[The News Bot]

A device which attaches to a landline phone claims to combat the menace of nuisance calls.
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[Stuart Wright]

The news item explains in detail how it works. It sounds a bit like a phone version of Mailwasher - which is excellent.

[kbfern]

It costs £100 I just slam the phone down within 3 seconds if I don't know who it is,that costs nothing.

[andrew markwort]

I just slam the phone down within 3 seconds if I don't know who it is,that costs nothing

I thank the caller for phoning my advice service and advise them of the following: (1) I charge £10 for the first minute and £5 for each minute or part minute thereafter and (2) staying on the line for more than 15 seconds constitutes a legally-binding acceptance of the contract. If they're not smart enough to put down the phone, I then say the fifteen seconds is up and they are now being billed and start pestering them for an invoice address.

Oddly enough, the number of this sort of phone call we've had has diminished over time.

[mark1080p]

I am on TPS (telephone Preference service - which is free to join) and rarely get cold-calls

The ones i do get are from companies i am with (ie Sky,BT) trying to upsell.

Even then its too seldom to moan.

[lloydsmart]

Originally Posted by andrew markwort

I thank the caller for phoning my advice service and advise them of the following: (1) I charge £10 for the first minute and £5 for each minute or part minute thereafter and (2) staying on the line for more than 15 seconds constitutes a legally-binding acceptance of the contract. If they're not smart enough to put down the phone, I then say the fifteen seconds is up and they are now being billed and start pestering them for an invoice address.

Oddly enough, the number of this sort of phone call we've had has diminished over time.

Brilliant! I'll have to try that.

[Dr Force]

Originally Posted by mark1080p

I am on TPS (telephone Preference service - which is free to join) and rarely get cold-calls

The ones i do get are from companies i am with (ie Sky,BT) trying to upsell.

Even then its too seldom to moan.

I'm the same, the TP service is very good, although I do tend to just hang up on those that infrequently get through.

Thats free of charge

[LV426]

Originally Posted by mark1080p

I am on TPS (telephone Preference service - which is free to join) and rarely get cold-calls

The ones i do get are from companies i am with (ie Sky,BT) trying to upsell.

Even then its too seldom to moan.

That would be my experience as well.

[andrew markwort]

I am on TPS (telephone Preference service - which is free to join) and rarely get cold-calls

I'm on TPS and it does stop a lot, I believe. However, it doesn't stop rogue callers who aren't signed up to the scheme. Since I started using my standard response (see above) these calls have diminished in numbers (though we still get them occasionally).

The ones i do get are from companies i am with (ie Sky,BT) trying to upsell.

In fairness, a couple of times this sort of call really has offered me something I wanted. In any case, I tend to be polite to this sort of caller because I in effect agreed to this sort of call when I signed the contract so there's zero point in complaining, and in addition I feel sorry for the poor sod on the other end of the phone doing nothing but making the same sort of call every day for weeks on end.

However, rogue callers are fair game

Brilliant! I'll have to try that.

A friend of mine (who is Bulgarian by birth but in reality a fluent english speaker) can do a brilliant impression of an east european cleaning lady with a very limited and somewhat unfortunate command of english ('I am cleaning lady. Boss have big house. I am cleaning his erection all day. What you want? I am busy and boss busy with secretary'). She pretends utterly to misunderstand the caller and can tie them up in knots.