Giving cold calls the cold shoulder
I've been registered with the Telephone Preference Service for several years now. For a while there were call centres that called me anyway, but that seems to have dropped off. But telemarketers keep trying to find ways to beat the system, and what I get now is automated calls announcing I have won something.
Today the BBC reports that a couple of inventors have invented a call-screening device you can install on your phone line. It allows you to blacklist / whitelist numbers, and with unfamiliar numbers it can ask the caller to identify themselves before it rings the user's phone. The user can then take the call, ask the system to take a message, or blacklist the number on the spot. The device can also download blacklists of known abusers numbers. Fine and dandy.
It retails for £99.99.
Isn't this just another way of passing the burden of the abuse onto the consumer?
When you notice in the article that the inventors were themselves ex-telemarketers you start thinking, "the bastards get you coming and going".
So, I'd like to propose a solution of my own.
BT provides a free number you can call after you have received a nuisance call of this type. This takes you to an automated menu system:
To complain about the last call received, press 1. To hear a list of your last five calls, press 2.
If you press 1, job done. If 2, you get a list of numbers (or "the caller withheld their number" messages) read out, after each of which you can press 1 to ignore or * to register a complaint for that number.
BT will have a record of each call for billing purposes, even if the caller withheld their number. If they receive over a predetermined number of unique complaints for a given number, say a thousand or so, they can retroactively charge those calls at premium rate. After a larger threshold they charge all calls from that number at a premium rate. The system pays for itself, we get some peace, and the telebots suddenly become prohibitively unprofitable.
If it's an international number they can't bill it, they can only block it. But they can set a different threshold for that to ensure it remains unprofitable to the caller.
What do you think?
Today the BBC reports that a couple of inventors have invented a call-screening device you can install on your phone line. It allows you to blacklist / whitelist numbers, and with unfamiliar numbers it can ask the caller to identify themselves before it rings the user's phone. The user can then take the call, ask the system to take a message, or blacklist the number on the spot. The device can also download blacklists of known abusers numbers. Fine and dandy.
It retails for £99.99.
Isn't this just another way of passing the burden of the abuse onto the consumer?
When you notice in the article that the inventors were themselves ex-telemarketers you start thinking, "the bastards get you coming and going".
So, I'd like to propose a solution of my own.
BT provides a free number you can call after you have received a nuisance call of this type. This takes you to an automated menu system:
To complain about the last call received, press 1. To hear a list of your last five calls, press 2.
If you press 1, job done. If 2, you get a list of numbers (or "the caller withheld their number" messages) read out, after each of which you can press 1 to ignore or * to register a complaint for that number.
BT will have a record of each call for billing purposes, even if the caller withheld their number. If they receive over a predetermined number of unique complaints for a given number, say a thousand or so, they can retroactively charge those calls at premium rate. After a larger threshold they charge all calls from that number at a premium rate. The system pays for itself, we get some peace, and the telebots suddenly become prohibitively unprofitable.
If it's an international number they can't bill it, they can only block it. But they can set a different threshold for that to ensure it remains unprofitable to the caller.
What do you think?