Toms View of the World

I was at my local cinema, and had accidentally left the bluetooth features on my phone switched on (I don’t normally. but my sat-nav software switches it on, and sometimes it doesn’t switch back off)

I was therefore very surprised when I was asked to accept a download (given that I was very much alone) It turns out that this a new twist in unsolicited messaging (i.e. spam) - drive-by bluetooth spam.

Of course, I never accept unsolicited bluetooth messages, as they are the most common way for mobile viruses to spread.

Encouraging people to do this is dangerous. Remember. never accept a bluetooth connection unless you’re expecting it.

Yes, you “The Listening Company” on 0800 3896818

You’re a marketing company phoning me on behalf another company which has illegally sold you my details. I will not answer your calls.

I’m not the only one you’re annoying. Please refilter your dialing list via the TPS service providers, as you are required to do by law, and never call me again.

I shouldn’t need to dial 0800 0324617 to remove myself from your list - it should not have been there in the first place.

What I’d like someone to develop is a phone which can have rules based on the incoming number, then I could auto-reject (or even better - forward these nuisance callers to their own switchboard number (020 8484 1000))

Update: I’ve found a nice list of marketing company numbers (now broken) I will not answer the phone if I do not recognise the number anyway (and caller ID makes that really easy) and I will now check against this list if I recieve a call… Expect me to keep logging nuisance calls on this thread, just like I record the ongoing Dunraven Windows door-to-door nuisance on their thread.

Well, last night a bloke from Scottish Power gave me a call - explained that they had been given my number by Dreams Furniture Retail, as they “thought I might be interested in changing my electricity supplier” - I explained to him that I’m registered with the TPS, so they are breaking the law by cold calling me. He explained that as my number had been passed to them (despite that action being a breach of trust, let alone the UK data protection legislation, and the Direct Marketing Association’s rules (see Section G of the Guidelines - “Matching
against the TPS or FPS file is required by legislation“), I had not authorised the company in question to sell my details on), it wasn’t a cold call.

I hung up.

I’ll put up with calls from companies I actually do business with (e.g. Sky’s incessant bugging me to take an extended warantee on my Satellite box, no matter how many times I say “no”) but any company who cold-calls will be blacklisted as a company I will never knowingly do business with by choice. Dunraven Windows have been on that list for many years…

Let me make this clear. I do not want to recieve unsolicited sales calls. Ever. From anyone, via any medium, unless I have explicitly requested to be kept up to date on your products, services and offers. If I want to recieve your marketing, I’ll ask.

I always make sure I carefully read the “by ticking this box you agree that you do not authorise us to pass your details on to carefully selected 3rd parties whose products and services we feel you might be interested in” and ensure I correctly tick it (or not) to prevent my details being passed on.

If you, as a company do not respect my wishes, and I discover you passed my details onto a 3rd party for any reason, you are as bad as the telemarketing scum you sold my details to - to put it simply, don’t expect my business in future if you break my trust.

The following companies have recently been added to that blacklist:

Barclaycard, Dreams (the furniture retailer), Clydesdale Financial Services (who do the payment handling for Dreams), Scottish Power (who bought my number from Clydesdale and dreams)

Also recently added to the blacklist for “door to door” sales-calling:

British Gas, Swalec, nPower

As normal, I opt not to recieve random adverts from companies - in this case, I was somewhat surprised to recieve a spam email from non other than Microsoft, pointing out that I was opted out and offering me the chance to reverse my decision.

As part of a routine data inspection we have noticed you have elected to stop receiving communications from Microsoft.

As Microsoft launches exciting new solutions and initiatives, there’s no better time to register for information that will give your business a critical technological advantage. We invite you to consider receiving communications from us again.

Opting out of recieving emails means that I don’t want to recieve adverts - not even adverts for the opt-in of the service I’ve already opted out of. Needless to say, the email has been tagged as spam.

PLEASE LEAVE ME ALONE

Every couple of months, a knock on the door and some guy from a local double glazing company tries to sell me double glazing - now, my house is a relatively new build (and as a result has double glazing) - this fact never deters them, and when this little observation is made, then tries to sell me a replacement front door, and a conservatory.

Their persistance in the face of obvious failure (given that every house on the estate already has double glazing) is admirable, but in the event I ever need the services of such a company, I will be taking into account the nuisence factor of having had countless evenings disrupted by their sales staff… and they won’t even be called.