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Abusive cold caller left me boiling

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“Go to hell,” said the woman who told me her name was Betty. Then she hung up, leaving me furiously, impotently listening to dead air.

All I had done was ask her remove my name from her company’s mailing list and make sure they never phone me again. I asked nicely too. I am being very patient.

Three or four times a day the phone rings and someone asks for me by name then tells me they are from the British Lifestyle Survey. They reassure me they aren’t selling anything and that they only want to ask a couple of questions. That’s all.

Over the weeks I’ve tried various approaches.

The first of which was to register with the Telephone Preference Service. Only there’s nothing they can do because this is ‘market research’, not sales.

I’ve tried answering the questions like a good girl. However, the first one is always ‘do you own your own home?’.

As I think this is a private matter between the Panther and I, I refuse to answer. It’s certainly the kind of information I need a very good reason to part with. I certainly don’t see what it’s got to do with lifestyle, British or otherwise. So at this point they usually hang up on me and I don’t get to ‘help’ them any more.

I’ve tried establishing who wants to know this stuff and why. Beyond a breezy, ‘it’s just a household survey’, I’ve drawn a blank.

I’m a journalist so I love a good survey, but I also know that surveys have to be created and paid for. They always hang up before I get the answer.

I’ve asked for the boss, but they hung up. 

I’ve asked them if they’ll tell me what their home ownership situation was first, but they hung up. 

I’ve asked where they are, if I can phone them back and what their address is, but they hung up each time.

Lately I’ve tried asking nicely for them to stop ringing, to take my name off their list. Usually they hang up.

But today things changed. I was sworn at, in my home while I made a polite request, something that really isn’t on.

Can anyone tell me how to stop these calls? They were annoying before, but now they’re just horrid.

Comments

  1. Without wanting to trump your boilingness in any way:

    We lived in Paris for a couple of years, returning in 2007. Our second lot of tenants unhelpfully cancelled our long-standing telephone number on leaving despite being asked not to. Letting agents are goodfornothings IMO. Apparently we could not uncancel the number even though it was not reassigned to anyone for several months afterwards.

    Instead we were assigned the telephone number of a near neighbour. The mother had sadly died of a brain tumour leaving two children under 3 who, with their father, moved away in 2006.

    On our return, mindful of cold callers, we went ex-directory and signed up to the TPS. I still, however, often find myself explaining, (or not explaining) this sad, sad story to cold callers from India, asking for the poor young deceased mum who had our number. And they don't want to listen.

    🙁

  3. That's a horrible thing. And even more of a reason why it ought to be possible to stop this stuff.
    It doesn't seem to matter how many times you explain that you don't want these calls and won't answer them in a helpful manner.

  5. Thanks Caron. I'll sign up to his campaign. It's just an irritation to me and I'm not injured by a bit of abuse, but there other circumstances like MsAlliance's up there that can cause proper distress.

  8. We used to get loads too. You could almost guarantee when you sat down to dinner the phone would ring.

    A couple of years ago we switched phone providers to Sky and had to change our number when we did so. I thought it was such a hassle at the time as we didn't really want to change it, just the provider. Since we had no choice and were saving lots of money too we went ahead with it. Best thing ever. Not had one single cold caller since then.

  11. We did sign up to the telephone preference service and I was cynical at first, but while our calls have not stopped completely, they have massively reduced. When one does get through we just mention the TPS, and they can't get off the phone quick enough.
    Hope you find something soon, cold calls are a pain in the are.

  13. Google the phone number and you will probably find someone has found out who they are and then you can report this number as a nuisance caller to your line supplier and get that number blocked. I have same problem only they are looking for someone who owes money. They were horrified I would not give them my address over the phone!

  14. We have a household policy of never answering the phone to a number we don't recognise (or is withheld), and we give our mobile numbers to anyone deemed important (school, etc). Not ideal, but saves aggro.

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