Now I’m usually against any ban as I would prefer people to decide for themselves, rather than governments producing blanket bans, which often, have unintended consequences.
I would however, like some restriction on cold calling over the phone. I myself couldn’t care less being cold called as I sometimes like to play games with them. I do like pretending that I’ve heard the grand child crying and have to see to him. Of course I’ve got to put the phone down for a moment. I then make a cup of tea and go and sit in the garden for a while. Funnily enough when I pick up the phone again they’ve rung off.
What really gets me though is they seem to especially target the older generation, who were brought up in an era of trusting a person’s word. That generation was brought up in a world that had no telephone or internet distance selling, and bought almost everything on a face to face basis.
The elderly have been outflanked by these hard sell tactics. They cannot believe that the cold callers are just trying to meet targets set by their company and couldn’t care less how they do it.
Case one:
My mother in law (Bless her) was conned into a twice yearly subscription to a magazine for £79.99 per annum. Luxury yacht hire FFS. (Luckily I managed to find out in time and get it cancelled. I was somewhat rude to the company on the phone.)
Case two:
My aged aunt has just been sold a telephone call blocker device. Yes it will work, but she’s paid four times the price you can buy it on Amazon.
It’s a huge problem that needs to be addressed. even all the major charities are involved in pressurising to give to them via telemarketing.
“Just pledge £3 and you can save tiger/child/raccoon/penguin/*insert your choice*/etc”.
Anyone else had this problem?
