A phone call to action – no more nuisance sales calls
We’re all being plagued by unwanted sales calls and texts – even if we’re registered with the Telephone Preference Service. So why can’t it help those of us who are fed up with nuisance calls?
Every few years, a new wave of dubious money-making communications crashes over consumers. In the past decade or so, premium-rate phone and fax scams have receded.
The Nigerian email scam (‘I need to transfer money to a UK bank account, just give me some first’) has been superseded by phishing emails (‘I need to check your bank security details’). The letters congratulating us all on winning a Spanish lottery we never entered have mostly ebbed away. But there’s a new kid on the block – the unsolicited sales call.
This takes such forms as a call from a claims management firm offering to get you compensation for mis-sold payment protection insurance that you never bought. It’s not just calls, it’s texts as well and I’m sick of them.
Telephone Preference Service asleep on the job
Research this week by the Association of British Insurers (ABI) has found that over three-quarters of people (78%) have been contacted by a Claims Management Company (CMC) asking if they had been involved in an accident or been mis-sold payment protection insurance. In London, the figure rose to 82%.
Even more amazingly, the ABI found that 92% of those who received such a message from a CMC said it was not relevant to them. So it’s hardly surprising three in four people back a ban on unsolicited messages.
There’s supposed to be a gatekeeper you can employ for free, the Telephone Preference Service (TPS), but it’s apparently asleep on the job. And it doesn’t cover texts, which makes no sense. The TPS describes itself like this:
‘This free service gives you the opportunity to select who contacts you by telephone. Once registration is complete, telemarketers are legally bound not to call you.’
So why are they calling me and many of you who’ve registered? I think most consumers would think the words ‘by telephone’ will include any and all means of communication received on their phone – mobile or landline, text or call.
Hung up on unsolicited sales calls
A Which? colleague whose phone number has long been registered with the TPS recently complained to it about a PPI compensation call.
The call handler said there had been a big influx of such complaints (no surprise) but it could do nothing as they’re not classed as sales calls, but ‘a service’. This is laughable. The ‘service’ is paid for by a fee taken from any compensation you get. How is this different from someone offering to fit double glazing, which will also incur a fee?
For texts, the law says there must be an unsubscribe option such as ‘Reply “stop” to this number’. But this tells the sender your mobile is genuine and we all fear we’ll just get more texts from them (and it might well cost you a pretty penny to text or ring them to send the stop message).
Together with a group of nine other organisations, ranging from Citizens Advice to Privacy International, this week we have written to the Direct Marketing Association (which administers the TPS), Ofcom and the Information Commissioner to ask them to wake up and do something about this huge problem.
And we’d like your experiences so we can send them on too – are you fed up with nuisance sales calls?
How does the Telephone Preference Service work for you?
It’s rubbish - I get lots of nuisance calls (76%, 3,204 Votes)
It’s OK - I only get the odd nuisance call (15%, 615 Votes)
I’m not registered with the Telephone Preference Service (8%, 339 Votes)
It’s excellent - I don’t get any nuisance calls (1%, 35 Votes)
Total Voters: 4,196
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Robert
I have little problem with these types of calls but i have been ex directory for 40 years.
The only calls i get now are from random dialing companies and from companies from whom i have made a purchase previously and they keep calling to sell me something else.
Initially i ask them to take me off their list but if i get subsequent calls i just leave them on the line whilst i get on with more important things
John Tarbatt
We are ex directory – it makes no difference and we continue to be plagued by nuisance calls.
Automated tele sales should be banned and non automated sales should be strictly regulated.
Lukask
Plagued with calls that comeup International out of area we just connect and disconnect them.
m.
8AM on a Sunday morning, woken up by a computer voice, press buttons to say yes I wanted to speak to a ‘salesperson’ I was put through, politely asked to be taken of the list and they hung up the phone.
Every bank holiday, multiple calls..they call when they know you are at home.
When it used to be people making these calls I would talk like a filthy pervert and they would never call back.
But how do we stop the computors?
laevinus
Registering with TPS did bring about a considerable reduction in these calls. However, some companies ignore the fact that one is signed up to TPS and call anyway, often claiming not to have heard of TPS when this is pointed out to them. Most recently I have been plagued by calls from solar panel companies who continued to call me even after I had clearly stated that I wasn’t interested in the product. One reason why we continue to get such calls is that they often come from outside the UK, in countries where they are not subject to the TPS. However, I do have ‘Caller Display’ from BT and any calls from abroad are displayed as ‘International’. I now have a policy of only answering calls where I can identify the caller. It doesn’t stop the phone ringing, and it does mean you still have to look at the phone, but at least you don’t have to have a conversation with these pests!
