OT : Annoying people selling you things on the phone...

Hi, I've already signed up and haven't had an annoying call in ages. The Mailing Preference Service

also very good at reducing your junk mail. Neil.

blimey!

remarkably easy to use, tks for teh recommendation

ted

Seconded, we signed up for both in our name & in the name of the previous occupants and haven't had any problems since. It works!

Thanks to the Neils for the info - took 2 minutes to register for each. If this will eliminate the 9:30pm cold call for double glazing, and the rain forests of kak I get every morning, I shall be a very happy chap. Now can anyone suggest a way of getting rid of the armfuls of shiny leaflets I get in the middle of *every* magazine I buy?

I don't NEED to borrow money, I owe ENOUGH already!

In message , teddave writes

We use it in conjunction with BTs Caller Display service. When it comes up Number Withheld then you are ready for them if it is the occasional rogue call. Then put the wind up them by asking them

their name their company name their company address their company telephone number. The more you get the easier it is for TPS to track them down. Usually by the 2nd or 3rd question they are starting to get a bit worried as to why you are asking these questions. Then just tell them that you are registered with TPS and they are committing an offence by calling you. Never had one come back again.

You will indeed be a happy chap.

The trick with the magazines is to pick them up by the cover, shake them a bit and all the stuff drops out onto the newsagent floor. Your newsagent may not like this approach though.

Or alternatively, you can register online with the Magazine Preference Service. They'll endeavour to trace every magazine before you buy it, and get the leaflets removed, so when you pick it up in the newsagent it'll be empty already. This one's a bit more hit and miss than the other two though.

David

In article , hugh writes

I had one call centre droness (?) almost in tears when I drew this to her attention. She rang off wailing that she was not a criminal.

Someone else mentioned the MPS, to complete the set, there is a FPS, which seems to go someway to reducing the level of junk fax.

Adrian

Have fun, make money*

(* only 3 in 10 actually pay up, though...)

Quite entertaining, although I think their comment that calling them is "illegal" is a bit strong... The TPS is an advisory service, unless this is some strange quirk of the law I'm not aware of?

Sorry, having just listened to a later one, I should have said *your* comment... :)

No, I was wrong, I just checked the TPS website and it *is* illegal for individuals, sole traders and partnerships (oops again - bad week for me & Usenet). What's a partnership in this context?

In message , David French writes

Recognised business relationship, generally used by professionals such as doctors, solicitors etc.

Just a point: you may not like these calls (neither do I) but the person making them is not well paid, and making calls like this is their livelihood.

Be firm, by all means, but there's no need to make someone cry. Tell them politely that you are not interested and ask them to memo the account so that you are not called again. If that doesn't work, ask for the head office address and write a strong letter.

Reducing a girl to tears isn't very noble, however irritated you feel.

Button bashing in practice for another round of Daley Thompson's Decathlon, Neil Brownlee left Shakespeare to the monkeys by typing...

The poxy silent calls come from autodiallers which ring large strings of numbers for telemarketers and if answered, patch the call through to the first available operator. If it happens, hassle BT (In UK). Tell them you're getting nuisance calls. Let them know every time it happens. Don't accept any "pay us for this service" like "choose to refuse" (except for the free trial month) as if you keep on at them, they'll change your number for free. As many times as you need (7 times and counting...). They have a responsibility to stop/trace/prevent calls such as these. Of course, you have a responsibility not to hand your phone no. out willy nilly (Like Milli Vanilli, but they mimed in Redneck) , but once they have been informed, they can follow up on complaints (but it's easier for them just to change your number). Get a recorder for your phone line. If someone speaks, get them to identify themselves and their company ("The line's bad, could you repeat that..."). Ask where they got your details from (Get the name of the supplier of the leads (legit companies use 'legitimately' collected numbers) - the provider of their contact database. Inform the person you are talking to that they are to remove your details from their database, and that they are to inform their 'lead supplier' (or whatever they call them now) of same. If they're outside this country, it doesn't matter. If they are conducting business here, the laws of this green & pleasant land (and that bit down south, and the bit to the left of it) apply, and as such can be prevented (following the due processes of law) from harassment. And the Data Protection Act covers this too - read the words and make use of it. Remember, every time you fill in any application form, your details are being re-entered into another lead list (Often even if you tick the " Pass on my details and I'll set fire to your house, run down your family and f**k your cat!" box). Buy a mobile phone from Tesco (about £50-ish). Use this number for _all_ applications. (And only this number for daytime/home/evening). Leave phone in house, plugged in permanently. You now have a clid display, no rental, no charges. And it's more expensive this way. (for them). If you can find a payg service from a country abroad that doesn't charge receivers for calls, get one of these. I know it's a small thing, but every little helps. To stop spam, get a throwaway account (yahoo, hotmail, whatever) but set it up from, say, your local library/ internet cafe. Use it for all online registry (you are allowed to lie in these forms, just don't get found out) . Munge your email address when posting to ngs. Store all addresses in your address book with an extra space or character in them .More time-consuming 'cos you have to change the address manually when you're emailing (unless you can set up some kind of find & replace script to modify the addresses automatically) but this means that if you get spyware/scumwared, your address book contents won't work for spammers Check NG grc.privacy - request Re: Telephone Sound.. OR Telephone Sound.. I'd paste one of the article ids but I haven't got the first article in the thread any more - only the last couple. Whenever it happens, write (not email) to BT as backup to phone call complaining - send registered delivery asking what's being done to prevent this - also registered copy (shown as copy on ltr to BT) to your MP. Or choose whichever MP is most relevant (I used to know this info, but sadly, with age, brains become like bottoms - more & more leaky as time goes by....). One letter won't make a difference, but 100 will. And reg'd delivery ensures a: Letter won't be 'lost' by 'Royal' Mail (20 yrs ago, 97% of mail arrived (and on schedule) compared with 97% of mail going missing in Egypt). If you pay peanuts, you get thieving gypsy bastards (not an insult to Roma people - I got it from my Profanisaurus) b: BT have to respond c: so does your MP

