Cold Calling Scum!

[Alu_ATC]

Sorry, just felt the need to post this after what just happened,

*Phone rings, pick up*

Cold Caller: Hello, is so & so there (people who do not live here)

Me: 'Who is this?'

Cold Caller: 'This is ideal homes, am I speaking to so and so?'

Me: 'No, they don't live here.' *Hang Up*

Few seconds later... *Phone rings, pick up*

Cold Caller (speaking quietly) *******'s, ******* ****'s, who do you think you are, im coming round...

*Hang Up*

I'm pretty angry that anyone could be so absusive when they bothered to call me. Scum.

 

[Alu_ATC]

Didn't you try 1471?

Sometimes they forget to hide their number.

I did. With held number.

Well to be fair, it sounds like you were rude to them at first.

Still doesn't excuse their level of abuse but perhaps your slight obnoxiousness pushed them over the edge after a day of being talked to like ****?

Imo, I don't have to speak to them. I was polite enough to tell them those people don't live here and hung up. He went the extra mile and called back to just be plain abusive, dont forget the threat either. I would call 'Ideal Homes', but there seems to be a lot of them under that name.

 

[Alu_ATC]

Call the police. It might get them fired.

Have now, doubt it will do much, they said they will contact BT to ID the caller number. Also called BT who have identified and logged the number, although not released it to us.

To the cold caller, hope you get fired .

 

[Alu_ATC]

Um. Telephone Preference Service ? It is unlawful to make unsolicited direct marketing calls to individuals who have indicated that they do not want to receive such calls, so why not sign up, and save starting threads whinging about something that you can avoid.

Nice, don't want to read it, dont click it. I think the title was self-explainitory, I guess I deserve it, being not registered yet and all?

This isn't a usual cold call, it was abusive and threatening.

 

[Alu_ATC]

I agree, nothing gives them the right to get abusive. So why should they recieve abuse off other people? If they're abusive to you, fine, report them etc.

Erm, hope that isn't refering to me though, I don't think not saying P's and Q's over the phone to a cold caller makes you deserve the barrage of insults.

All of your points are valid, however the OP has not actually given any evidence that he was abusive to the caller. He stated the person being asked for was no longer there, and ended the call. Hardly being abusive to the guy. A little ignorant maybe, but I still stand by the fact that if you are in that line of work, you should accept people aren't going to be all that happy speaking with you.

I guess it's up to other's if they take my word or not. Few know me on here. Ignorant? I get the call's all the time, people are spoken to far worse on a day to day occasion than, 'No. They don't live here.' I won't get dragged into a debate though as to whether my pretty plain comments were rude.

 

[Alu_ATC]

Errrrrrr, how is this a cold caller? He clearly rang up an asked to speak to a particular person. Granted, the person didn't live there so it may have simply been a matter of him mis dialling. I did that yesterday whilst trying to call my landlord. I certainly wouldn't be happy if someone was like that on the phone when I merely dialled a digit out. Seeing as he had a name and was from ideal homes, someone may have booked an appointment for something relating to their house and required a confirmation call.

I'd hardly call you're response a 'polite way' of saying someone doesn't live there. For all you know, he was just about to apologise but you immediately hung up. The standard way, for me, if someone has dialled the wrong number is usually, 'No, sorry, they don't live here you must have the wrong number.' Which would more than likely have lead to an apology. It's only a few seconds of your life and you could have easily avoided this entire charade.

Time to clear a few things up then.

The person they were requesting for is the maiden name of another person who used to live here. We always know it's a cold caller if they request that name, hence me saying they do not live here. She really should take her name out of the phone book. So, yes, it was a cold caller, not a wrong number. I have no problem with honest mistakes.

Dont be daft - this is OCUK, where irrational rage and contempt for your fellow man is the ONLY acceptable way of behaving.

Someone has a different opinion than you? Abuse them.
Someone's lifestyle is oh so slightly different? Call them a freak.
Someone has interrupted your day for one nanosecond, interrupting your 36 hour session of WoW? Beat them to death with your keyboard.

Its the OcUK Way.

Great to use this thread as a launch pad to moan about OcUK eh? You know you don't have to post here, right? I don't play WoW, infact, don't play PC games at all, but you just assume I guess. He was a cold caller. I didn't say sorry to him for calling this number on a list this company bought our number from - and I should be made to feel bad? Right.

That is what happened to you, not what happened to the OP. The caller intially asked for the person, Alu_ATC asked who it was, so the guy said it's ideal homes and is he speaking to XXX. You were just unlucky, but I've had it once or twice where they have called in the situation identical to Alu_ATC and when told they don't live here, have apologised and not called back.

Not the case, they didn't care who they were speaking to, and as I have explained above, it was a cold caller. But I guess, as I hung up to quickly to know whether or not he was about to apologise for cold calling, I should recieve verbal abuse and threats down the phone?

I have to say, im baffled by some of the responces in this thread.

 

[Alu_ATC]

At no point did I suggest that. If this is a regular occurrence, I didn't realise that and was merely going by the information I had read

No worries. I probably should have explained about how I knew it was a cold caller and not a wrong number to clarify what happened, although - few people who make just an honest mistake would withhold their number. He was calling from a call center and in post 38, I said I get them all the time.

Ditto. If I want anything I'll ring/find/research it as and when. Fortunately I seldom get those sort of calls - I tend to reply and wait for them to speak first - if it's what I think it is I go through a "tunnel" (if I'm on my mobile ).

I sometimes listen to them and when I do I'm not rude to them - I just say sorry I'm not interested. If they carry on and are insistent I just hang up.

Thats what I did, tell them 'no, they don't live here', and I hung up - knowing that they were a cold caller. Ok, so it wasn't the most curteous responce, it was direct and pretty blunt, but I wouldn't say it was rude. Certainly nothing justified the 5 second later call back. Got a call from BT 'Security' this morning and they have already said they have been in contact with the police.

Live and learn I guess. Next time, I think I will either leave it off the hook or hang up immediatly. I think this whole situation could have been avoided if I did not speak at all.

You'd be suprised. I had a telephone number last year in sheffield. Two people had the number, my parents and telewest. I received all kinds of calls, in the end I just unplugged it as I never used it.

If I am cold called or someone is trying to sell something I'll just say "no thanks" and hang up. Never had anyone call back and abuse me though.... yet

Nor had I till yesterday, shakes your confidence in the good of people sometimes I guess. Still, they are cold callers...

 

[Alu_ATC]

Fair point, must have skimmed that one Obviously, you didn't deserve the call back which you got and most certainly I hope he get's what he deserves.

Reading some of the posts above, does anyone remember that audio clip of that cold caller calling the American 'cat woman' ?? Good lord........!

Tbh, when I put the phone down, all I could think of was that Dell call. The one where the guy decides not to buy a computer because it doesn't come with speakers or something. The seller gets really abusive and begins to taunt the buyer! .