What is it with charity cold-callers?

I hate the ones pretending to be sky about the warranty...they have anumber so that they can not be blocked but you can't get back onto it...........who can you complain to to stop them calling and being abusive they make up things on the phone and when I told him not to phone back he threatened that he would phone tonight and keep on phoning until he spoke to my husband.I said that I didn't have a husband and he said that he would keep on ringing

there should be somewhere where you can complain but it ins't serious enough to phone the police........

grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr I'm still really wound up by the phone call

Bouncing Barlist wrote (see)

I had some junk mail from O2 on Saturday, it contained (wait for it)

A bar of Green and Blacks milk chocolate

Before I joined the TPS I used to say "That's very interesting... can you just wait a minute?", then I'd put the phone down on the stairs and go and watch telly.

DtS - love your approach. I'm using that one next time.

Seren - there's some sort of regulatory body, or ombudsman or something, that companies like this have to answer to.

Not sure how to find out who it is, though.  I'll have a google!

Johnny Blaze wrote (see)

try cancelling your sky subscription - you get 20 minutes of them trying to sell you:

1. do you like movies - A more expensive sky subscription 
2. do you like footie - ditto
3. what channels do the kids watch (guilt trip one that)
4. how much do you pay for broadband; how much do you download a month
5. what about a combined package telly/phone/internet

See if you can stay calm

Cancelling our BT broadband subscription when we switched to Sky was as bad.

It took BT 6 weeks to send through the code we needed to pass to Sky for them to go ahead with the switch. When we passed it over it didn't have enough time before it expired for them to switch over.

When I rang BT to try and get a new code they said it would take a week to get the code out, when I asked to be put through to the complaints department they told me they couldn't do it as the complaints department didn't have a customer facing phone number. Somewhere on the BT website I'd seen a number for the complaints department. Having calmly discussed the matter with the person on the other end of the line I got a bit narked and asked them if BT deliberately gave out misleading information and were blocking us from swapping. Phone instantly went dead.

Got the problem sorted though when I wrote a letter of complaint to them and sent a copy to the chairman of BT at their head office. Got a phone call from his secretary the same day the letter arrived who gave us the code over the phone and then followed it up with an email.

Sheri12 wrote (see)

I've had a few annoying ones recently purporting to be from companies who I do have an account with.

 Them: Hello, I'm calling from Company X regarding your account.

Me: Hello.

Them: Before I continue I need to confirm some security details. Could you give me your date of birth, please.

Me: Ummm... you called me? Why do I need to give you my date of birth?

Them: For security.

Me: But I don't know who you are. I didn't phone you, you phoned me. How do I know you're really from Company X?

Them: We need it for security.

Me: Well, from the point of view of my security, I don't want to give it to you.

Them: (baffled silence)

I mean, they probably were genuinely from the company. But how am I supposed to know that when someone phones out of the blue asking for my personal data?

Had the same thing with them asking me to tell them my details so I refused and told them that as they had rung me then they could tell me the details and I'd confirm whether they were right.

When they wouldn't I told them I wasn't going to give them details over the phone as I hadn't phoned them. Poor guy was at a loss for what to do at that point. Guess the script didn't cater for the situation.

As far as I can tell, it's the TPS, but I can't see where the rules actually can be found.

However, if you are registered with TPS, and get a call from someone you don't want to get calls from tell the caller not to call again. 

If they do call again, they are breaking some rule or other and you can complain to TPS.

Hi wilkie I'm registered with the TPS and thats why don't get many......

I found the information comisiioners will take the complaints in writing but I'm not sure they can do much apart from making statistics...

I told the guy that we had opted out and therefore didn't want to recieve any more and he just insisted that he had our details and would keep on phoning back...........

the only information was our name out of the phone book as he didn't know who was the subscriber or anything about our warranty.

unfortunately the information commisioner said that there is nothing they can do if he keeps on phoning us back however many times or is abusive and neither can any of the other similar organisations.........they can just process the complaint forms................so not much good there.......

I usually just say goodbyeand hang up. If they call back, I  lay the receiver down and go off somewhere else.

Hmmm - in that case, Seren, I'd follow the lying the received down and going off for a bath route.

The more time he wastes with you, the less time he has to spend on potential leads, so he probably won't bother.

If that doesn't work, try the whistle down the receiver?  Or an air-horn?

Can you establish who he actually works for, and complain to them?

TPS works only when the call originates from within the UK. I am getting increasingly irritated by calls from the far East (usually India) where TPS has no jurisdiction.

What winds me up even more is that so many call centres are based abroad these days I GENUINELY cannot understand a word that's being said to me, even when I've called THEM for help!

I had connection problems with my mobile phone whilst in Dublin recently for the marathon. I had called five days earlier to have the international bar lifted. The woman on the phone said she's done it and hadn't.  When I got to Ireland I had no phone connection and Shades and I spent ages in the 3 shop on the bloody phone to India and the guy spoke with an accent SO THICK I could've signed my own death warrant and not known about it. And I had no choice but to give my details over the phone "for security" or I would've been without a phone for all that time!

You could try something like this

I had another annoying one today (it's been a bad day for phone calls).

Caller: Can I speak to Mr K please?

Me: I'm sorry, he's not in at the moment.

Caller: Oh, OK, I'll call back later.

Me: Can I give him a message?

Caller: Oh, it's so-and-so motor insurance company about an incident he was involved in last year. But I need to speak to him personally. Don't panic! Nothing to worry about! 

Me: No, that was me. The insurance policy is in my name, it was me that was involved in the incident. But it's all been resolved long ago.

Caller: No, it is Mr K I need to speak to, the policy is in his name. I'm not allowed to discuss it with anyone else.

Me: But it isn't, it is in my name. My husband doesn't have a policy with you at all. If you check your records  you'll see the policy is in my name and I was the person involved in the incident.

Caller: I can't discuss it with you. I need to speak to Mr K as the policy is in his name.

Me: But it isn't.....

Caller: When will Mr K be available, please?

I'm ashamed to say that at this point I hung up in frustration. 

The nuclear option if you can manage it:

1. Find the home address of the Managing Director/Chairman
2. Hand write a letter of complaint
3. Address it to him, or better still, his wife...
4. Wait for the rolls royce treatement to arrive

I used to get phone calls from a loan company while Mr K was in the Navy. We were behind in paying, and they kept writing to us about it (fair enough!)

They started insisting it was a joint loan, but refused to put my name on the paperwork or speak to me about the repayments. One persistant chap got the wrong side of me and he asked to speak to Mr K the minute he got back from work. Fair enough, it was March, he was due home in...July

Next week I got letters with my name on them as well.