men with boards ringing my bell

[Huggers]

Ive been recovering today in bed from some germy thing, and the bell has gone twice with men with boards conducting surveys which I imagine are complete scams. I scared the first one off by saying I had swine flu, the second one who said he was conducting a 'health survey' looked all offended which i take as the first sign of a scam, the 'personal affront' pose. We are behind goose green. Has anyone else been plagued by these annoying people.

On top of that, even though we are on the 'customer preference list' the only phone calls i seem to get nowadays are from cold callers and all my creative energies are channelled into thinking of more and more absurd answers to them ('debts? no I have no debts. I am a millionaire but it hasnt brough me happiness.' is my latest for the debt clearance offer phone calls)

[HonaloochieB]

Swine flu? Cold callers?

Admit it Huggers you're having some sort of viral Turkish, aren't you?

[DaveR]

"men with boards ringing my bell"

Is that a euphemism for some kind of disgraceful sexual practice? If not, it should be.

[Huggers]

clipboards, sorry delirium limited my vocabulary.

[louisiana]

As long are they're not men with beards, you should be okay :)

[Eileen]

yes they came to our end of Nutbrook Street as well. I told them to go away without hearing what they had to say. My neighbour told me they were attempting to sell health insurance against swine flu as the NHS wouldn't deal with it properly, and that we should buy it as many of our neighbours had already, or something to that effect. He told them to go away as well.

Eileen

[paulino]

the telephone preference service (TPS) does not prevent you from receiving cold calls. it means that your are removed from 'lists' of names/numbers, but it does not prevent companies from using random digit dialling, and randomly coming through to your number. just wanted to point this out - i spent many tedious evenings/weekends working in a market research call centre as a student and often found people getting extremely irate and upset, wondering why they were receiving calls when they were on the TPS, and not believing me/listening to me when i tried to explain the above!

[ianr]

If one chooses random telephone numbers, one must expect that some of them will belong to TPS subscribers, and be able and willing to screen them out. The company is responsible for the systems it uses.

PS: if the company was truly doing market research, rather than selling, that is in any case _not_ covered by the TPS.

[HonaloochieB]

paulino Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> the telephone preference service (TPS) does not

> prevent you from receiving cold calls. it means

> that your are removed from 'lists' of

> names/numbers, but it does not prevent companies

> from using random digit dialling, and randomly

> coming through to your number. just wanted to

> point this out - i spent many tedious

> evenings/weekends working in a market research

> call centre as a student and often found people

> getting extremely irate and upset, wondering why

> they were receiving calls when they were on the

> TPS, and not believing me/listening to me when i

> tried to explain the above!

Oh that was you was it? You owe me a Vesta curry.

Stone bloody cold it was by the time I'd finished trying to get you off the line.

Chicken.

[paulino]

sorry! :))

Seriously though, a polite but firm no and then put the phone down on the cold caller is all it ever takes. DO NOT ENGAGE! they will appreciate it as much as you do.