75ZT Community

I have a credit card administered by Halifax.

I've just had a call on my mobile from them, right in the middle of our dinner.

Do they tell you what they want? Do they heck as like. So after the obligatory "Hi Paul. Can I call you Paul, How are you today, I just need to get your life history under the excuse of security checks" we eventually got down to business.

Of course, the credit card administrator calling me, at 18:45, my immediate thought was that my card had been cloned etc. etc.

So, here we go:-

"I need to talk to you about your credit card Paul." (The tone reminded me of the scoldings I used to get from my Mother when I was a nipper.)

"Don't call me Paul. I don't know you."

"OK Paul, I need to inform you that..." several seconds passed "... your credit card payments are up to date, you are not in arrears, you are not over your limit."

"Yes? So?"

"Please make sure your next payment is made by the due date or you will incur additional charges"

"Have you got my account details in front of you?"

At this point the land line phone rang so SWMBO took the call, indicating that it was for me. She asked the caller to hold.

Anyway:-

"Yes Paul, I have your account details on my screen"

"Don't call me Paul."

"OK Paul. What is the reason for your call today?"

At this point I made my displeasure known as we established who had called whom.

"OK Paul, what can I help you with today?"

"You can start off by telling my why you called me"

"I believe I have already given you that information Paul."

At that point I cancelled the call.

I took the land line from SWMBO, who was giggling like a school girl and as she passed me the phone she said "You're not going to like this"

I took the phone and said:- " Hi, who am I speaking to?"

"Hi Paul. Can I call you Paul? How are you today? I just need to..."

Different voice, same script. The call was terminated with, as they say, extreme prejudice.

I wonder if they are having a cannabis party at the call centre, wherever it is located in India.

Dinner, what remained of it, was cold

You know what the worst, the very worst of this is?

There's no point in complaining because I'll get absolutely nowhere, other than to be annoyed by some clown who insists on using my first name, uttering meaningless and superficial platitudes, and doing absolutely nothing to address my concerns.

I've heard about these sorts of calls from colleagues at work but this is the first time I've been the subject of such inanity.

Thank you, dear readers, for allowing me to take the steam out of this rant

Halifax, one of the first Airfix kits I made up, always liked the yellow and black stripes on the fins. Never had a phone call from one though.....

Chers

Mike

This is where you would love to be able to send 1000volts down the phone to other person!

@ Mike,

I'll have a dozen pints of whatever you've been drinking

@ Richard

That doesn't even begin to cover it I've just found me a better credit card deal so Halifax can go and do a running...

I had 3 phone calls from Halifax whilst at work , 2 from the same person who phoned me straight back after I told them to callback later, and then a second person with the third call.

I get lots of cold callers and get sick of them so have started saying at the start that i am unemployed which gets rid of the majority

I am also tempted to get one of these as seen in Dragons Den

https://www.truecall.co.uk/home.aspx

This is cheaper and does work:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Pot-Noodle-Horn-/321331887827?pt=UK_Collectables_Kitchenalia_RL&hash=item4ad0df7ed3

Late follow up to this thread. After being plagued by call centres, especially anonymous ones abroad, I grasped the nettle and bought a trueCall unit as referred to by Trebor. It is expensive when compared with others but appears to be the only one that can handle calls in the manner that suits us as we get a lot of withheld number calls from hospitals etc which need to be answered.

It takes a while to set up and choose how each type of call is handled but since installation we have not been pestered with a single nuisance call. The record shows that the pest callers give up at the first announcement without even trying to persuade the device to let them through. Money well spent for us.

Since signing up to telephone preference service cold calling has stopped here at castle Borg Warner, however this doesn't stop those who already have your number. I'm currently being plagued by British Red Cross as, for a while, I subscribed a monthly sum to them.

Two at the same time though; that takes some doing.

Gary M.

I subscribe to TPS but it does not seem to stop them.

If I am in the mood I string them along - stops someone else being called. Other times I ask for details of the company informing them that they are in breach of regulations as I subscribe to TPS - that normally gets them putting the phone down quickly.

I also get a lot of calls asking 'can I speak to Mr X'. Do not know if this person had the number before.Sometimes I just say 'hang I will get him' and carry on doing whatever I was doing. The best is 'he died last week'. That really puts them off balance. They then try to show compassion and ask soothing questions. I simply play very upset and tell them 'sorry, I am so upset I cannot continue talking'.

"Strongly discouraged from adopting the idea"

Hmm... I wonder why.

I see no reason not to take the initiative. Fair play to the guy