David Allen
I have been registered with the TPS for many years, but since we moved into a new house 9 months ago (same telephone number) we have been plagued with these types of calls. Mis-selling of PPI, loft insulation, won a foreign holiday, you name it and we have received it. Anything that can be done to stop these unwanted calls will give me a great deal of satisfaction.
Barry Burnett
Never a day passes without receipt of nuisance calls and it is the same calls repeated day after day. Long ago I registered with the Telephone Preference Service and initially there was some reduction in unwanted calls but it now seems that my preference, not to be called, is completely ignored. Action against the ofending companies is much overdue. These pestering calls should be stopped.
Philip Simpson
I have been getting calls from ‘Companies’ called ICS, and Techno Claims who want to discuss Payment Protection Insurance. My Home Phone Number is ex Directory and i can’t understand how they get my number. Whenever i press 1471, it always comes back as “You were called today at… we do not have the callers number to return the call.
I have also had Text Messages about PPI,
RussellR
Philip
They don’t need to get your number from anywhere – although you are ex directory, you of course still have a number. There is only a finite number of combinations of digits, so just by starting at 00000 000000 and working upwards to 99999 999999 at some point they will call everybody.
BT do have a service which blocks all calls from withheld numbers, though it is chargeable. I suppose that you have to decide which is worse – paying for a block, or getting these nuisance calls
Or resort to home technology such as TrueCall.
R BELMORE
I have been registered for a number of years with TPS and it has not made much difference. I still receive every other day calls from a variety of companies either trying to sell me something or to engage me in some type of survey. I hope Which? will be successful in their attempts to put a STOP to all this irritating nonesense.
Robert
I had to buy a device called Trucall. This now stops 70% of incoming calls (they are all logged for reference) and friends get straight through.
Ian - Chester
Over the last 3 months we have started to receive 5 or 6 unsolicited International calls per day from the Far East – typically India. This is intensely annoying. The phone rings, you wait 1 or 2 seconds and then a cold caller comes online. It’s easy to put the phone down on them but as it seems there is no way of determining their number, BT say there is nothing they can do about stopping the calls. All of this is IN ADDITION to local UK cold callers and automated messages (a new trend which has just started in the last few months).
We’ve been registered with the TPS for 10 years (and tried re-registering) but this service is totally useless and apparently powerless. When I tell UK cold callers we are TPS registered they usually claim we are ‘still on their list’ so they are entitled to call us!
Government needs to takes some action and soon – before this madness gets worse!
Pooley
I have been registered with the TPS for many years. When I first registered it did seem to reduce the unwanted calls but as the years have past it seems to be getting worse. I get a lot of calls where no one answers when you pickup the phone. The las time I contacted the TPS it was taking that long to fill in the questionair I gave up .
Grant mckenzie
Recent;y i received a cold call from a lady saying she was doing a health survey in my area on peoples health ,and wanted to know of ailments that i had. I said that i only discussed this with my GP ,but she was quite insistant that i tell her of my health problems. I refused. I did ask her if she was willing to discuss /tell me of her menstrual problems,and she refused !
She could not get off the phone quick enough.
Cold calls always seem to come in at lunchtime and teatime,and never at breakfast time. Why?
G.Mckenzie
John
Registered with both TPS and FPS yet get unsolicited calls and faxes e.g. from 01202415780 (Halifax plc), 0845 0304416 (goes by various names), 01942738500 (also goes by various names).
TPS no help at all in doing anything about these.
Richard Connell
For all the boring nuissance calls I almost hung up on genuine service call just because the lady’s
Asian accent made me think “Mumbai calling”. Some legitimate UK companies should invest in a
liitle voice training for key service staff.
Tub
Have been registered with TPS for many years,at first calls stopped, but now getting numerous calls, mostly showing as international, hope spoken to the person on the other end and asked to be taken off their caller list, but no difference. Now either do not answer, or take and delete call.
Pain in the backside
Penny Jones
Having had a relatively free 6 months I am now being called regularly by Asian subcontinent people who are trying to sell me IT services. I say no immediatly. But this hasnt stopped them. There must be a huge number of these so-called IT providers. Perhaps I should register with TPS, but thought I had done so years ago, to no avail. But then, maybe not.
Jonathon Fields
I have put my land line permanently on ansaphone mode, so that all these irritating people end up paying to talk to my voice recorder. I go through any messages once a week in case any legitimate callers have tried to contact me. All my friends and family know to contact me on my mobile by text. On my mobile I do not answer calls from withheld numbers, and any calls from numbers not in my contact list are terminated with an auto text message saying I do not know them, and could they text me with an indication of who they are and what they want, and wait for my consent before contacting me again. I only have a land-line because I can’t have broadband without one, so it is no loss to me to never answer calls on it.