It does work - (the MP bit) - Several years ago I went and spoke to my MP asking why MS alternatives aren't considered - like Lunix or Eunuchs ;- )))))) - Last month - report in mainstream press re £300m licensing saving possible due to alternatives. For this one, I take great pride in the fact that the EU _might_ get a E500,000 fine from MS, whereas I set a ball rolling that might end up costing William (projected) 0.3% of his fortune, rather than the EU's paltry 0.0004% (I'm rounding figs here - it's academic after the first £100000000000.......)

The other option is the phone redialler - this is too complex for me (Like buttons, shoelaces and the child-proof video guard) but if websites can re-route you through premium rate lines without your consent (and narrowband is basically a phone call of 0's and 1's), then surely it's not beyond the capabilities of someone overaware to cook something up to do the same.....

I worked ( a long time ago - when regulations weren't) collecting said info for an un-named international company. Well, officially I was. Unofficially, I ensured that approximately 12,500 people regained their privacy. And they paid me for it. And my boss got the blame. Who wasn't a very nice person. And who was looking for a new job after the weekend (Oops. My bad.)

The karma credit plan - Guess I'll move up a few steps in the next life (to maybe a bottom-feeder (sea, not arses) or a MSVPS (bottom-feeder (arses, not sea)

*flame on!* (In the words of the eponymous Johnny Storm)

But before you do, remember: If you assu that any of the above is related to my handle (or name or whatever you want to call it) you are incorrect Bill Gates is now officially a criminal (but they didn't take his photo, unlike the last time he was arrested) - corporate liability - GO BILL!

*flame off!*

Forgot Johnny's last name so googled for "flame on" "fab four". Top result?

Paul McCartney's Hartford show intimate, crowd pleasing - The ... ... Published: Monday, September 30, 2002. One-quarter of the Fab Four gave fans a ... McCartney also performed "Your Loving Flame" on baby grand piano for his new bride --------------- /me runs round Silver to shouts of "Hey mister! ya left ya injun runnin' !".

Quite right. I've done the 'ringing round' thing (in this case to prospects, not totally cold calls) and it is one of the worst and most soul-destroying jobs I can imagine. Doing it to consumers must be even worse.

In the good old days these women had poorly-paid and unrewarding factory jobs, but the factories have closed so they do poorly-paid and unrewarding jobs in call centres instead.

I get no pleasure out of reducing a stranger to tears, and whilst in this case the point was made, the outcome was not what I intended..

As memory serves, this was a company that was a "first time offender" (I forget who they were now, it was a lot of years ago), and I am always gentle and polite about it for first timers. The only time that I have (almost) lost my rag over this sort of thing was when for the third time in almost as many months a well know phone company rang me up (having been asked on the two previous occasions to desist, and confirmed that they would), and it was the supervisor that was on the receiving end, not the person that called.

Further down this thread, someone mentioned auto diallers. I think that I read somewhere that these are being banned in the near future.

Adrian

This is a point I make on the site I maintain about this subject. However, and I'll stand by this, employers are actually putting their low paid staff at personal risk (the specific wording of the Act escapes me at present, but it assumes personal responsibility).

In the _really_ good old days there were Unions to protect such employees from being harmed in the factory by exploititive employers.

We also make an ussumption that all call centre droids are low paid. I know a few who work in various call centres in Sheffield (now the second largest call centre provider city outside of India) who are earning far more than they ever would have done in any factory - or for a few, in the steelworks or down the pit.

Performing a Vulkan mind meld with his keyboard, Adrian Simpson assimilated the following into the collective...

Once you have the name of a company, you can find out who the executives/directors/ppl in charge are. Once you have that information, it's relatively easy to get home phone numbers for these people, along with email addresses and mobile phone numbers. Phone them at home at 2am to discuss matters, sign their emails (personal and company) up for all the spam you can, use a rng (random number generator) to spam their company using a throwaway account (like

1..1000000@company name.com) and use their details on every bit of junk mail you receive. Then a polite email explaining the situation (but not how you did it/ what you did) and asking that you are not inconvenienced any more.

Call forwarding's handy too.....

Banning these don't amount to a whole hill of beans over here as call centres are more and more being 'offshored' (I f**king hate that expression. We have an offshore industry that shouldn't be demeaned by association with the export of jobs abroad. The most basic result of this is a constant flow of money out of the country, and even using Keyne's flawed description of GDP, as a result our country becomes poorer by the day (Basic end result missing all the in-between theory bits - Britain is a pot of money, and every day you take some out and throw it away. Eventually, all you have is a pot which you can't even afford to p**s in as you sold it too. The worst yet most ironic part of this is that the financial institutions are the worst offenders, and the government is actively complicit in this).

Or you can be less subtle. Tired of the microlights buzzing your house?

4203 Perkins, a set of Mudpluggas and 2mins of do-nutting down their grass-strip 'airfield' after a few nights of rain (pull all the bulbs from the rear first). Not that I would ever do anything like that.