - you have to make them only realise
_later_ that you took the **** some time ago, they have wasted their
own time since.

A friend claims 37 minutes for one of these calls. Now that's art.

I plan to start using this:

http://www.voiptechchat.com/voip/286...-telemarketer-
torture/

It would be worth setting up an Asterix machine solely to do this.

I have it anyway. Telemarketers already get a hard time, but I plan to
add this as an extension to which I can transfer someone who annoys me
and manages to get through.

The article seems to suggest that you need a valid CLID for this to
work. Can you trigger the torture another way?

At present, calling any of our numbers withholding CLID will trigger the
presentation of a menu. The caller can select from telemarketer, survey,
free holiday or valid caller. So far, no one who isn't a valid caller has
selected the 'valid caller' option - it's too much trouble I guess.

But, if they do, they are treated as below (*).

If they *do* present CLID, they'll get through the first time, but then
they are added to a blacklist. That first time, they'll be treated as
below. (*).

OK, so what is (*)? I tell them I need to transfer them to a more
convenient phone, then key in the code for transfer to another extension.
The extension I select is one that is set up to do the 'wait for silence'
torture. Having transferred them, my phone hangs up and they continue the
discussion with the script! I get emailed a sound file afterwards.



--
Use the BIG mirror service in the UK:
http://www.mirrorservice.org

*lightning protection* - a w_tom conductor

In article , Bob Eager
writes

I get emailed a sound file afterwards.

Please post links to any that end in profanity or loss of temper when
they realise they have been had :-)

I do wonder whether interacting with them at all, even in an automated
way, results in your number being marked and distributed on the 'likely
mark' list, resulting in more calls. Fine for VOIP but less so fir LL.
--
fred
FIVE TV's superbright logo - not the DOG's, it's ********

On Thu, 28 Jul 2011 11:14:49 +0100, fred wrote:

In article , Bob Eager
writes

I get emailed a sound file afterwards.

Please post links to any that end in profanity or loss of temper when
they realise they have been had :-)

I do wonder whether interacting with them at all, even in an automated
way, results in your number being marked and distributed on the 'likely
mark' list, resulting in more calls. Fine for VOIP but less so fir LL.

Possibly. The ones with withheld caller ID first get the 'line not in
service' tri-tone, though.



--
Use the BIG mirror service in the UK:
http://www.mirrorservice.org

*lightning protection* - a w_tom conductor

Andy Dingley wrote:
On Jul 27, 12:21 am, "Roberts" wrote:

My way of dealing with these pests is with the computer scan just
say but I don't have computer.

It's even better if you tell them you don't have an internet, because
you don't have a phone. Then see how long you can go before they
realise you've been taking the ****. Getting them to cut the call
immediately is no fun - you have to make them only realise _later_
that you took the **** some time ago, they have wasted their own time
since.

A friend claims 37 minutes for one of these calls. Now that's art.

I have a friend who like to do this but for some reason he thinks it's
entertaining for others in his house to listen in to these calls.
Personally, I find this as funny as toothache.

There is a much better answer, it's called truecall.
http://www.truecall.co.uk/ Expensive for an answerphone but worth every
penny to me. No use alas though if you have ligitimate overseas callers.

Tim

On 28 Jul 2011 11:07:32 GMT, Bob Eager wrote:

Possibly. The ones with withheld caller ID first get the 'line not in
service' tri-tone, though.

Is that wise? I know hospitals, police etc should be able to present
a number but I bet a significant number don't...

--
Cheers
Dave.

On Thu, 28 Jul 2011 21:07:52 +0100, Dave Liquorice
wrote:

On 28 Jul 2011 11:07:32 GMT, Bob Eager wrote:

Possibly. The ones with withheld caller ID first get the 'line not in
service' tri-tone, though.

Is that wise? I know hospitals, police etc should be able to present
a number but I bet a significant number don't...


Precisely the problem that we perceive. We *know* some bona fide
NHS-source calls appear without a presentation number (whether it says
withheld or just announces external call I cannot now be sure). And we
really don't want to miss them.

And on this general theme, how do you stop spam SMS?

--
Rod

On Thu, 28 Jul 2011 21:07:52 +0100, Dave Liquorice wrote:

On 28 Jul 2011 11:07:32 GMT, Bob Eager wrote:

Possibly. The ones with withheld caller ID first get the 'line not in
service' tri-tone, though.

Is that wise? I know hospitals, police etc should be able to present a
number but I bet a significant number don't...

But only automatic equipment (e.g. autodiallers) actually act on it...

--
Use the BIG mirror service in the UK:
http://www.mirrorservice.org

*lightning protection* - a w_tom conductor

On Thu, 28 Jul 2011 21:31:58 +0100, polygonum wrote:

On Thu, 28 Jul 2011 21:07:52 +0100, Dave Liquorice
wrote:

On 28 Jul 2011 11:07:32 GMT, Bob Eager wrote:

Possibly. The ones with withheld caller ID first get the 'line not in
service' tri-tone, though.

Is that wise? I know hospitals, police etc should be able to present a
number but I bet a significant number don't...


Precisely the problem that we perceive. We *know* some bona fide
NHS-source calls appear without a presentation number (whether it says
withheld or just announces external call I cannot now be sure). And we
really don't want to miss them.