Terry
I was having calls several rimes a day from a certain number when I went on line to check if others were having the same problem I found there were 14 pages of complaints about this number. It’s funny that when I put in the number I ended up on the Talk Talk site. When the calls persisted I threatened the caller with the police and stated that the calls must have been coming from Talk Talk because of the pages of complaints on the site. I can say it’s been a couple of weeks now since the calls finished.
Thank God. These calls are not just a nuisance they play with people”s minds, it’s about time something was done about it.
philthunder
Cant they just be outlawed. There are no end of nuisance calls for no end of items, its no good banning just one type of nuisance call do the lot, or allow us to pump 50000 volts down the line!
Henry Bryan
I moved to London 5 years ago and was immediately plagued with numerous sales calls. After registering with TPS these dropped off considerably, but not completely from callers with UK numbers (or “number withheld”). The biggest problem, however, is overseas callers – whose number does not show in caller display and who are outside the TPS net. If only there was a way to prevent them!
Ian
I have no end of trouble with these calls, I contacted BT for the ID service, bought a phone with call barring, cost £60 but is worth it. If you have BT you can press *227# this sets up the no ID refusal
call. So call centres dont get through unless they re-dial with their number, and if they do I can bar the call for the future..brill
nickthebottlewasher
Sorry Ian, but we’ve got call barring as well and somehow lots of these firms have found a way to beat it. My provider says there’s no way of barring foreign calls, but I find that hard to believe.
helen gillett
We are registered with the TPS. I find these cold sales calls really intrusive and they get very short shrift! however this doesn’t alter the fact that I may have had to rush downstairs or in from the garden to (yet again) be offered solar panels, and all manner of things.
The TPS needs to get its act together
Graham B
Try one of the following:
1. If they want to loan you money, tell them you just filed for bankruptcy and you could sure
use some money.
2. If they start out with, “How are you today?” say, “I’m so glad you asked, because no one
these days seems to care, and I have all these problems. My arthritis is acting up, my eyelashes are sore, my dog just died . . . ”
3. If they say they’re John Doe from XYZ Company, ask them to spell their name. Then ask
them to spell the company name. Then ask them where it is located, how long it has been in
business, how many people work there, how they got into this line of work if they are married, how many kids they have, etc. Continue asking them personal questions or questions about their company for as long as necessary.
4. This works great if you are male. Telemarketer: “Hi, my name is Judy and I’m with XYZ
Company. ” You: Wait for a second and with a real husky voice ask, “What are you wearing?”
5. Cry out in surprise, “Judy? Is that you? Oh my God! Judy, how have you been?” Hopefully,
this will give Judy a few brief moments of terror as she tries to figure out where she could
know you from.
6. Say “No” over and over. Be sure to vary the sound of each one, and keep a rhythmic
tempo, even as they are trying to speak. This is most fun if you can do it until they hang up.
7. If MCI calls trying to get you to sign up for the Family and Friends Plan, reply, in as sinister a voice as you can, “I don’t have any friends, would you be my friend?”
8. If the company cleans rugs, respond: “Can you get out blood? Can you get out goat blood?
How about human blood?”
9. After the Telemarketer gives his or her spiel, ask him or her to marry you. When they get all flustered, tell them that you can’t just give your credit card number to a complete stranger.
10. Tell the Telemarketer that you work for the same company, and they can’t sell to
employees.
11. Answer the phone. As soon as you realize it is a Telemarketer, set the receiver down,
scream, “Oh my God!” and then hang up.
12. Tell the Telemarketer you are busy at the moment and ask him/her if he/she will give you
his/her home phone number so you can call him/her back. When the Telemarketer explains
thattelemarketers cannot give out their home numbers say, “I guess you don’t want anyone
bothering you at home, right?” The Telemarketer will agree and you say, “Me either!” Hang
up.
13. Ask them to repeat everything they say, several times.
14. Tell them it is dinner time, but ask if they would please hold. Put them on your speaker
phone while you continue to eat at your leisure. Smack your food loudly and continue with
your dinner conversation.
15. Tell the Telemarketer you are on “home incarceration” and ask if they could bring you
some beer.
16. Ask them to fax the information to you, and make up a number.
17. Tell the Telemarketer, “Okay, I’ll listen to you. But I should probably tell you, I’m not
wearing any clothes.”
