Marketing calls

[#1]

As a relatively new telephone and broadband subscriber I am still making adjustments and ammendments to my account to satisfy my personal preferences.
I have already used the Home Phone Control Panel to request caller display which I believe is an extra £0.99 per month. I have telephoned PN to request that my telephone number is ex directory and that it doesn`t show up on other peoples telephones (assuming they have caller display) when I make an out going call.
I would now like to request that my number is excluded from any marketing calls. I will be registering my new number with TPS as over the last two days I believe I have had at least two marketing calls. The first was yesterday when I traced an incoming telephone number starting 01603 to Anglian Windows. The second call was this afternoon at 14.39hrs but when I dial 1471 I am informed that they do not have the callers number to return the call.
As I have only given my new number to three people so far I know it is not one of them calling
Could one of the PN staff look into this matter on my behalf please.
Many thanks in advance.

[#2]

Welcome to the forums.
Bad news I'm afraid, there seems to be a bombardment of "spam" calls with a transfer to PN phone.  If you read the forum you will see that MANY MANY of us suffer from this.
It got so bad for me last year I spent £40 on a call blocker, now I get FEW calls, and can block any that I dislike (I had 2 spam calls today, both now banned from annoying me again)
I don't believe that you will automatically be a "withheld number" unless you have requested that as well. I am ex-dir but my number still shows up.

[#3]

Thank you very much for taking the time to reply to my post, your reply certainly makes interesting reading.
I`m beginning to wonder what I`ve let myself in for by transfering my broadband and internet services to PN. I`ll wait with bated breath for the official line from a member of the PN team to my post.
dick:quote

[#4]

It's not everyone that is affected.
I transferred in in November last year and haven't seen any increase in calls.

[#5]

I get at least two or three a day. It is very annoying to say the least.

[#6]

Hi SierraCharlie2, maryf. We have discussed this issue in significant depth in this thread: http://community.plus.net/forum/index.php/topic,112800.0.html
To re-iterate the key points:
Plusnet have not sold your details and never will sell your details to any company.
All customers are ex-directory by default.
It is likely that an affiliate (if you signed up through one) has passed your details on.
TPS is the best way to stop these calls but other services such as anonymous call reject are available, although no method is 100% sure of stopping them.
Hope this helps.

[#7]

I've had one cold call in the couple of months I've been with PN - it was a line transfer rather than a new number though.
It would be interesting to see the percentage of customers who get a new line/number vs line/number transfers and cold calling.
It may be that some unscrupulous staff member at BT or whoever are handing out lists of the new numbers to "marketing agencies" as they are assigned to customers.

[#8]

Quote from: Ben

Hi SierraCharlie2, maryf. We have discussed this issue in significant depth in this thread: http://community.plus.net/forum/index.php/topic,112800.0.html To re-iterate the key points: Plusnet have not sold your details and never will sell your details to any company. All customers are ex-directory by default. It is likely that an affiliate (if you signed up through one) has passed your details on. TPS is the best way to stop these calls but other services such as anonymous call reject are available, although no method is 100% sure of stopping them. Hope this helps.

Hi Ben,
Thank you for your reply and the contents of which have been duly noted.
Can I ask a further question please which I would like you to answer personally ( yes I have visited the link and read the contents ), Bearing in mind I am a relatively new customer and have only handed my number out to just three people so far coupled with the fact that I signed up directly with Plusnet and I did not use an affiliate, could I therefore ask "Where do you think these marketing people who are making the calls are getting there information from?"

[#9]

One Q, do they ask for you by NAME or are they just the normal annoying calls?
BTW TPS will NOT stop international calls. (or seem to stop these robot calls I get now)

[#10]

If they ask for you by name. someone has given them your number.
I had this with a call the other day where they had apparently been passed my details by a "third party insurance company" and wanted to see if they could claim compensation for my recent bump. Having told them in no uncertain terms that they weren't mean to be calling me and I hadn't had a "bump" for many many years he hung up on me.
Other telemarketers just use an automatic dialling device which dials the number then increments by one each time. Some of them record the numbers when they get a "hit" and pass these on to other companies. I used to have two phone lines with the numbers only a couple of digits apart. I'd get a cold caller on the first line then 10 minutes later the same cold caller on the second line.

[#11]

Quote from: SierraCharlie2

Where do you think these marketing people who are making the calls are getting there information from?

Sorry, I don't know.

[#12]

To Ben,  I never implied that plus net were selling on numbers, it never occurred to me.  I was just saying that I get a lot of  spam calls.
I am a fan of plus net 

[#13]

Hi Mary.
I think that Ben was just clarifying this for you as we've been asked a couple of times recently.

[#14]

Just received an email from Which? and they've launched a campaign to try and tackle this problem (hoorah!)
http://conversation.which.co.uk/consumer-rights/stop-nuisance-phone-calls-texts-calling-time-campaig...
In the meantime, here is their advice on tackling the problem
http://www.which.co.uk/consumer-rights/problem/i-keep-getting-unwanted-calls-and-text-messages-what-...

[#15]

I just reported another (daily) call to the ICO before logging onto forum. I'm even getting fed up with doing that.
Nice idea from Which, but I doubt it will get anywhere. Still, you never know. Interesting maths on their voting stats, though. After I voted:

Quote

Yes (100%, 6,378 Votes) No (0%, 16 Votes) Total Voters: 6,394