At the end of my tether with harassing unwanted phonecalls

A question about : At the end of my tether with harassing unwanted phonecalls

Hi...I hope I'm posting in the right place- I did read the stickys and looked for the most appropriate place but please re-direct if it's not in right section!

I am at my wits end with a company calling themselves British Consumer Surveys who harrass me multiple times a day with phonecalls asking me to complete a survey...I have asked them repeatedly not to phone me back ever again as I have no wish to talk to them...I was told on the last occasion that we will definitely be calling you back again Mrs. G...

I have never been rude to them, though I have often felt like shouting and swearing them down the phone and I have repeatedly told them I do not want to speak to them and to remove me from their mailing list...

I am registered with the TPS and both me and Sky have reported them to the nuisance call service but they still keep phoning!! I have only ever given out my landline number to friends, family and my doctors and midwife as I am 35 weeks pregnant and need a landline just in case and they tend to phone from withheld numbers (medical services that is) I have 2 of their numbers blocked my my phone providers (Sky) blocking service but they still keep phoning me!! They sometimes phone from an 0121 or an 0161 number but more often than not from a withheld number.. All the people I have spoken to have south Asian accents so I don't know whether they are based in the UK or not... I have tried picking up the phone and leaving them to talk to just the handset but it didn't put them off, I have tried reasoning with them to be told that if I answer their questions they will not phone me again but I'm not prepared to answer their questions and there is no guarantee that if I did that they wouldn't harrass me more. I reported them.

I'm at a loss as to what to do next...can anyone advise me?

Many thanks, Hayley

Best answers:

• Whistle at the side of your phone.
• We have caller dsipaly and don't answer if we don't recognise the number.
  the call goes to the answer phone and if someone wants to speak t us they will leave a message.
  If we know them then we either interupt them speaking or call them back.
  Call centres use computers which dial numbers in sequence until it hits a
  live one so they don't need to know your number.
  As these calls come from abroad TPS cannot do anything about them.
• if you don't recognise the number just put the phone to one side and go have a cuppa....put it back when you have finished.
• They're only annoying you so much because you're letting yourself become involved. Why are you having conversations with these people?
  Just put the phone down and stop letting yourself get wound up.
• I sympathise. They are a right pain in the proverbial.
  As for not getting wound up about it, the OP is about to have a baby, and must be worried that her precious moments of peace and quiet will be disturbed, maybe when she has just got the infant off to sleep.
  Could you tell all your friends and family to phone your mobile for a while, and disconnect the landline? A bit drastic I suppose, but if it removes the constant anxiety...
  Otherwise put a tea cosy over the phone, which will at least muffle the ringing.
• If finances aren't too tight, invest in a Trucall device. (Other makes are available - that's the first one that popped into my head). That way all such annoying calls can be easily blocked from even making your phone ring.
• I had the same problem when I had a landline...I would just talk over them repeating the same phrase over and over "Please remove me from you calling list" until they hung up. The calls stopped very quickly.
• Invest in one of these:
  https://www.truecall.co.uk/home.aspx
• https://www.saynotocoldcalls.com/
• We have a BT phone that will block a range of calls [BT6500] The only calls that get through are ones we have put on a VIP list anything else goes to the answer machine and the phone doesn't even ring
  Aldi also have one that says it blocks calls sorry didn't see the price but they are in a glass case.
• I had a nuisance call a few days ago.....a smarmy man reading from a script...i listened until he said it was an advisory call about solar panels....i just hung up x
• Complain EVERY time they ring. https://complaints.tpsonline.org.uk/...r/Default.aspx
  Then sue them for your time. I am sure there is a sory about someone taking them to court.
  By the way blocking witheld calls can block friends and family, my MIL has a witheld number.
• Do their survey but just answer their questions with ridiculous made up answers. It won't help them at all and should be a bit of fun for you.
• i'm another who has been plagued by calls, if its not ambulance chasers, accident in 2012 and as they claim to have a right to bombard me with calls for up to 6 years...
  so i used an app called true caller, and my unwanted calls has gone down from about 10 a day to about2, true caller has identified who and what is sales and spam calls and just blocks them for me, wish i'd known about it sooner, even better the app is free for android, so i assume free also on other platforms.