Telephone preferance service Does it really work?

[Raja]

hello i briefly touched on it the other nite in the chatroom but wud be grateful if i could have a broader response into tackling cold callers. to my disbelief found out that yellow pages had sold our company details to hundreds of cold callers hence the several calls recieved every day for the past year when i rang my adviser at yell she said yes that was true but put me onto the telephone preferance service where i registered both business numbers suposed to be illegal once registered to stop cold callers will see wot effect it has after it is activated in 28 days time. it is an all too often sad situation many tradesmen find them selves in we are all trying our hardest to offer a service and some find it harder than most to survive when u have mortgages to pay and all other lifes necessaties without having nucense calls day after day

 

[Dan]

Yellow pages will sell your details. And so do many other similar business directories.

TPS should work on your homephone / landline but I'm not to sure if 'business' phonelines can be protected by the (what I think is a Government concern) service. Though I'm guessing most tilers don't have units with BT Business phonelines.

Every 30 days any company making outgoing calls from databases have to pay to get their databases 'cleaned' of those that are registered with the TPS, FPS and MPS.

If they don't they can get fined. So give it a couple of weeks after registering and then start answering those calls with a sharp "excuse me, what company are your from again? I'm registered with the TPS!" and they soon hang up or apologise. Though some will still call you.

 

[grumpygrouter]

Yes the TPS does work on business lines. It is a good service but you may have to re register every couple of years as I think there is a time limit on the registration.

Grumpy

 

[Raja]

thank u dan and grumpy u answered my question more than adequetly atleast now how the land lies

 

[Perry]

it works

 

[Deleted member 9966]

Sorry to drag this one out of the archives, but can I tell my landline provider (BT) to bog off with their marketing calls if I'm registered with TPS?

Every time BT ring trying to flog me an enhance broadband package or a credit card, I ask to be removed from their call lists and they claim they do it. But each time they ring they ask for Miss ******** and not Mrs ***** so I know they're working from old data there. (and I know my rights re' DPA so they'll get a rocket about that too)

Just wondered... any thoughts?

 

[Dan]

I'd recommend registering your old details with TPS and then leavingit a few weeks. If they then call, tell them that you're registered with TPS and that you're reporting them as soon as they hang up. Then, fill in the online form, takes a minute and nothing longer, and then leave it to TPS to investigate. If they keep calling you then, keep reporting them to TPS and after a couple of times (usually after the first time to be honest) they'll quit it, as they'll get a fine each time, and they're not profiting from you if you're costing them fines every time they call you so they will want to remove you from their database.

BT do carry out lots of dodgy phone scams believe it or not. The "customer street" company that sold out to BT and is now called "BT Customer Street" was worth more than a few million when they sold out and all customers were gained via outbound cold calls. Very very dodgy tactics and it appears BT don't mind that.

So they do need to get a bunch of savvy customers to report them as many times as they can and they could even change the way they go about considering new companies to buy.

I've never liked BT though have no choice where I live but to use them for their broadband, though it's crap, and has never got to the speed I pay for, ever.

 

[Fekin]

The calls I hate the most is the pre-recorded messages selling you stuff over the phone as there isn't anyone there to actually scream and abuse verbally.

 

[poynton phil]

TPS does work most of the time, but not with international withheld numbers, and you will still get the odd cold caller, but like dan says report them

 

[doit4u]

We registered some years ago and only get the odd call, which if the wife answers they get very short shrift. We are registered with TPS how did you get our number as it is illegal to call us. This usually gets a fairly quick disconnection and sometimes an apology

 

[White Room]

I have 2 telephone, bt and virgin media. The bt one is on my cards and I let the answer phone kick in, usualy it's a put down from a call centre or automated calls