“Another one!”, Mrs Masher said exasperatedly, as she picked up her noisily ringing mobile, on Thursday evening, and looked at the number that was calling. “I’m bloody fed up with this,” she said. “These people have been ringing me all week and this is the third time today!”
She stabbed a finger at the phone and put it to her ear. “Hello… Yes, speaking… No, I’m not interested, thank you… No, I’m really not interested… No, I don’t need a loan… No, as I said, I don’t want to borrow any money…Look, what is it that you don’t understand? I am NOT interested. Please stop calling me and please remove my number from your list………. But I don’t want any… LOOK, ARE YOU FUCKING STUPID OR SOMETHING? I. DON’T. WANT. A. LOAN!!” She stabbed at the phone again and put it down.
“That told ‘em”, I said.
“Oh, they’ll ring back”, she said, and she showed me her call log. Sure enough, throughout the week, she had received more than a dozen phone calls from this same number – a landline in Birmingham.
“Well, if they ring again, let me speak to them”, I said.
We didn’t have to wait very long. About an hour later, the phone rang again. I answered it.
“Hello”, said a female voice in an Indian accent, “Am I speaking to Mrs Masher?” They obviously had Caller ID linked to a screen with details on prospective clients.
“No”, I said in a stern voice, “You’re talking to her husband.”
Click. She hung up on me!
I dialled them back and a bloke answered. “Hello Mrs Masher, thank you for ringing us. My name…”
I cut him short. “You’re not speaking to Mrs Masher, you are speaking to Mr Masher and I’d like to know which company I am speaking to please.”
There was a short pause and then Click.
And so I rang them back again. As soon as the call was answered I said “Which company am I speaking to, please?”
Again there was a slight pause and then another female Indian voice said “Back On Track Financial Services”.
“Thank you”, I said, and hung up. Click.
A quick search on the nets showed that Mrs M isn’t the only person to be plagued by this company and despite many people complaining about them they are still active after several years.
And so, I decided the best way of dealing with it would be just to block their calls. And so I installed a nice little call blocker app on her phone, which just automatically answers and then hangs up whenever they ring, so that they get charged for the call. And the nice thing is the app ensures that Mrs M’s phone doesn’t even ring when they call, so she isn’t bothered further by these numpties.
Or so I thought.
Yesterday, they started ringing on a different number! OK, so it’s not too much of a problem, as we can just keep adding their numbers to the blacklist on the app, but just how thick-skinned/stupid are these people, that they don’t get the message and just keep ringing and ringing the same numbers?
Here’s a company that cannot even manage it’s cold-calling list; would you trust your finances with them?
Back On Track Financial Services – give them a wide berth.
Blimey, tenacious aren’t they? I am lucky, I never get calls like that. It doesn’t make sense for them to keep calling if each call costs them money, does it?
It’s a universal problem Masher, we get them here too in France, I usually let them get out their scripted piece and reply very calmly.” Je suis desolé mais je ne parle pas le francais”, usually get a nice apology from them and an “au’revoir monsieur” before they put the ‘phone down. Funnily enough we have never had the same people twice.
Love the Blog btw.
Toffeeapple – it doesn’t, but they must make enough money from the unfortunate souls who decide to sign up with them, to cover their costs.
David – Merci mon ami. Maybe I should try that: speaking in French to them. Or maybe put on an outrageous French accent and say that “Sorry I am… my Ingleesh… it is not good.”
However, I doubt it would make much difference to this particular bunch of idiots.
I registered my mobile with TPS. This is supposed to stop phone calls (but won’t stop text messages) from firms trying to flog tartan-coloured, left-handed widgets or high-level financial service futures for the discerning Indonesian goldfish (whatever). But the odd one or two each year still sneaks through. I like the app you’ve got that hides the calls but still costs the caller. But how does that work of the cold-calling company doesn’t disclose their number? Hmm…
Hi Bren,
We have both our mobiles registered with TPS, but, like you say, some still get through.
The app is set to also block all calls where the number is withheld or marked as private. Admittedly, that means that one or two legitimate calls may not get through, but I don’t see why any legit caller should want to withhold their number anyway. Their loss.
If there’s one thing worse than spam calls, it’s spam calls when it’s a voice recording. It’s one thing being bring disturbed by some idiot in person but I take exception when they can’t even be bothered to disturb me by bothering themselves.
I find the best way to deal with these people is to start asking them random questions like” I’m finding that muesli gives me terrible indegestion in the morning do you think I should switch to porridge? What do you have for breakfasts? ” or just start singing to them or blow a whistle very loudly down the phone.
Yeah, I always used to drag out the calls, see how long I could keep them talking before I said no and hung up.
Mrs M doesn’t have my er… sense of fun.