Re: Nuisance Phone Calls

by Traficlady Fri Jan 19, 2018 7:47 am

daisy mae wrote:I have said that I do not have a computer, end of.

A friend of mine used to do that and they never believed him. He actually didn’t have a computer.

Nora

by Askit Fri Jan 19, 2018 9:01 am

Askit wrote:Interesting twist on the nuisance phone call front. I’ve been looking at changing our broadband provider and checked out all the usual suspects on comparison sites and on each of those belonging to the ones that I wanted more information from. On Virgin, they asked for my postcode and house number to “check internet speeds”, no problem thinks I, we’re ex-directory and we’ve had no connection with them so they can’t do more than email me. How wrong was I, next day a cheery and persistent chap from Virgin offices, Manchester called our landline, addresses me by name and asks if I’m ready to sign up

Although my only interest is broadband, he regaled me with TV packages at 100mph. It took me a little while to explain to him that his call was not welcome and he seemed to have some difficulty understanding why I didn’t want to arrange a date for him to call back or an engineer to visit to “assess our needs”.

Before his call, Virgin were at the top of our consideration list, today they are not on the list at all

A postscript to my post. The call referred to from Virgin was at teatime on Wednesday, yesterday I get another call from a different guy from the same call centre who has no knowledge of me being called the day before. He said, “I’ll update your records”. Fine, except why would a company that i’ve Never done business with have any record in relation to me?

Anyway, 7.30pm there’s a knock at our door......guess who......Dominic from Virgin media happed to be in the area and wondered if I was interested in their products frustrating

If you heard screaming around then you’ll now know where it came from biggrin

by dbroada Fri Jan 19, 2018 9:34 am

Traficlady wrote:
daisy mae wrote:I have said that I do not have a computer, end of.
A friend of mine used to do that and they never believed him. He actually didn’t have a computer.

Nora

I knew a couple who didn't have a TV and frequently got knocks on the door from the licence people wanting to verify that fact.

by boxerman Fri Jan 19, 2018 10:32 am

dbroada wrote:I knew a couple who didn't have a TV and frequently got knocks on the door from the licence people wanting to verify that fact.

My in-laws were the same.
The licence people would say that they wanted to come inside and check. Dot's Dad would ask to see their search warrant.
I don't think that they ever gained entry.

Pa-in-law would not 'have one of those contraptions in the house' yet funnily enough, whenever they came to visit, he would bring a copy of the Radio Times and 'suggest' which programmes might be interesting to watch.

Ma-in-law bought a telly not long after Pa-in-law passed away.

Frank

by groundhog Sat Jan 20, 2018 5:04 pm

Phone rang the other day and a voice said "can I speak to Mr xxx"...asked "Who is calling".....
"Sorry I can't tell you that until you confirm you are Mr xxx"
So I replied "Well you can go away" (or similar) and said I was adding them to my BT call blocker....

I just blocked my bank! hugegrins

by peugeotboxer Sat Jan 20, 2018 6:32 pm

groundhog wrote:I just blocked my bank!

A guy phoned saying he was from my Bank and needed to ask security questions to verify who I was!!

Blocked!

PB

by Guest Sun Jan 21, 2018 1:53 am

Apparently there are surveys on Faceache for "fun" which ask loads of supposedly random questions so they can build a statistical image of the users.

Buried in those questions are most if not all of those used by organisations as security questions for data protection

On the Virgin issue I think they may have been in breach of data protection regulations. When organisations ask data questions they should only be used for the stated purpose and should be deleted after it has served its purpose. If the phone number was requested to confirm service availability then that is all it could be used for and not for marketing. On top of that if has done the stated purpose then it should not be retained.

I was having an disagreement with Virgin (when I was for a short time a customer) and requested they called me back. Tech support said they couldn't do that because my number was not held on their system for support purposes, to access it would be breach of DPA. I was expected to call them at 50p per minute.

by Askit Sun Jan 21, 2018 8:40 am

Hairyfool, part of the point of my post (in addition to the persistence of Virgin marketing) was that I didn’t give them either my name or home telephone number. We’re not listed in any phone book either so they must have used some other system to get both.

Interesting you mention their complaint process, they will only accept complaints in writing (letter) or by phone at my expense. I was considering making a formal complaint but it appears only to apply to customers. Pity, I would have liked fibre broadband but how could I trust a company which behaves like that?

by groundhog Sat Oct 17, 2020 1:37 pm

Must have had twenty calls over the last three or four days all claiming to be BT or Amazon Prime, all diverted to the BT call blocker and of course hung up on.
Seems these things go in waves as until the last few days we haven't had many calls in recent times.
I would ditch the landline tomorrow if there was a solution to our poor internet coverage on mobile.
Am also about to change our internet IP address see if that makes a difference.

by bikeralw Sat Oct 17, 2020 1:58 pm

Funny you should mention this Hog.
We've been inundated with calls over the last couple of weeks. Amazon Prime is one of many which include boiler insurance cover upgrade, merits of changing utility provider etc. Then there's the calls that consist of various mechanical clicks before the line goes dead.
All this despite being signed up to Caller Preference for many years.
I've reported those numbers that aren't withheld, but it doesn't seem to have done much good.
Yesterday morning we were even called before 8am, to say I suffered all day because my wife had her sleep disturbed is an understatement....
Having caller display we usually only answer calls from folk that are known to us, but at the moment we have a family situation where we might expect calls from unknown numbers.
Al.

by Guest Sat Oct 17, 2020 2:56 pm

Unfortunately telephone numbers can be spoofed so they are seldom the genuine caller number. Ofcom primarily use the reports to look for trends developing.

Our local Neighbourhood Watch circulated a scam last week about false parcel cards claiming that the number on the card would generate hundreds of pounds of charge if called. Several years ago a cap was placed on 09 calls because of this scam. They are limited to £3.60/minute.

I do wish they would check facts before panicking people.

by Paulmold Sat Oct 17, 2020 3:34 pm

They've started again for us after a rest of a least 6 weeks, 3 yesterday and 4 today. Some show as international on my phone, some with UK area codes eg Aberdeen and Portmadoc. I've just barred all international ones on BT , don't know if they can tell which are diverted through a UK area but we don't answer them anyway as answer machine permanently on . Family and friends always use my mobile number.