Calis Beach and Fethiye Turkey Discussion Forum
General Topics => All things that have nothing to do with Turkey => Topic started by: bewva on November 06, 2013, 21:59:49 PM
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My Father in law asked me to go round and connect up a new gizmo to his phone to block nuisance calls.
I dutifully went round and opened a box containing a device which at most would have cost a fiver from China.
"Where did you get this" I asked.
"from a guy who rang me asking if I wanted to stop cold calls" came the reply.
That's rich I thought.
"How much was it"
"£79.99 per year for the first 3 years then free from then on in". :o
Needless to say Mrs B spent 40 minutes on the phone to them today in an attempt to get a refund explaining that she felt they had took advantage of her 76 year old father.
They have told her she has to write in to request one and they will see what they can do. >:(
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That's dreadful bewva.
Is the following a stupid idea....
If it is not too personal a matter why don't you post the contact Mrs B has to write to and members who have a mind to can write in also in support of her father.
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Name and shame them so others don't get conned.
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http://www.which.co.uk/consumer-rights/action/how-to-cancel-a-contract-without-being-penalised/
Have a quick look here Bewva - the cooling off period may be relevant
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How did he pay, Paul? It's a ludicrous amount of money and speaking to the card issuer/bank might at least prevent the next two payments from being taken.
There is a nuisance call phone, which featured on Dragon's Den a while back - fabulous bit of kit, and that was retailing for around one year's payment for this service. Also many new "house" phones have the facility to block numbers from calling.
Or my personal favourite, answer, put it on speaker, put it on the table, carry on with your day.
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Thanks for the offer of help John, We are putting pen to paper tonight and will see if they 'do the right thing' first.
I will also read up the link you have put on Bluewise.
He paid by card but the card issuer are not interested because he gave the numbers over voluntarily.
I will post the name later.
Problem is he's had it for about 5 weeks.
They have said to send it back with a letter. I am taking that as a bit of a positive in that they at least said send it back.
F in L said he doesn't like to be rude on the phone to these people. ???
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This is the trouble bewva - the elderly particularly are so vulnerable to these kind of despicable people because they don't like being rude, or are worried about any repercussions if they are! I have no problems whatsoever with leaving them hanging on the line talking to themselves or, if all else fails, swearing and putting the phone down. >:(
But my parents, both going on 90 years of age and still very much 'sound of mind', wouldn't do anything like that despite me telling them no-one is going to 'come and get them'!
It's a shocking story and I hope you manage to get your father-in-law's money refunded and let the rest of us on here know who they are!!
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I would also ring my local Trading Standard Office and give them all the details they will check this company out. Also you can get the Telephone Preference Service free of charge.
If you do return the item, make sure you put your address on the reverse and send it signed for. Special Delivery is best, it's a bit more expensive, but worth it, keep the parcel under 2 kilos for S.D.
I will keep my fingers crossed you can get a refund.
It seems the elderly are always vulnerable to a bit of slick talk. My son who is a plumber went out to an old lady whose husband just died. She is selling the house to move near her family. She told my son she had a list of jobs, but when he looked there was little to do, but he did change a couple of light bulbs she could not reach. She then told him a man had knocked at the door and offered to paint her garage door and surround. She did not ask the price and when he finished he told her it was £1000 cash !!! My son looked at the door and the paint was already peeling. The guy also told the lady that she would not sell her house unless he painted her small fence and that would be £400. My son told her to always check if workmen are local and well known and also always ask for estimates He gave her a number of local painter to use. He said she seemed lonely and he stayed and talked to her for about an hour. My son thinks he knows who did the painting for her....leave you to guess,they give a mobile number and don't stay in an area too long.
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And just when you didn't want any further bad news - please also be aware that companies that target the elderly often share the details of those who part with their money. So you need to explain to you pa-in-law that he really does need to get into slamming the phone down because he may be getting even more popular on the blower soon :(
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The name of the Company is Telecom Preference Service aka robbing tw*ts who prey on the vulnerable.
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Ann has warned him that he may have all and sundry now ringing him trying to flog him all sorts of tat.
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"£79.99 per year for the first 3 years then free from then on in".
Their FAQ says £79.99 for the first year only then free - so that's a bit of a silver lining perhaps.
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Report it to these guys. It's a well tactic often using TPS to make the sale. Should be outlawed!
http://bramcotetoday.org.uk/2013/10/16/telephone-preference-service-scam/
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Nice one Stoop, good info.
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He told me it was £80 /year, shows how confused he was/is
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No wonder people get confused! These rogues conveniently have the intials TPS which makes you think they are part of the Telephone Preference Service. To be fair they do offer a cancellation if you get it in writing to them within 7 days of receiving your pack but then they take off a massive admin fee anyway.
