Much has been written about the wretched cold callers recently.
Even though we have signed up to Telephone Preference services we still get the calls....trying to sell us new windows, conservatories, insurance and so on.
I have Caller ID and also an answering machine.
I have Caller ID and also an answering machine.
It is very annoying to be greeted with 'Hi there, just a quick call', when you know it isn't any such thing.
One girl was selling sunrooms and when I said I really didn't want one, got quite irate and snapped 'Why not? Is it for financial reasons?'
There has been a series of letters in the Daily Telegraph in the last coupe of weeks, with all sorts of advice on dealing with them.
Say nothing.
Blow a whistle.
Offer to report them.
Sing.
Reply in a foreign language (I'm going to try that)
But my favourite was to ask them 'if they know Jesus?'
A reply letter the next day said 'I tried that and they said yes they did and would love to talk about our Christian life'........
Well.
I once was faced with a particularly annoying cold caller...I placed the phone on the table ,walked away and began to prepare dinner.When I came back the person had gone.
ReplyDeleteJanex
I have a list of funny, but REAL, things you can do as soon as I post this. Here in the U.S. we have call block and can just block certain ones or zip codes we don't want. I have an answering machine that I can hear who it is and just don't answer the phone if I don't want to talk to them. Caller ID is preferable also—I have it ALL! LOL I'll email asap.
ReplyDeletexoxo,
Kisses for hubby and hope he's going well.
Connie
I've learned to speak slowly and in a rather loud but polite voice 'Thank you, whatever it is, I'm not interested'
ReplyDeleteThen I hang up.
What a great idea! We get a few calls and I think next time I will have to do that, ask them if they know Jesus :) Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteHugs to you,
Stephanie
Good Morning Elizabethd, Oh yes, cold callers can be very irritating. Why is it they always ring when we are sitting down eating our meal.
ReplyDeleteI am now going to take your advice and either speak in a foreign language or I might just say "I don't understand" and put the phone down.
Have a lovely weekend.
Best Wishes
Daphne
Aren't those annoying! I usually say 'No thanks, not interested' but sometimes they won't let a person get a word in. DH just hangs up! I'm going to try leaving them on hold - apparently that ties up their lines so at least they can't call somebody else for a while. We have subscribed to a 'do not call' list, but apparently here in Canada any organizations or businesses to which you're 'attached' can't be blocked (like banks and credit cards), nor can political parties be blocked. Oh, well!
ReplyDeleteYes, these phone calls are annoying, yet I realize that most of these callers are trying to earn a living. Calling is their job. So...since time can be money, I just say, "No thank you," and hang up. That way, the caller can go on to the next number.
ReplyDeletexo
Ha. My daughter's boyfriend found out they aren't permitted to hang up on you so he just started to tell them the plan of salvation every time they called. I've also heard someone started "crying" when she was offered new windows and said, "How could you be so cruel. My home burned down yesterday..." Funny, but not truthful. Such an irritation.
ReplyDeleteI find cold callers annoying, too. My way of dealing with them is similar to Pondside's. A short, but firm, "no thank you" - often interrupting them, and then I hang up. I don't want to be rude to the caller since he or she is just doing a job and likely has a family to feed. My beef is with the industry itself.
ReplyDeleteWe detest them too - especially at dinner time or when we've just started a movie! Although we're on the Do Not Call list - the calls seem to be getting through more and more........and they all somehow know we're 'senior citizens' which is even worse!!
ReplyDeleteIf we didn't require the land line for international calls, we'd get rid of it - hardly any calls like those come through on our mobiles, thank goodness!
Sometimes, when a real person is on the line, Bob 'plays' with them in good humor - he's such a nice guy! I just hang up on recordings, if a person is there I say no thank you as they are only doing their low-paid, but necessary to survive job, more often than not. We would never blow a whistle in anyone's ear - that is unkind and dangerous.
Annoying though - and the government hereis doing a lousy job protecting us.
Happy day - Mary
We have caller ID, we ignore 0845 numbers or withheld numbers (I Google the 0845 or numbers I don't recognise a lot of them are dodgy, for example one we get a lot is a company posing as Orange that isn't really Orange, another is one that pretends that to be from Microsoft).
ReplyDeleteI won't buy anything from unsolicited calls so I don't waste my time or theirs. If it's important they'll leave a message on the answer-phone. :)
Lovely to hear how other people deal with these calls. When i answer the phone and am greeted with these people i place receiver to one side, leave it for a minute, then replace the receiver. Silence is golden....xx
ReplyDeleteMy biggest problem is that I fear the French person on the phone might just be calling me about something really important, and that it's my inadequacies with the language that are stopping me from understanding this... But no, it's just paranoia, in fact from their technique it's easy to tell who is genuine and who is selling something. We've had a bizarrely rude series of cold calls recently, culminating in the woman telling me, 'Don't lie to me, madam, I've called you three times and you've already told me you're a home owner twice'! As I was telling her I wasn't interested, which was no lie, I found her comments as bizarre as they were unlikely to sell anything! The rude cold caller - perhaps unique to France?
ReplyDeleteI love that! 'do you know Jesus'? I remember doing door to door years ago with my then church and it never failed to get a few doors slammed in my face! thought it would work on phones. We say the owner is abroad and we are renting - that gets rid of a few but they seem to be becoming more and more frequent.
ReplyDeletep.s. I think I will try Jane and Chris technique in future!
ReplyDeleteJust cannot win them all
ReplyDeleteI just say a brisk no thank you and put the phone back down before they have chance to say anything else - a bit rude I suppose but better than wasxting their time xxx
ReplyDeleteAgree, so, so infuriating. I just put the phone down. The real evil one is when it is someone pretending to be from Windows and needing to fix an issue on your computer. I wonder how many people have fallen for that.
ReplyDelete