18. Insist that the caller is really your buddy Leon, playing a joke. “Come on, Leon, cut it out!
Seriously, Leon, how’s your momma?”
19. Tell them you are hard of hearing and that they need to speak up . . . louder . . . louder . . .
20. Tell them to talk very slowly, because you want to write every word down.
NOTICE: The above have all been tested and approved for use on telemarketers. No animals
were harmed in the testing
Tony Simpson
We get plenty of unsolicited calls despite being registered with the Telephone Preference Service. However, since we bought a BT answerphone and arranged with BT to have caller display these nuisance calls are only a minimal problem. We have put all of our friends and business contacts into the answerphone’s phonebook and assigned them a different ringtone. The unsolicited calls come through with the default ringtone and we just ignore them. If an important call comes in from someone we are not expecting, they can put a message onto the answerphone and we will ring them back. The nuisance callers never leave a message so problem largely fixed.
Patrick Steen
For those who commented earlier on in this Conversation, we have now added a poll to see what you statistically feel about the TPS. Vote and get your friends and family to vote too!
RussellR
It is a pity that Which has decided to phrase the third option ‘It’s rubbish – I get lots of nuisance calls’. Many of the calls appear to originate from overseas numbers, so these are outside the scope of UK law. It may be possible to implement cross border co-operation to reduce these, but that is something for government to initiate, rather than TPS.
I regularly receive several calls a day from International numbers as identified on caller display, so would have been ready to select this option had it dealt with fact alone, rather than including an unfair criticism of TPS over something which is outside their control.
As TPS state on their website, “It does not stop other call types such as recorded/automated messages, silent calls, market research, overseas companies, debt collection, scam calls, nuisance and abusive calls etc. “
Patrick Steen
Hello Russell, we are aware of that and have approached those difficulties in our latest Conversation: http://conversation.which.co.uk/consumer-rights/nuisance-phone-calls-bbc-panorama-telephone-preference-service-ico/ Thanks.
roundyrobin
We received a call at 4:15 am from a withheld number. I can assure you I wasn’t amused! We are also registered with the TPS and have been for some years. It was very good at first but it seems to have slipped recently and we get unsolicited calls regarding PPI, motor vehicle accidents (of which I haven’t had any – touch wood, anyway). I have told the person on the phone that we are with the TPS and she didn’t know what I was talking about. We now have Caller ID from BT which is absolutely wonderful as I don’t answer any calls where the number is withheld or international calls as they are the usual stuff about someone allegedly working for Microsoft or Windows or some other IT company telling me our computer has been infected with a virus. This is so irritating as they won’t take no for an answer. At least now, I simply don’t answer the calls. I’m amazed that in this day and age of all this technology, no one seems to be able to stop all the calls. Grrrrr!
M Coombes
Also registered with TPS and still get lots of calls. Recently many of the calls have focussed on ‘Government backed’ loft insulation and after informing them we are not interested have now switched to automated calls. I had a call the other day telling me I had a virus on my PC and I was asked to switch on my computer and he would talk me through the recovery process!
Susi Shafar
I get at least 2-4 nuisance calls a day, usually offering to update my computer, sort out my debt problems(which I do not have) or offer investment advice – but often cannot understand what is being said as they talk so quickly with an Indian accent, and often there is no one at the other end at all.Why cannot this be stopped? I contacted the Telephone preference service who sent me a form that required individual information oneach call with “the company and tel.no.” phoning to be entered. But as there are so many and varied calls this seemed like hard work and would probably not help.
davido
We receive many nuisance calls, some of which just have a dialling tone. One good way of dealing with the PPI, Government help with insulation, regarding your recent car accident, help with your internet problems etc. is to ask the caller “do I know you?” This inevitably means they ring off. If they reply just say “if I wanted your help, I would have contacted you”. By this time they realise they are not going to get a good response and the call is costing their company money.
Brian
Most problems that affect phone users are caused by incoming calls that have the caller NUMBER blocked; replaced by terms, such as; INTERNATIONAL, WITHELD or UNAVAILABLE.
The problem is made very much worse by the use of ‘automatic dialling’ systems, and these repeated, random calls may be made – to the fury of the intended recipient, until the caller obtains a response.
The reason for this situation becomes clear; if one asks BT for such incoming calls to be blocked … and yes this is possible – if one pays an extra £10 per month for the privilege.
The response of the phone to an incoming call goes something like this: All of these terms, including the number of the caller, have an electrical output that helps to activate the ‘ring tone’, but each of these, individual signals also have a separate output in order to display the associated term required. The combination of the ring-tone signal, say ‘S’, and one of the required term, outputs, say, N, I, W or U. is made via an electronic ‘gate’ – an (AND – GATE), say, and so the combination of signal (S and N) will ensure the occurrence of both ring-tone and displayed number of the caller; and so on.
