Do they talk to each other?

[melmerby]

Hi all

Today I had a leaflet through the door from "EE (Powered by BT)" , inviting me to change over to Full Fibre now.

Great I thought, with a fair bit of doubt in my mind.😕

 

Just been onto the BT full fibre checker to see whether things had suddenly changed recently.

No, they haven't, our area isn't even in the up to 2026 period for full fibre plans.

So it's approaching 3 years away at the minimum.

 

Don't EE talk to their masters at BT?☹️

 

[Dagworth]

I’ve had three separate phone calls from EON-next this week about changing my electricity meter. None of them seem to be aware of the previous calls until they dig into my records and suddenly realise that they’ve already spoken to me. 
 

Andi

[johnofwessex]

Bit like being married ............

[Night Train]

SIgn up for it with a new contract. When it doesnt arrive, you can collect your £5 a week compo for failing to deliver.

[spamcan61]

12 hours ago, melmerby said:

Hi all

Today I had a leaflet through the door from "EE (Powered by BT)" , inviting me to change over to Full Fibre now.

Great I thought, with a fair bit of doubt in my mind.😕

 

Just been onto the BT full fibre checker to see whether things had suddenly changed recently.

No, they haven't, our area isn't even in the up to 2026 period for full fibre plans.

So it's approaching 3 years away at the minimum.

 

Don't EE talk to their masters at BT?☹️

 

I would think, from their point of view, cross checking databases on millions of customers would be time and money consuming, cheaper just to spam everybody. 

 

Openreach had been busy round my way (New Forest border) slinging fibre optic between new telegraph poles, although that has seemingly stopped since they stuck one of the new poles through the water main outside my house, resulting in a bit of a lake in the road and no water in the house for several hours.

[mezzoman253]

I get an email from E.ON Next telling me my energy prices are set to fall from April. Three days later I get another email from them telling me they are increasing my DD. My usage is the same as it always is, so not sure how they work that one out.

 

I think you are right about spamming all as a cost saver.

 

[2E Sub Shed]

In the space or 2 days I had 5 cold calls on home phone from "my local energy consultant".   4 different voices regurgitating the script, So ingrained is the recitation of the script they do not respond to any attempt to stop them once they are in flow.

[Reorte]

7 minutes ago, 2E Sub Shed said:

In the space or 2 days I had 5 cold calls on home phone from "my local energy consultant".   4 different voices regurgitating the script, So ingrained is the recitation of the script they do not respond to any attempt to stop them once they are in flow.

Certainly a scam anyway.

[Colin_McLeod]

16 minutes ago, 2E Sub Shed said:

So ingrained is the recitation of the script they do not respond to any attempt to stop them once they are in flow.

 

I have found that hanging up works for me, though I can't tell if they actually stop. 😀

[Hroth]

1 hour ago, 2E Sub Shed said:

In the space or 2 days I had 5 cold calls on home phone from "my local energy consultant".   4 different voices regurgitating the script, So ingrained is the recitation of the script they do not respond to any attempt to stop them once they are in flow.

 

You say "Please wait, and I'll see if I can find anyone who cares".  Then you hang up.

 

 

[Hroth]

One thing I've experienced a lot is "dead air" calls.

I think these are mapping live phone numbers by detecting a voice response.  Nowadays I pick up the phone and wait until there is activity on the other end, or the call automatically disconnects.

[Michael Hodgson]

7 minutes ago, Hroth said:

 

You say "Please wait, and I'll see if I can find anyone who cares".  Then you hang up.

 

 

 

If these people are going to waste my time, I'm happy to reciprocate.  I prefer to tell them I'll just call the boss and leave the phone in front of the dog.

[C126]

Had one of these calls Saturday, which was dead and then rang off when I answered.  The Bristol number (I do not have it with me, alas) is listed as a fraud site on the www.  I enjoy repeating, "From where did you get this number?" repeatedly until "Jo" terminates the call in despair.  What a way to earn a living...

 

 

[kevinlms]

21 minutes ago, Michael Hodgson said:

 

If these people are going to waste my time, I'm happy to reciprocate.  I prefer to tell them I'll just call the boss and leave the phone in front of the dog.

Surely the cat is in charge and you're just the servant?

[EddieB]

On 11/04/2024 at 20:39, melmerby said:

Don't EE talk to their masters at BT?

As far as I'm aware English Electric were never in a business arrangement with British Thompson Houston, despite both being builders of diesel locomotives.  There's currently a pretty good article on the locomotives they supplied to Australia in the current issue of "Back Track" - reading it might help calm the stress of getting worked up over fibre optic telephony!

[Peter Kazmierczak]

Eventually they were.

AEI (which included BTH) became part of GEC, as did EE.

[Michael Hodgson]

23 minutes ago, kevinlms said:

Surely the cat is in charge and you're just the servant?

