A warning to uk locksmiths

[Varjeal]

I know this is in the Euro department, but reading this thread I couldn't help but chime in. On this side of the pond we have the same issues...the two major times of the year are spring (during income tax season when both the legitimate and the scammers phone asking for contributions from your tax return) and just before Christmas...again when both are calling)

Also, there's the year-round people who want to sell me all sorts of useless junk. How the scammers and annoying one's get treated depends soley on my mood that particular day.

1. Good mood. "Hi, this is blahblahblahblah from blahblahblahblah can we speak to Mr. or Mrs. or the owner/manager/president/accounts payable clerk?" Me: "No. Bye."

2. Bad mood. "Hi, this is blahblahblahblah from blahblahblahblah can we speak to Mr. or Mrs. or the owner/manager/president/accounts payable clerk?" *I then allow them to go through their spiel, and proceed to waste as much time as possible asking inane questions about every aspect pretending to be interested, and when a good 1/2 hr or more is up I'll say something like "that sounds like a piece a crap, I don't want it...don't you have a REAL job?" and hang up*

or.....I'll let them go through their vacuum cleaner sales pitch and say..."sorry, we have no carpet in our home." That makes it fun to wait for their response...which is usually something like "uhhh....really?"

[toomush2drink]

Yep looks like the season for it as i had another today insisting i had taken out an ad with them when i asked for the charity in question registered number they hung up. From now on thats they way forward just going to ask for the number

[Varjeal]

In a reallly bad mood one day and this guy phones with something along the lines of the above mentioned phrase...'cept he says "MynameisMarkmyemployeenumberis9432164 blah blah blah". So I made him stop, asked him to repeat his name sloooowly and spell it letter by letter. Then his employee number several times as I made him believe I was writing it down (asked for each number in turn), then the letter by letter spelling of the company name that he blurted out so fast I couldn't understand it. Once all that was done, before he could even say anything else, I asked to speak to his supervisor. When he asked why I said, "'Cause I don't like you and I'm going to get you fired." Needless to say he hung up.



P.S. That made my day.

[oldlock]

LOL

[jason]

I had one phone my home number (it's in Yellow Pages) calling themselves the "Trade Standards Association" very close to the "Trading Standards Association" over here, the phone was answered by my wife who (wisely) thought it a bit suspect and gave them my mobile number (also in Yellow Pages) whilst calling me on her mobile so I could hear what was going on. Unfortunately for them they didn't know that my proper (day) job is associated (loosely) with the Trading Standards Department - by the time they called me (about 5 minutes later - they must be desparate) I was sitting in the Trading Standards office.

I passed the mobile straight to a Trading Standards Officer who answered it - the guy on the phone must have s**t himself when he had finished his spiel and answered the TSO's "innocent" questions before he told him that he had just rung a "sting" number, the call was monitored and that further investigations would follow - funnily enough calls from double glazing and kitchen firms stopped as well.

[MrB]

LOL!

Did you hear of the incident not so long ago where some hawkers wandered into an office and asked the occupants if they would be interested in buying any of the pirated DVDs they were selling? The hawkers were pleasantly surprised when everyone there expressed great interest and all came over to have a look.

Belatedly, the sellers realised they had wandered into the local Trading Standards office without noticing the sign outside the door. Needless to say, the police were called and things got rather hot for them thereafter.

[bowleya]

This has happened to me on a few occasions and my favourite is the one that promises to advertise in a newsletter/magazine that is supported by the Police. When i said i would contact the Police to check them out they hung up (strange that). Then a few days later i was contacted by an agency who offered to stop all these calls but asked for the companies i was currently advertising with ( yes i was suckered into a wall planner and local school diary) when i told them that was my business and not theres they told me they would call me back and i am still waiting.

My new approach is F**K OFF, this seems to be having the desired effect

[chubby007]

I now keep the telephone number of my local trading standards office, and ask these con merchants to ring out advertising guy and give them the telephone number of the trading standards. I have more than halved the calls of these wasters, as you may be aware they nearly all come from one location in the north east. A friend of mine just asks them to wait on hold and carrys on doing whatever he was doing and see's how long they wait for before hang up.

[Jarod]

another thing to tell them is that you're real interested but your kid/dog/cat is getting somewhere it shouldnt and you'll be back to the phone in a few minutes, set the phone down and walk away come back 1-4 hr later and see if there still on the line! 1 more:
tell them that your company might be interested but you're just a secratary, and the boss is out currently, tell them to call back in 1 hr or so and ask for "name of dog/cat/other item" and make sure some else answers the phone when they ask for "the fake name you chose" they can be told "thats our dog/cat/whatever"

[toomush2drink]

Just an update, today i read an article in one of the sunday papers financial sections (the mail i think) about this scam happening to other business and it seems a few individuals are certainly pocketing a lot of money in the name of charity. An investigation is underway also by the police into this dodgy practice so with a bit of luck they should start to slow up with the "you owe us money for an advert" calls.

[79commando]

Anyone getting fed up with tele sales personnel inform them that you are registered with the preferential telephone service. This is a free service where the only personnel that can call you to sell anything are pre-arranged callers. Anyone failling to abide by this can be reported and their company will be fined, this can be a hefty fine. In short a reputable company pays to ensure that a phone number is safe to call; normally about £50 per 100 numbers checked. They clear the number with BT etc before calling. If you do register they will be fined if they call you. As of Oct 04 there is also a preferential mail service for junk mail with the same rules. Surf the web for the full details.

[NKT]

There's a company called Blakes who do this scam. The parlia mentary yearbook, normally. They go on about how the foreword is by Tony Blair, and all, then charge you £600 to £6000 for this advert. The scam is, they never publish it! When you check it out, they published one in 1983, or something, and no-one has a copy, not even the publishers!

They run up huge debts, then close the company, and open it with another name.

They took us to court for non-payment for this advert, and they lost. They never paid the costs, but at least they stopped calling. They started again last week! I grabbed the paperwork, and my other half said "Is that Blakes? Does Dinkar still work for you? Tell him he still owes us £££'s from that court judgement!" and hung up.

They have yet to ring back.