Cold Callers, how do you deal with them?

At least once a day for the last month, I get someone call me up at home. Usually, when I get a call like this, and they're asking questions, I give them completely false details, wrong name, wrong address, wrong age, wrong everything, until I know for sure it is regarding something I have asked to be called about. If it is, I come clean and say that I am who they are looking for, and explain that I don't like to give out personal information to someone I can't see and don't know.

I've had the Microsoft "your computer is going haywire" scam calls, "your Sky tv protection is due to run out of warranty", charity calls, loans, accident injury claim calls, payment protection insurance claim calls... the whole shabang.

What makes it worse, is that we signed up to the caller preference service, to stop with these calls, seriously. I was getting more than three a morning at one point. The frequency of the calls has dropped, but they are still getting through.

Some days, I play along, like with the Microsoft calls. "Oh no! Which computers motherboard is broken? I have 4, so you should be able to tell me which one is going wrong, right?"
Or if it's a call where they assume I have a product, and they say its in my name, I tell them they're talking # and to stop cold calling, because the product is not in my name.

Getting fed up with them now though. I have no caller ID, so I can't screen before I pick up.

Anyone got any good tips before I just start picking up and swearing at them before I hang back up again? lol

reply to post by Lulzaroonie


are they at the door or phone

reply to post by haven123


Phone.
A couple of weekends ago, Jehovahs Witnesses were doing their rounds and I put a sign on the door saying "No Cold Calling" and they missed us out, and we've not had anything since

It depends on what type of "cold call" it is.

If it's a survey type thing, my wife and I try to take the time to take the survey.

if it's a sales call, we'll let them go through their pitch one time and kindly decline,
if they start their pitch again, we kindly say, no thank you, pause and see how they respond.
most of the time they say thank you and hang up, but if they start pitching again, we say thank you
again and hang up.

if it's any other kind of call, "phishing", we simply say, no thanks and hang up.

We're a little kinder as we look at it as this, at least these people are working and trying to earn
a living. It's not a glamorous job, but hey, watch ya gonna do.

reply to post by Lulzaroonie


String them along and just as they think they have you crush their hopes of getting any commission, wind ups are good fun too.

When offered home insurance pretend to cry and say "I dont have a home" then go nuts lol stuff like this helps, at least they are crossing you off the possible lead list rather than thinking they may have a chance if they call back another time.

Basically I like wasting their time, when I have time to waste myself.

Im not sure how legal it would be but you could buy a whistle or fog horn? lol

reply to post by Lulzaroonie


by any chance are they going on about PPI claims?

reply to post by Lulzaroonie


over here one can opt-out by registering phone-numbers. this however doesn't filter a lot.
i have a phone that has a red button. when i press that button, the call is over :-)

when i'm really wicked, i allow the caller to run tru the script just to waste his/her time. I pretend to be very interested and answer every single question, feeding them as much false data as possible.

and when i'm truly evil I ask if the caller doesn't regret having wasted their time while at school, as they are now forced to do monkey jobs. This usually ends the conversation. I don't feel pity for those people, no one forced them.

when they ring at the door i ask if they are familiar with the notion of trespassing and offer them 30 seconds to leave my property. if that doesn't work, starting to call the cops usually does the job.
when it's those poor jehova freaks i like to fool them around so when they tell me they want to talk to me about the "Lord" I turn my head inside the house and yell very loud "Lord?" and add to that "i'm sorry, he's not in. what did he do wrong this time". Or I start a debate on the origins of their BS. It takes me about 1 minute to make them leave.

reply to post by Lulzaroonie

Personally, I don't answer the phone unless I know who it is.
Well, I only answer it about 1/2 of the time, when I do know who it is lol.

This ↓here is the best response I've heard though.

It depends on my mood.

First, no matter how you handle the situation, always tell them to place you on their "do not call" list.

Sometimes I'll listen to their pitch and decline. Sometimes I'll decline before they start. If I'm particularly annoyed, I'll often just put the phone down and let them figure it out...eventually.

I have worked in sales before, although not telephone sales.. There have been times I have listened to a person's pitch and have given them feedback, but declined their offer.

I don't think I've ever spoken to a telephone sales person that had a product or service I was interested in - or at least, not one that's called me.

Hit them in the pocket.....stay on the phone for AGES!

The more time you are playing with them, the less time they have to harass others. So less revenue.....less revenue means less sales people....less sales people means less calls

Say im going to get the person you need to talk to....walk around the garden, go to the shops....if they are still on the phone when you return, just go along with everything, giving them false details all the way.

