29-08-2013, 01:22 PM
1
Could You Look Forward To Cold Calls?
A man who got annoyed by cold callers interrupting him while he was watching Coronation Street has got his own back by setting up his own premium rate number which makes him money.Lee Beaumont paid £10 plus VAT to set up his personal 0871 line in November 2011, and said he has made £300 from the calls he has received since.
Mr Beaumont, from Leeds, told BBC Radio 4's You and Yours programme: "I was getting annoyed with the PPI calls when I'm trying to watch Coronation Street for instance, so I'd rather have an 0871 so I can make 10p a minute. I thought there must be a way to make money off these phone calls."
"The best one I found was the 0871 as I could make a good chunk of money," he said.
Mr Beaumont said he gave out the 0871 number when he needed to talk to utilities companies but had a separate line for his friends and family to call him on.
"Some companies are fine with it," he added. "Sometimes they won't call me, and I say fine, you've got my email address - email me. And 99% of the time they will use my 0871 number."
He said he was "very honest" if any of the firms asked him why he had done it, but added that the companies were not phoning him as often now which meant he was not earning so much money.
However, it would seem that these calls can actually be stopped:
Premium number regulator Phone Pay Plus warned against others taking the same measure as Mr Beaumont. They told the programme: "Premium-rate numbers are not designed to be used in this way and we would strongly discourage any listeners from adopting this idea, as they will be liable under our code for any breaches and subsequent fines that result."
So, only businesses are allowed to rip people off
http://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/man...184602754.html
29-08-2013, 01:48 PM
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Re: Could You Look Forward To Cold Calls?
Originally Posted by MKJ
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Yeah, read that but 10p a minute is nowhere near enough for me to sit through such calls. I would give it a try for £1 a minute though.
Strange how the regulator can step in when the customer plays business at its own game though isn't it ...
29-08-2013, 01:54 PM
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Re: Could You Look Forward To Cold Calls?
Originally Posted by Jimmy
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I love cold calls if I'm a bit bored, there's nothing I like better than keeping them on the phone for as long as I can without buying anything, but for some reason it seems to upset them, I can't think why. 
29-08-2013, 01:57 PM
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Re: Could You Look Forward To Cold Calls?
Yea - you can have fun with it....Like a man I heard today on the radio, she asked where he lived he said - London - what part of London - Westminster.... Street please - Downing Street - what is your name Sir - Mr. D Cameron and so it went on, it took the girl a good while before penny dropped ......
29-08-2013, 02:00 PM
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Re: Could You Look Forward To Cold Calls?
Originally Posted by Pats CG
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Oh and she said - Are you in debt sir - he said 'Ah yes, heavily in debt to Germany' .....
29-08-2013, 02:29 PM
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Re: Could You Look Forward To Cold Calls?
Originally Posted by Jimmy
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I like the chap from Microsoft best, I can keep him on a while, pretending to boot up an imaginary computer, so that he can "fix it" for me.
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