At the moment Zebedee and Macavity are fighting over who's in charge.  

Pooh will come down shortly to tell them both he's in charge.

The dogs both know their place; even little Snowdrop pulls rank on them !

[ejstubbs]

21 hours ago, C126 said:

Had one of these calls Saturday, which was dead and then rang off when I answered.  The Bristol number (I do not have it with me, alas) is listed as a fraud site on the www.  I enjoy repeating, "From where did you get this number?"

 

This was likely an autodialled call.  They are programmed to call randomly generated telephone numbers (so they don't actually "get" your number from anywhere, they just get a "hit" every so often) and if it's answered but they get silence or what sounds like an answering machine, they hang up.

 

A call blocker phone stops these, and all other spam calls, dead in their tracks.  It lets through calls from numbers in the telephone electronic phone book, but calls from an unrecognised number are directed to an automated "concierge", which screens the call for you and puts it through once the caller has said who they are or who they are calling from.  This stops autodialler calls, since the autodialler interprets the "concierge" as an answerphone, and hangs up.  You never even know that the call was made.  All you need is to have caller ID on your line - which I believe is a no-cost feature bundled with most if not all landline providers these days - and a call blocker phone which is a one-off cost.

 

As for wasting their time in relation for them wasting yours, that really is cutting off your nose to spite your face.  Just hang up.

Edited April 16 by ejstubbs

[SM42]

I once had a call from a double glazing firm, trying to sell me some new windows. 

 

Their installation team were due the following day, so they obviously didn't talk to the people at the next desk. 

 

What does surprise me is that they call you again after 13 months to see if you need them replacing.

They obviously don't have much confidence in the product.

 

As for wasting scammers' time, if I have time I will. 

 

I enjoy the sport. 

 

Andy

[C126]

38 minutes ago, ejstubbs said:

 

This was likely an autodialled call.  ...

 

 

Many thanks for this, @ejstubbs .  I had wondered about the details of these things.  Strangely, our cheapo telephone hand-set used to display the incoming line nos., but now says (usually) only "Incoming call", even if the person is in the programmed 'directory' on the 'phone.  (Yet it did display that 'silent call'!)  Keep meaning to 'surf the web' with the model no. (I think it is a Binatone) and see if this is a reecognised fault, or just B.T. trying to get more money from us by increasing our sub. to a 'call blocker' rate.

 

 

[Nick C]

22 hours ago, C126 said:

I enjoy repeating, "From where did you get this number?" repeatedly until "Jo" terminates the call in despair.  What a way to earn a living...

Or answer with something silly if you don't recognise the number?

 

"Hello, Fraud squad. How can I help?"

 

[Hroth]

48 minutes ago, Nick C said:

Or answer with something silly if you don't recognise the number?

 

"Hello, Fraud squad. How can I help?"

 

 

"Brass Finishing Shop, Cammel Lairds"

 

[petethemole]

Just answer "Security" and they hang up.  Works every time. 

[johnofwessex]

13 minutes ago, Hroth said:

 

"Brass Finishing Shop, Cammel Lairds"

 

 

Southampton, Isle of Wight and South of England Royal Mail Steam Packet Company?

[kevinlms]

4 hours ago, ejstubbs said:

 

This was likely an autodialled call.  They are programmed to call randomly generated telephone numbers (so they don't actually "get" your number from anywhere, they just get a "hit" every so often) and if it's answered but they get silence or what sounds like an answering machine, they hang up.

 

A call blocker phone stops these, and all other spam calls, dead in their tracks.  It lets through calls from numbers in the telephone electronic phone book, but calls from an unrecognised number are directed to an automated "concierge", which screens the call for you and puts it through once the caller has said who they are or who they are calling from.  This stops autodialler calls, since the autodialler interprets the "concierge" as an answerphone, and hangs up.  You never even know that the call was made.  All you need is to have caller ID on your line - which I believe is a no-cost feature bundled with most if not all landline providers these days - and a call blocker phone which is a one-off cost.

 

As for wasting their time in relation for them wasting yours, that really is cutting off your nose to spite your face.  Just hang up.

All good until the last paragraph, but how others choose to deal with such callers is up to them! Personally, I'm short and hanging up comes quickly, but increasingly these days, it's an automated service wanting you to press buttons.

 

Why, because they don't want to deal with time wasters either, so they make the called party do the work, to get SCAMMED!

 

Yet, increasingly people fall for it, because everywhere, the amount of cash scammed is increasing each year - sad to think.

My wife has been scammed (we got the money back, thankfully), I thought she was smarter than that, but she is unwell.

It was the classic ad by a 'very famous person' who offered a way to make obscene amounts of money, for virtually no effort - yeah sure mate!

 

Even Andrew Twiggy Forrest (an Australian billionaire), is having trouble getting social media to stop ads, misusing his name. If he can't what hope the rest of us?