ETA: Funny enough i had one just today...British Gas trying to sell me boiler cover. Im kinda busy today so i decided to let them down gently....hang up

Try heavy breathing.....don't say a word just breathe really heavy....or, if you're feeling like an argument, ignore their questions and ask how they got your number because you signed up with that BT service, then ask for their name, their managers name, the name of their business and it's address, the name and address of their company's solicitor....you get the picture, if they don't hang up on you after losing their bottle then ask to speak to their supervisor and repeat your questions....

reply to post by Lulzaroonie


www.which.co.uk...
if there not an automated message and iv got time on my hands i will go along plaing dumb for ages then tell them where to go using lanuage that would get me banned or a warning on here lol

reply to post by haven123


ah just read your first post i replied when it said brb.i found alot of them have strong indian or whatever accents but are called dave or steve or somthing that just dusnt fit there accent

reply to post by Lulzaroonie


I like to talk gibberish at them. You may sound stupid but they stop calling! Typical conversation:

"Hello, is that Mr .....?)"

"Wassellfluzzy"

"Pardon Sir, I didn't quite hear that"

"MORK MORK! Wassellfuzzy"

"Sorry for bothering you sir, have a nice day"

Works everytime!

reply to post by elevatedone


We should probably change the system so that there are not people relying on a commission to feed their families, this is another form of exploitation in my opinion, I did various sales type jobs when I was 18 including cold calling for British Telecom, people were basically committing fraud for extra pennies, "hey that old lady sounded thick, lets add some additional services on beyond what she agree to, lets send her a fax machine too"

Commission based sales should be banned at the low end of the market. Its not far away from slave labour, I mean they make 100s of call but dont get paid unless they make 1 lead? Time to pay people for the work they actually do.

I am not a phone fan. I use it when I want to talk to someone and the rest of the time, unless it is a friend, when it rings it is an invasion of my privacy and an irritant.

My state has no call lists as does the US gov. I am on both. My state Attn. Gen. Does prosecute violations of the no call list. It is a $16,000 fine. I don't get many cold calls. The exceptions for no call lists are politicians which I get way to many calls from, it does not endear them to me.

Whoooo, I wasn't expecting such a response so quickly lol! I only went to make some toast! lol I've had to open this in a separate page so I can reply to bits in one post, rather than keep making a reply to each.

Most of the calls I get are the kind where they play you for a fool, they make out you've made enquiries into whatever their pitching or have a product you've bought before. "We understand you're looking for a loan..." "It's free to upgrade apart from the one off payment of £182, and then the continuance of 42 monthly payments of £18.70..."
Usually, I am very polite, but as you can imagine, after three calls a day every day for a month, my patience is wearing considerably thinner each day

Stringing them along is good and fine if I have the time, but sometimes I don't have the natural proclivity to wind people up. Also, I hate wasting time. Time is precious at the moment, since I get so little to spare, I really hate to waste it on the phone when I could be doing something important... or catch up on my Xbox gaming
I like the idea about the whistle though. My son just got a recorder, perhaps I'll pay Hot Cross Buns down the phone to them

Yeah, they do mention PPI, but I know for sure I haven't got those kinds of insurances on my cards.

We have opted out of being listed in the phone book, and also sign up with the telephone preference service which is supposed to remove you from cold call lists, which includes international numbers and also covers mobile numbers too.

That video is actually a pretty great way, I will have to try that tomorrow when I will undoubtedly get another call

I always ask to be removed from call lists. It seems as though for every company that loses us, another three get our details.
The worst was when I got a call from Great Ormand St hospital looking for donations. How awful did I feel having to let her down, but at least she was gracious about it.

I have been told to let them stay on the line, but I don't like the idea of putting the phone down and having them potentially listen to anything that might be going on in the house. I did say earlier on Twitter, that if I got another one, I'd put a porno on, leave the phone by the speaker and leave the room lol.

Haha I had a cold call from an Indian woman call 'Adrian'. I had a good laugh about that after.

I know some people who used to work for BT, and yeah, they would sign anyone up for anything they could get away with.

just say that this is a top secret phone number belonging to MI5 and that agents will be along shortly to find out how they got the number and conduct questioning in Guantanamo bay thanks to our friends in the good ol'US of A

you'll probably be able to smell the brown stuff thats filling their pants over the phone

reply to post by Lulzaroonie


Honestly, try the gibberish route. It works a treat in England, i know that for a fact. They just kind of get embarrassed (think you are an idiot) and don't really know what to say to you. The number of calls will start to dwindle, the more times you repeat this.

The hardest thing is trying not to laugh down the phone when doing it though.

theres one that ring around 4.30pm every day you could set the atomic clock on it but its not even a person ita na automated message pi$$ me right off they do