28/10/2005

Grr.

entry posted by Inquisitor at 20:21 (permalink).
categories: Idiots , Personal

I have, and always have had, an ex-directory phone line. I see absolutely no need in having people know my phone number other than those who actually want to contact it; it is, after all, courtesy.

Needless to say, this means an absence of telemarketer calls, but sadly not entirely. I just got called by ICM doing a "music survey" in the middle of cooking something intricate. Asking them exactly why they were calling my phone number, the caller informed me of the method they use for picking telephone numbers:

• get the Phone Book
• pull a number out the Phone Book
• randomise the last digit

Wonder if they check it against the DMA list. I'm not on TPS - it just lets them know who you are - but they really shouldn't do things like that. People who put numbers on things like the TPS list or go ex-directory are very unlikely to want to listen to "surveyors" or other telescum. But they're so insistent that you need to listen to them! (And apparently they get responses from ex-dir people too... AAAGH.)

I told the surveyer, politely enough, that I don't respond to unsolicited calls, and he hung up very curtly. Oh dear. At least the food didn't spoil...

|