Nuisance phone calls - how to stop them?

Yes, but ex-directory has nothing to do with it - they are two different things.

I am ex-directory for work reasons (nuisance though it is) but I declined the option to withold my number by default.

The TPS refer to this lot for silent calls. I have used it to good effect. Calls we have had coming up as unknown or international mostly seem to come from BT or their agents. BT lied to me but after several attempts they did finally stop calling their agents calling me.

Now complete with link!

If it were just crank calls I could help - but I think you are talking about marketing calls.

When I was picking up a girl to babysit for me her sister was getting crank calls. They were calling and hanging up over and over again. Well I knew that the receiver of the call hears the ring slightly before the caller does. So I held down the receiver and waited for it to ring. As soon as it rang, but before they knew it had rung, I let off and let go with a Faye Ray & 1/2 bone chilling scream. (The teenager in the room, who shares his 'music' with the neighborhood said his ears rang for an hour afterward.) But the calls stopped. Bad part was, I didn't know her father was answering the line in the basement and also got an earful. LOL

I agree. I see a project coming on.... All I need is an old external voice modem, a PIC chip and an SD memory card. Open source project anyone?

Your insurance company, your daughter phoning from work .... the list goes on. Not a good idea.

And don't be a smart arse and say you don't have an insurance company or a daughter - I'm just quoting those as an example of the fact that nearly all businesses withhold their number.

Rob

Well that looks interesting. Now we'll just have to wait and see...

That is brilliant logic. Why pay for other peoples deception?

Adam

On Thu, 07 May 2009 15:16:15 GMT, "ARWadsworth" had this to say:

Years ago I had a call from the local police. After they'd hung up I did a '1471' and a Manchester number was given.

So you are a hermit? No next of kin or loved ones that could end up in A&E?

Evidence of that "fact"?

MBQ

Here I ignore it if it's not a number I recognise (let alone it just being withheld) - I figure if it's important they'll leave a message on the answering machine. But then I never have liked bloody phones anyway :-)

cheers

Jules

On Thu, 7 May 2009 12:04:40 -0700 (PDT), "Man at B&Q" had this to say:

If they want your business then they'll have to give out their number, won't they ?

:-)

IME it's more and more common for businesses to have an 0845 or 0870 number as their CLID number - that way they get round anonymous call rejection; can ensure any returned 'missed' calls get answered centrally and apppropriately; and make money out of the hapless punter who's calling them back.

And what is it with panic-struck people who insist on phoning back whenever they get missed calls?

Many times I've sat in an office at a business and an email comes round from Reception saying 'whoever it was called ********, the person you called rang you back'.

If I ring someone and they aren't available, 99 times out of 100 there's a voicemail option; if I choose not to leave a message (because it's not urgent, or no longer relevant if I can't talk to them there and then) then why not just ignore it?

David

Which is presumably why some places do come up as number withheld - my wife's workplace for instance, which is an NHS hospital.

I imagine the last thing switchboard wants is people ringing up saying 'someone rang me'.

Not that I would bother to block anonymous numbers, since as others have said we very very rarely get any junk calls nowadays, since joining the TPS.

You forgot the "small aubergine" :-)

Not true, maybe except for scammers and junk callers that are unwanted anyway. Even GCHQ now shows a presentation number. Anyone who witholds their number is unwelcome in my opinion. If there should be a call from a misguided caller, then they will get the "Sod off" message. If the call is that important, they will find a way to defeat the withheld status. Certainly on the rare occasions I have had a response from the Police, they have use a non withheld line.

Calling from a withheld caller ID is the height of rudeness in my opinion. My home number has had anonymous caller reject for many years, although I resent the enormous cost.

Wot, no angle grinder

So it's gone form "most businesses" in someone else's post to "many switchboards". Does anyone have any hard *facts* about how many "businesses" do not have any form of presentation number?

MBQ