Apparently I had a car accident a couple of years ago and £3000 has already been put aside for me.
“That’s pretty good..”, I replied as the cold-caller waited for my response, “..especially when you’re obviously making all this up and I’ve not had an accident for over 5 years”.
These calls are annoying at best, and despite signing up to various telephone preference service things it continues. If there’s any cold-callers out there, then you should know that the last accident I had was on the M6. I parked gracefully underneath a brand new Range Rover Sport. OK? At least get your story straight so that I can hurl different abuse at you.
Anyhow, on smartphones there’s various blocking apps and some handsets even build-in a nuisance-calling system. Blocking (or simply never answering) withheld numbers is a good start, but these cold-callers (or “telemarketers”) are getting clever by using local numbers to dial you now.
QVC, who now appear to be emailing me too, have a box which will block callers to your landline. It’s the CPR V.107 Nuisance Phone Call Blocker and costs £38.50 with £3.95 postage. They’ve sold out of this box 12 times already, which says to me that they’re obviously trying to get some free publicity from us or they simply don’t stock enough each time. Probably a bit of both, and here’s me pimping their multi-million-pound operation in my Primark jeans. Who’s the mug?
If you’ve got a relative or friend who’s getting bugged by calls they simply don’t want (and they use the actual landline that most of us only use to call our parents) then have a look at this call blocker. You can block certain area codes, block up to 1000 numbers and it’s already pre-programmed with all the rogue calling telephone numbers known to the call prevention registry. You will need caller ID activated on your line though, which your friendly landline provider will probably charge £1 – £4 for, even though it doesn’t cost them anything at all to provide.
Pah.
There’s also a “No Cold Calling” sticker in the box, so you can stick that on your front door and stop those 16-year-old lads in ill-fitting suits trying to sell you double glazing / guttering / roofing / solar panels / driveways / doors / extensions / conservatories etc.
QVC have also put a demo video on the product page, so you don’t have to sit through the unmitigated hell that is a 24/7 shopping channel to find the product being shown off.