It is possible that all phones in the BT network will allow the volume of the ring-tone to be changed, and if it is reduced to zero the ring-tone is eliminated. If the phone has an associated recorder, the message will be saved – if there is a genuine caller.
And so the message to be left for the guidance of the caller is, say, “the ring-tone is suppressed please leave a message after the tone”.
This way of using the telephone is then analogous to sending an e-mail and awaiting a response: clearly, for most of us, this is an unnecessarily, cumbersome process. Generally none of these extra terms are necessary: if they are included there must be provision to suppress them – by the click of a switch.
A major impact of this, misuse of the phone is that it exposes the recipient to contact with persons who clearly have much to hide. Most affected are the aged, who are most at home, and most at risk – to be trapped into situations that may destroy whatever wealth they may have accumulated, over a lifetime of industry.
Lizzie
We are sick to the back teeth of this. Our phone is now set to silent so that we are not disturbed, people are asked to leave a message and we ring back. International are the worst. Please put a stop to this, it puts vulnerable people in danger and drives the rest of us nuts.
richard
I used to be a BT Ex Directory user – received bags of cold callers – Joined Cable & Wireless (now Virgin) cold calls diminished but still too many – registered with TPS cold calls diminished further but not eliminated. – I used to be abusive but this didn’t reduce the number of cold calls. Now have used the answer phone for several years – cold calls now less than one every three months or so – The answer phone continues to bleep gently after call so I always check who it is if it bleeps but in my time.
Moral of the story? Use Virgin followed by answer phone (the service I had with BT was appalling) . I assume cold callers have a list of those that are unproductive and I’m now on it!
SteveK
If the TPS doesn’t do ‘what it says on the tin’ it should go and an organisation that can do the job should replace it. One of the most annoying calls for me is that from charities I support on a monthly basis, asking me to increase my payment. These people can be as persistent as any salesperson and have led me to cancel several monthly donations after they have failed to ensure that I receive no more calls from them. Also, I do not understand how the TPS cannot block computer-generated calls.
Mike Bennett
1. I would like to barr all number withheld calls from my phone – but his costs nearly £100 a year from my telephone sevice provider!
2. Anyway many marketing calls are not number withheld but are a spoof number e.g. 000000000000
EJ
I am registered with TPS and am still plagued on a daily basis by these call centres, who get my name from a huge database which seems to be available to anyone. Is this legal? While I refrain from engaging in converstaion,the callers are mostly very persistent and aggressive. Time it was stopped!
Geoff (E Yorks)
In general, the TPS works pretty well for us.
For us, the bigger problem is with dodgy international calls (boiler room scams, etc).
Our first respose was to install a telephone with caller display and sign up for the service. When an international call was displayed we simply ignored it (we do not have any genuine international callers).
Then there is the problem of unsolicted calls from those witholding their numbers – more difficult to filter out!
Our current answer is to record a message to the effect that we never lift the receiver to either international or “caller witheld” calls. Genuine callers are invited to leave a message.
This can be inconvenient for those genuine callers who withold their numbers for legitimate reasons, but they are generally understanding of the problem.
BT tells us that we cannot bar international calls and therein lies a major problem that Which? might be able to address.
ANN
I am getting 3 – 4 of these calls a day. Yesterday I got two from Fight Any Claim. I did report them to the Preference Scheme but have little faith that anything will be done. When I first joined some years ago it seemed effective but not now. I also get calls when there is no-one at the other end presumably automated.
Sheila Moffett
I registered with TPS some time ago and stull recieve annoying calls as I have cordless phone I do as they do to me I leave my phone off the reciever for sometime,at times an hour knowing they cannot call out to any one else and annoy them I must say I have not had any calls in such a long time naughty but seems to work
Geoff
Though I have been registered with TPS for several years, they are the bane of my life. The insurance claim calls don’t ask if I may have a claim, they aggressively assume I do have a claim so I just put the phone down.
But I suffer most from a new type of call: “We are not trying to sell you anything. We are conducting a survey and would like to ask you a few questions. It won’t take more than 1/2/5 minutes”. Some of them (often energy saving related) claim to be working on behalf of a government department. Do these fall outside existing regulations?
Many calls are from an automated dialling system, and no-one is on the other end of the call. They often call back straight away, so I have developed the habit of not clearing the line for a couple of minutes.
I haven’t recorded volumes but estimate 10-12 per week – and that is only the ones when we are in.