Unwanted Telesales Calls

Unwanted telesales calls are a nuisance whatever time they occur. I have three telephone numbers, one for private use and two for business use. All three are ex-directory unlisted numbers, and all three are also registered with the Telephone Preference Service (TPS) and one with the Fax Preference Service (FPS) because that line doubles as fax and Internet connection.

(You may be wondering why I would not want my business number listed. This is because all my business is done proactively through a small number of clients. I always contact potential clients, not the other way round. Inevitably, most of the time my business line rings is when someone tries to sell me something with unwanted telesales calls, usually from seeing the number in the Yellow Pages, which I have been trying to free myself from for the last three years.)

So I still get unwanted sales calls. These are either produced by RDD (Random Digit Dialling) which is a system designed for bona fide research calls to include the unlisted population into representative samples, but which has been usurped by the telesales fraternity and which frequently results, when used with the Predictive Dialling method, with nobody on the line when you pick up the phone ( see previous post "Silent Phone Calls")

I discovered an excellent resource yesterday where you can download a "counterscript", which is a series of questions which you ask your anonymous interrogator, who him/herself is armed with a script designed to put you at a complete disadvantage. There seems to me at least some virtue in wasting the time of people who are trying to waste yours. Revenge is made sweeter when one considers that, to get around the telemarketing laws in the UK, these people often operate from abroad, so the wasted time is costing them or their bosses even more money (unless they are using some form of voip). The script is there for you to download as a PDF: at www.egbg.nl . Happy waffling about nothing much!