Strange Phone Call

[rfr10]

Just wanted to know if this is happening to anyone else: These past three days, at roughly the same time, the phone rang and when I answered it, there was a pause for a couple of seconds and then it started ringing through so I quickly put the phone down incase it's a premium rate number that was being called which we would be charged a fortune. I know that it wasn't a "BT ring-back" call either.

[carasmam]

I've had calls like that on my mobile but not on the house phone. I hung up quickly too just in case :eek:

[Murchiemannie]

if its anything like the calls we get, they tend to come about teatime.
you pick up the receiver and there is complete silence--then someone with an american accent starts in to her speil about something and nothing. I ask her where she got my number as we are registered with the T.P.S. (telephone preference service) and if she does it again we will report her.
She soon sets the phone down.
Another way to know if its those pests is to let it ring six times- normally it will stop as they are on some sort of computer link up and if no one answers they move on to some other sucker. Or so I'm told.

[Naefearjustbeer]

We were getting strange calls also when, I did 1471 the calls were from 0800191773. We got them to stop by caliing this number 01294 225 300 and asking politely for our number to be removed from the calling list as we were TPS registered. They said it would take up to 48 hours to work and it appears to have done so. The calls had been coming in all week 3 times a day at the same times every day. This link is where I got the number from
http://www.bloged.co.uk/archives/001193.php

the only other pest calls we were getting were from MBNA bank and after politely telling them to stop 3 times in 3 days I lost the rag and told the poor woman on the end of the phone exactly what she could do with her courtesy calls. Funnily enough they have now stopped :evil

[rfr10]

if its anything like the calls we get, they tend to come about teatime.
you pick up the receiver and there is complete silence--then someone with an american accent starts in to her speil about something and nothing. I ask her where she got my number as we are registered with the T.P.S. (telephone preference service) and if she does it again we will report her.
She soon sets the phone down.
Another way to know if its those pests is to let it ring six times- normally it will stop as they are on some sort of computer link up and if no one answers they move on to some other sucker. Or so I'm told.

Yes, that usually always happens to us nearly every day except, it's at lunch time but for the past 3 days when we picked up the phone, it actually started ringing through to someone.

[George Brims]

I forget the term for this but it is a common enough practice with telemarketers. Rather than have one of their (low paid) employees dial your number then wait until you pick up, the computer calls you, and once you pick up, your line goes live on their system and is picked up by the next person available. Thus the person on the other end has literally just clicked off one phone call and immediately takes up yours, with no lost time in between. Saves the nasty telemarketing companies millions. Makes life even worse for the people who work for them. Not that I have much sympathy for them, though it was pointed out when the "no-call" list was introduced in the US that many of the employess were handicapped or otherwise housebound people, working from home, and would be losing their jobs once millions of numbers were blocked.

[ariel-luna]

Hi,

I read your postings. I was getting the same and I believe it happens when a call centre calls you but doesn't have enough staff to actually speak with you in person. so you get the phone call and it hangs up. I had three like that and they turned out to be insurance and clothing catalogues.

[j4bberw0ck]

What's actually happening is "power dialling". The computer dials multiple calls simultaneously. The first to be answered is piped to the telemarketer. The other calls are immediately dropped. I suppose it might be possible to think of a way to grind the telemarketer's human spirit into despair more efficiently, but you'd have to be some kind of sick to figure it out.

Register with TPS. And please don't yell at those poor, dispirited souls who have to call you, have targets for numbers of calls handled, number of sales made and so on..... it's not their fault. It costs nothing to interrupt courteously, say you're TPS registered, and ask to be removed from the call list. Yelling at telemarketers is like pulling the legs off a daddy-long-legs. Easy to do, causes suffering, and is something only a sadist or child who knows no better would want to do.

[j4bberw0ck]

I ask her where she got my number as we are registered with the T.P.S. (telephone preference service) and if she does it again we will report her.

Sorry, meant to add:

TPS only applies to Marketing organisations in the UK - and one of the "benefits" of the World Wide Web is VoIP telephone calling. International telemarketers aren't bound by TPS, can't be sanctioned against, and can call using VoIP for free. It is, though, the case that international telemarketers are usually involved in selling dodgy investments or services because again, the safeguards you have in the UK legal system don't apply. So hanging up is a good move ;)