The caller hears the tri-tone, then the menu. And then selects the right
item. And gets straight through.

--
Use the BIG mirror service in the UK:
http://www.mirrorservice.org

*lightning protection* - a w_tom conductor

John Williamson wrote:
Mark wrote:
On 27 Jul 2011 15:31:07 GMT, Simon Finnigan
wrote:
"brass monkey" wrote:
I must get at least one call every 2 days usually from one of our
Indian friends, am I alone? There must be dozens of these *******s
going through the electoral roll and I haven't yet found the best
reply. Usually you can hear noise in the background so I've tried
slamming the phone down before they can be bothered to speak. I've
tried acting deaf/not understanding, keeping them there for ages.
Asking where they got my number, asking what is their number. When
you tell'em to effectively ****-off they carry on talking as
though reading from a card. It's ok when you can recognise the voice,
you just say 'oh no, not you again' and put the phone down.
How do you folks handle these bods? There must be a lot of cash to be
made in this insulation game.
I find that flirting outrageously works. Flirt so hard you make the staff
cry (male or female, doesn't matter!). If you can upset the staff enough to
make them cry then chances are they won't be calling back :-)
Personally I think that is a waste of time. You might upset one or
two people this way but there's 1000s more waiting to give you a call
;-)

To quote Tesco's advertising, every little helps. Eventually, the cold
calling places may run out of people who are willing to put up with being
upset for the minimum legal wage wherever they are. In which case, either
the wages will go up, or they'll just give up. If I answer, I keep 'em
going for as long as possible before saying somethng that will kill the
deal. If I don't, there's a paperless fax machine attached to the line.


My logic is if I've got a few minutes to spare, my waste of their time
might be the thing that stops someone else being conned. I once spent 15
minute discussing my 17 trillion dollar debt I wanted consolidated. Turned
out they hadn't heard of my space ship I was building (the enterprise), my
captain (Piccard), the head of the medical department, nicknamed bones, or
the science guy, Spock. I was almost wetting myself laughing at the end of
the call, and I don't think the caller had twitted I was taking the ****!

Mark wrote:
On 27 Jul 2011 15:31:07 GMT, Simon Finnigan
wrote:

"brass monkey" wrote:
I must get at least one call every 2 days usually from one of our Indian
friends, am I alone? There must be dozens of these *******s going through
the electoral roll and I haven't yet found the best reply. Usually you can
hear noise in the background so I've tried slamming the phone down before
they can be bothered to speak. I've tried acting deaf/not understanding,
keeping them there for ages. Asking where they got my number, asking what is
their number. When you tell'em to effectively ****-off they carry on talking
as though reading from a card. It's ok when you can recognise the voice, you
just say 'oh no, not you again' and put the phone down.
How do you folks handle these bods? There must be a lot of cash to be made
in this insulation game.

I find that flirting outrageously works. Flirt so hard you make the staff
cry (male or female, doesn't matter!). If you can upset the staff enough to
make them cry then chances are they won't be calling back :-)

Personally I think that is a waste of time. You might upset one or
two people this way but there's 1000s more waiting to give you a call
;-)

But they seem to take me off the list. Plus visitors/the wife love
listening to me telling the caller that I'm on the vinegar strokes, if they
keep shouting at me I'll get finished sooner.

Andy Dingley wrote:
A friend claims 37 minutes for one of these calls. Now that's art.

I managed three hours:
http://caliston.livejournal.com/20313.html

Theo

"brass monkey" wrote in message
eb.com...
I must get at least one call every 2 days usually from one of our Indian
friends, am I alone? There must be dozens of these *******s going through
the electoral roll and I haven't yet found the best reply. Usually you can
hear noise in the background so I've tried slamming the phone down before
they can be bothered to speak. I've tried acting deaf/not understanding,
keeping them there for ages. Asking where they got my number, asking what
is their number. When you tell'em to effectively ****-off they carry on
talking as though reading from a card. It's ok when you can recognise the
voice, you just say 'oh no, not you again' and put the phone down.
How do you folks handle these bods? There must be a lot of cash to be made
in this insulation game.

http://www.mpsonline.org.uk/tps/

On Sat, 30 Jul 2011 17:32:04 +0100, Mr Pounder wrote:

"brass monkey" wrote in message
eb.com...
I must get at least one call every 2 days usually from one of our Indian
friends, am I alone? There must be dozens of these *******s going
through the electoral roll and I haven't yet found the best reply.
Usually you can hear noise in the background so I've tried slamming the
phone down before they can be bothered to speak. I've tried acting
deaf/not understanding, keeping them there for ages. Asking where they
got my number, asking what is their number. When you tell'em to
effectively ****-off they carry on talking as though reading from a
card. It's ok when you can recognise the voice, you just say 'oh no, not
you again' and put the phone down.
How do you folks handle these bods? There must be a lot of cash to be
made in this insulation game.

http://www.mpsonline.org.uk/tps/


Which works not at all for some callers (mainly international).
--
Use the BIG mirror service in the UK:
http://www.mirrorservice.org

*lightning protection* - a w_tom conductor

On 26/07/2011 23:41, brass monkey wrote:

How do you folks handle these bods? There must be a lot of cash to be made
in this insulation game.

Well I'm paying 45% less this year for my gas than I was in 2008, so
that's 'a lot of cash' for me!