Cold Callers

Norman_Conquest

Norman_Conquest

Well-known member
I received a text from my brother this morning stating there was a window company going to my dad's this morning to measure up for his bathroom window and stating that my dad needed to go to the bank and get some money out to pay them. Alarm bells rang with me immediately and I wondered who had arranged this for him and why the rush to pay them.

I popped to my dad's and he said he had a cold caller the day before and they had taken a £100 deposit from him to have the window fitted and had quoted him just under £900 for a 1200 x 1000 frosted glass window with top opening. The receipt stated that a technician was calling later today to measure up.

I immediately contacted the company and cancelled the technician and explained to the guy how disgusted I was with the company taking a deposit from a vulnerable 88 year old man, that I wanted it paid back to him in full and that the price they quoted him was ridiculously high. I received no apology from the company but was told to complete the cancellation on the back of the form and send it to them recorded delivery. The letter is in the post.

I have the cold caller's name and that of the company but will keep that to myself for the time being. If he doesn't get the money back in full I will name and shame them on here and other social media websites.

I just don't know how anyone thinks it is acceptable to take money from old people or get them to sign for work to be completed when it is obvious they are not capable of making these decisions. My dad does have a lot of his faculties about him but gets confused very easily and I wonder how many other old people they have duped by cold calling.

I also feel this company is getting off very lightly with just a stern phone call.
 
Absolute scumbags!

Same as those people who phone about the 'recent accident' you were in.

I played along with one of them once and pretended I'd lost a foot and I was a professional skier so my life was pretty much over, they then said. "Oh really???" to which I replied....


"No you D!kkhead!" and put the phone down.
 
Norman_Conquest said:
I received a text from my brother this morning stating there was a window company going to my dad's this morning to measure up for his bathroom window and stating that my dad needed to go to the bank and get some money out to pay them. Alarm bells rang with me immediately and I wondered who had arranged this for him and why the rush to pay them.

I popped to my dad's and he said he had a cold caller the day before and they had taken a £100 deposit from him to have the window fitted and had quoted him just under £900 for a 1200 x 1000 frosted glass window with top opening. The receipt stated that a technician was calling later today to measure up.

I immediately contacted the company and cancelled the technician and explained to the guy how disgusted I was with the company taking a deposit from a vulnerable 88 year old man, that I wanted it paid back to him in full and that the price they quoted him was ridiculously high. I received no apology from the company but was told to complete the cancellation on the back of the form and send it to them recorded delivery. The letter is in the post.

I have the cold caller's name and that of the company but will keep that to myself for the time being. If he doesn't get the money back in full I will name and shame them on here and other social media websites.

I just don't know how anyone thinks it is acceptable to take money from old people or get them to sign for work to be completed when it is obvious they are not capable of making these decisions. My dad does have a lot of his faculties about him but gets confused very easily and I wonder how many other old people they have duped by cold calling.

I also feel this company is getting off very lightly with just a stern phone call.
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Annoys the ***** out of me just like scammers.
The thread about trust pilot seems very apt in this case.
 
London_Boro said:
Absolute scumbags!

Same as those people who phone about the 'recent accident' you were in.

I played along with one of them once and pretended I'd lost a foot and I was a professional skier so my life was pretty much over, they then said. "Oh really???" to which I replied....


"No you D!kkhead!" and put the phone down.
Click to expand...
They were cery interested in my recent accident some years ago, when they asked about what happened I told them 'he's 14 now'.
 
London_Boro said:
Absolute scumbags!

Same as those people who phone about the 'recent accident' you were in.

I played along with one of them once and pretended I'd lost a foot and I was a professional skier so my life was pretty much over, they then said. "Oh really???" to which I replied....


"No you D!kkhead!" and put the phone down.
Click to expand...
I had one of those a few years ago at work.

Caller was very excited when I told him how pleased I was that he'd called.

I explained how I'd been involved in an accident riding my motorbike and collided with a combine harvester leaving me with life altering injuries.

Gave him some more (untrue) details about how I'd lost a leg in the incident.

He asked how it affected my day to day life. I told him that I could still ride my motorbike but only round in circles.

He hung up.