Just a thought but if anyone has an old relative living in council accomodation the best way to get shut of these people when they call is for the tenant to simply say what my wife's 87 year old uncle says - "ring the council it's not my house" He then says thankyou and hangs up. It seems to work a treat for him.
In fact - thinking on that would work for anyone - just say you don't own the house, thankyou and hang up. Chances are they won't ring back as it's easier to move onto the next target.
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Last piece of advice from Stoop is a good one. My lad as a student, worked in a call centre. Standing instruction as a response to "Sorry it's a rented property" was hang up without delay.
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To update this topic. We finally got the money refunded this week off these lying scheming gits.
Mrs B has phoned them over 20 times. The last 15 or so times promised that the refund would be done that day. All lies.
We got back on to the Nat West who provide his master card to get them to refund it. They also dont know their arse from their elbow and were of little use.
Persistance paid off and money was refunded by the company last week.
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On this subject I got a set of phones from BT. On them you can block international calls and block individual numbers too.
Mine is set to only ring if it's a number in the phone book stored on it.
Absolutely fantastic! Well worth the money.
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I have a call blocker on our Panasonic home phone too, adding phone numbers (mainly the ones that ring and when you answer nobody speaks) to it has dramatically cut down the calls we get. Also on iPhone 5 you can block any caller once they phone the first time.
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Scunner, give me your number and I'll call you so you can block me in future.
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Sometimes, if I'm in the mood, I'll let the cold caller rabbit on with their sales pitch for as long as it I can stand it, usually holding the earpiece at arm's length but making encouraging "oooh, that sounds good" noises every now and then and the right towards the end when they are about to ask for my bank details I'll say "Does it make any difference if I'm a declared bankrupt?". The next noise I usually hear is a click. OK, it wastes 30 minutes of my day but it gives me an internal hug. ;D
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Just a warning if you buy from the T.V. Shopping Channel "Ideal World".
I got a call last week from a guy who said he was from Ideal World. He thanked me for buying from Ideal World and as a thank you they were sending me six free gifts that I would love. They were also sending me a free trial of their special discount club which gives discount from many shops such as Morrison's there would be no charge for this free trial. All I had to pay was £2.09 for the postage of the pack. I immediately smelled a rat and told the guy I was not interested. He was persistent and said I would miss the free gifts, I told him no and put down the phone.
I then contacted Ideal World via their Facebook page, as ringing them costs 10p per minute. I received an apology and was told the Ideal World had checked and I had put down I did not want Marketing calls. They said they were very sorry. They also told me their discount club was excellent and only cost £49.99 per year.
I then investigated this a bit further and found a lot of complaints on the net, including one from a man who was on the Martin Lewis Moneysaving Expert website. This man was warning people, that his elderly Mother had received a similar call to mine, she accepted the offer and was sent the pack, of course she had to give her credit card details to pay for the postage. Included in the pack was a letter saying that she had 1 month's free trial of their discount club and then after this £49.99 would be draw from the credit card she had given them. The lady had a death in the family and forgot about the message. The money was taken from her account. Her son rang Ideal World and was told this deal was done though an associate company called Rocket. Ideal World refused to give back the money. They also said if people do not want the offer they have to send back all the free gifts in pack they had received, at their own expense.
I think this is very sharp practice and will not be buying from this company again.
So, even if you say you don't want marketing calls, you may get them, so be aware.
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The anoying thing is they are all just out for the sale and don't give a toss about who they are ripping off. How they sleep at night is beyond me.
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I only ever now give our home phone to friends and family, and if completing forms give the mobile number, if I have to make a coll on the home phone I try to always remember to add 141 before dialling, this makes sure that my number does not appear on any caller id or last number redial.
Cold callers on mobile now get passed to Gordon, that will teach them ;D
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When we returned from Turkey I was very surprised by the number of friends who had just given up on having a home phone line. It seemed wrong. But we get more nuisance calls than genuine ones and we're paying £13 a month for the privilege? I have a mobile contract where I pay £15 a month for 2000 minutes - and use around 100. So I could just ask people to ring me and hang up and we can ring them back.
Could the home line be on the way out?
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If it wasn't for the broadband I would not have a land line.
I recon we make about 4-5 calls maximum per week on our landline and receive about 15 all of which are nuisance calls.
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Ditto. I'm thinking of dumping mine for the same reasons.
We've three mobiles so plenty of back up.
I've also been thinking about getting rid of the Virgin
TV package, It's not much better than free view now.
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I think it's a good idea just to have a mobile and forget the landline as most landline incoming calls are from people trying to sell something However, having a landline is important for people who have a business as it gives customers confidence.
There are a lot of dodgy people offering services in local newspapers and on the net all have mobile numbers only. Most Trading Standards and Consumer Organisations advice the public to make sure the businesses they want to use have landlines.
In the area we live in there area lot of gypsies advertising in the papers, all use mobile numbers. I have alway maintained I would never use a business that only had a mobile number. ;)