identifying a caller!

[brettjbuckley]

We pay £1 a month for caller ID and it works just fine.

We do this because we get around 3-4 withheld numbers calling us every day. I have a number of strategies that I use depending on my mood.

1) Just ignore the call.

2) Pick up the phone and then put it straight down again. This costs the caller for the connection charge if nothing else.

3) Pick up the phone and leave it of the hook for a while.

4) If it is a sales call, play them at their own game...string them along. Time is money to sales people and I often enjoy winding them up and pretending to be interested in the product. My record is about 14 minutes with one young lady trying to sell me new windows. She finally gave up when I lied and said I lived in a council house. Similarly, I sent one company selling carpet cleaning products to do a free trial at the address of someone I was not too fond of.

I personally think that withheld numbers should be outlawed - I cannot think of any legitimate reason why anyone would want to withhold their number unless they are up to something. I read about one scam whereby a local group of organised criminals were phoning around on withheld numbers for the purpose of seeing when people were in so that they could plan burglaries and so forth.

 

[colinc]

thanks for the info people - I just registered with TPS.

Mind you I might miss the fun. My best recently was when I told one poor Indian guy trying to sell life insurance that I worked as a test pilot and did he need to speak to a supervisor? That blew his script away.

 

[JamesG]

I personally think that withheld numbers should be outlawed - I cannot think of any legitimate reason why anyone would want to withhold their number unless they are up to something.

Agree with 99% of that but there are a few valid reasons to withhold numbers. The majority of doctors surgeries withold numbers incase the patient is out and a message cannot be left. If people dialled 1471 and found out it's the doctors they would then panic if they could not get through until the following day.