I will always string them along if it's on my work office number; just breaks up the day nicely.
 
Happened to my Dad with the windows 6 years ago in his late 80's, prob was he enjoyed the salesman chat as he got no visitors usually. I was in London . So basically my Dad got persuaded to replace 3 or 4 small dg windows for the price of £1650 and wrote the cheque out and gave it to the fella with promise someone would be round within 2 days to measure. The next day, luckily my dad got more of his senses but felt he couldn't do anything about it but on leaving the house the neighbour who always chatted asked him how things were. Obv my Dad was in bits with what he'd had agreed so the neighbour decided to drive my dad to Guisborough. where the nearest HSBC to Redcar was and he could have a face to face chat and explain and cancel the cheque before it got cashed. The next days were spent writing an official letter to the company of cancel etc. Took them weeks to back off. Luckily he paid no actual cash over so didn't have to get it back. Got telephone calls from them over the next 3 years about did we need any windows doing ?
 
Norman_Conquest said:
I received a text from my brother this morning stating there was a window company going to my dad's this morning to measure up for his bathroom window and stating that my dad needed to go to the bank and get some money out to pay them. Alarm bells rang with me immediately and I wondered who had arranged this for him and why the rush to pay them.

I popped to my dad's and he said he had a cold caller the day before and they had taken a £100 deposit from him to have the window fitted and had quoted him just under £900 for a 1200 x 1000 frosted glass window with top opening. The receipt stated that a technician was calling later today to measure up.

I immediately contacted the company and cancelled the technician and explained to the guy how disgusted I was with the company taking a deposit from a vulnerable 88 year old man, that I wanted it paid back to him in full and that the price they quoted him was ridiculously high. I received no apology from the company but was told to complete the cancellation on the back of the form and send it to them recorded delivery. The letter is in the post.

I have the cold caller's name and that of the company but will keep that to myself for the time being. If he doesn't get the money back in full I will name and shame them on here and other social media websites.

I just don't know how anyone thinks it is acceptable to take money from old people or get them to sign for work to be completed when it is obvious they are not capable of making these decisions. My dad does have a lot of his faculties about him but gets confused very easily and I wonder how many other old people they have duped by cold calling.

I also feel this company is getting off very lightly with just a stern phone call.
Click to expand...
Make sure your dad’s home landline number and mobile number are registered with the Telephone Preference Service so that any legit company will not call you offering any services. If a company does call you then you can report them to the Information Commissioner’s Office and they can get fined.
 
There's a BBC programme about cold callers, I dunno how they do it but the BBC team listened in live to a call between a scammer and an elderly person, they tried contacting the elderly person but couldn't get through till the scammer hung up, the bbc had an 'ethical hacker to try and intercept.
 
GibbosEmpire said:
There's a BBC programme about cold callers, I dunno how they do it but the BBC team listened in live to a call between a scammer and an elderly person, they tried contacting the elderly person but couldn't get through till the scammer hung up, the bbc had an 'ethical hacker to try and intercept.
Click to expand...
Scam Interceptors Think most episodes are on iPlayer now.
 
Any trader that puts you under pressure by falsely implying that you have to make a decision there and then, or that the "special price" is only available for a limited period in order to make you sign up, is committing a criminal offence.

In addition, if you pay or agree to pay over £42 for any services or goods that are sold to you in your home, then:

  • You have fourteen days to cancel the agreement. If you cancel, any monies that you have paid should then be returned to you.
  • The trader must give you a written notice of your cancellation rights when you agree the contract. If the trader doesn't provide you with this information, they commit a criminal offence and you are not bound by any agreement you enter into.
This protection applies even when you invite a trader to your home.
 
London_Boro said:
Absolute scumbags!

Same as those people who phone about the 'recent accident' you were in.

I played along with one of them once and pretended I'd lost a foot and I was a professional skier so my life was pretty much over, they then said. "Oh really???" to which I replied....


"No you D!kkhead!" and put the phone down.
Click to expand...
Someone at work did similar stringing them along about his fall and accident. Eventually he said but I suppose it was my own fault because my wife's been nagging me to repair the broken tile on our porch step.
 
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