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The statistic in this story that 75% of people want cold calling banned surprised me not at all. What did surprise me though was that consumers are only reporting an average of six cold calls a month. It made me feel that I'm being deliberately picked on; because the total I get is more like that every week.
I've followed the standard advice and registered with TPS, and even reported companies to both the TPS and the ICO. That seems to be a complete waste of time; even complaining to them elicits only a form letter back, while the calls keep coming.
One thing that I have discovered is that they are powerless in relation to cold calls which are from organisations with which I already have a relationship, cold calls from overseas call centres, and cold calls from organisations which claim that they're not selling anything, just 'conducting a survey' or 'offering free information'. It doesn't leave a lot that they could deal with even if they had the will to do so.
So I'm definitely with the 75% who want them banned. And it's a pleasant change to find myself part of such a large majority.
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2 comments:
Part of the problem is that many of these calls are now international calls which TPS have no control over.
I get about 5 a week myself and when I see International on the caller Dispaly I ignore them. But I then start thinking what if its a friend whose abroad and in trouble?
A few years ago I had a BT land line, and I had as many as 6 cold calls a day. Usually about half of them were from debt collector chasing payment from whoever had the number before me.
I explained countless times that I was not that person, and countless times I was told the records would be updated (on other occasions I was accused of lying and laughed at)
I complained to BT, who would not block the calls and only offered to let be have call barring and caller display - but would charge me extra!
Most annoyingly of all I was unable to hang up on the cold callers - the phone just would not cut them off (I assume they pay the phone company for this) and I would have to unplug the phone a the wall to get rid of them.
Eventually I would either ignore the phone or leave it unplugged (these calls came at all hours of the day and night).
I eventually cancelled my landline (after several hours of being passed around call centres).
As you can tell I still have strong feelings about it!
My advice - get a mobile phone and ditch the landline, now I only pay for the calls I make and no cold calls!
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