Not entirely DIY question...

[bert]

Well no doubt in a few years we'll be getting calls from poor Auntie pleading with us to give up our free TV licences.

[bert]

Well publish your number on here and I'll have a word with the guys down the pub.

[alan_m]

The problem I see with blocking all withheld numbers is that the system of presenting the number doesn't always work. I have friends who use VOIP and around 25% of the time the number isn't presented on BTs caller display facility, I suspect that caller information may be lost depending on the route of the IP call.

[Adrian]

It was free for several years, but they now see it as another revenue stream.

Adrian

[cl]

There has been an ongoing saga in the Independent about this. Apparently on a lot of BT deals it *should* be free but you have to demand that it's free each year that you renew - otherwise they start charging!

[Roger Mills]

Yes, indeed - and one of those may have been the cheapest solution

*except* that the OP said that a cordless phone wouldn't do, because the handset could get mislaid too easily.

That being the case, a stand-alone trueCall unit used in conjunction with a big button phone with a decent display would be the best bet, as suggested in Owain's previous post.

The trueCall unit can hold many more names and numbers than most phones, and will cause the caller's name to be displayed on the phone if a call arrives from someone whose details have been stored in it. It also has lots of options for dealing with various types of call - withheld, unobtainable, international, etc. - and, with a bit of thought, could be set up in a way which would protect the OP's father from unwanted calls whilst allowing the calls he wants to receive to get through ok.

[Roger Mills]

In the immortal words of Mr McInroe, "You can't be serious"!

The TPS is a complete waste of time. Most cold callers completely ignore it, and few suffer any serious sanctions for so doing. I've been registered for years - but *still* received loads of junk calls until I installed a trueCall call blocker. Now, I get virtually none.

[Roger Mills]

If it works in the same way as my stand-alone trueCall unit, they only have to do it once. You can then add their number to the 'star' list, and they will get through straight away in future. [More difficult if they routinely withhold their number, though].

[Roger Mills]

There are other options. My trueCall is set up to ask the caller who they are in the case of a withheld or unrecognised number. Most cold callers give up at this point, and my phone doesn't ring. But if the caller does say something, the phone rings and when I answser it trueCall says "You have a call from {whatever they said}" and I then have 3 options - accept the call, zap the call, or ask the caller to leave a message.

[Adrian]

In message , Roger Mills writes

Conversely, I've been registered with TPS for donkey's years and I rarely get any cold calls.

Adrian

[Bob Eager]

+1

[News]

Much as I hesitate to tempt fate, I have to agree. I keep reading threads about these nuisance calls, but just don't get 'em. Cannot remember when I last had one.

[Tim Lamb]

Likewise but they seem to have thinned out overnight. The last UK one I had was Lisa trying to get me to sign up for a Daily Telegraph loyalty card.

[polygonum]

Despite having been members of TPS long enough to feel that "founder member" would have been a good description, the frequency of calls simply grew. Got to an average of about five a day.

Decided that we no longer had the need for a land line at all - so gave it up. No more nuisance calls. With Wifi calling from mobiles, everything is now happy!

[Brian Gaff]

Well first get the caller line display enabled. Argos used to do a range of large button phones. Certainly RNIB have some in their lists, but you may well get them cheaper elsewhere, but are a good place to look for makes and models. I suppose a true call unit would be too complex for him to use? Expensive but you do not get to hear the junk calls at all with that in between your phone socket and the phones. brian

[Adrian]

Same here. One in every blue moon.

[Bod]

I'm not registered with TPS and I too rarely get a cold call.

[Adrian Caspersz]

It's them that end up listed on a sucker list. Nothing to do with TPS.

[alan_m]

My experience is that certain companies operating in the UK just use third party cold calling services from abroad or just ignore TPS. When registering with TPS years ago the number of cold calls did fall after a month and on average have remained fairly low but at certain times in the year, such as when insurance policies are due for renewal, the number of unwanted calls rises significantly. Calls offering help with PPI, accident compensation, boiler replacement etc. also tend to be cyclic with 5 or more calls in a evening for a period of a week.

ALL cold calls are from rip-off merchants operation close to the boundaries of criminality so they couldn't care a toss about TPS.

[Tim+]

I've got a Truecall but ordered one of the above anyway. Arrived today and first impressions are very good. Big improvement in user friendliness over the old unit.

Tim