'This is the electricity board'

[Pam Downes]

Had a phone call yesterday.
'Good afternoon, can I speak to Mrs Pamela Downes?'

(In a disinterested voice) 'Who's calling?'

'Hello Mrs Downes, my name's Dave and I'm calling from the electricity board. I'd like to confirm that you are [forgotten exactly what he said] and the bill payer'.

[In a slightly more interested tone] 'Which electricity board?'

And then the phone went dead. :biggrin:

Should your true electricity board ever contact you by phone (a) they will say straight away who they are and (b) they know whose name is on the bill.

Pam

[Peter Goodey]

It's a long time since we had electricity boards so the phrase itself ought to sound alarm bells.

[Waitabit]

How lucky are you to get phonecalls?

http://smileys.on-my-web.com/repository/Unhappy/censored-103.gif

Mine,apart from Family are usually silent,...until the next time.:)

[Chris Doran]

He must have been in a hurry. The usual trick is that you get a "survey" which asks which company you get your electricty from, so when they call a few weeks later they know who to claim to be.

I had a "This is your bank ..." a while back, which rang immediate alarm bells.

"Your card had been used to spend £2500 in Selfriges."

I assured him that I hadn't been near Selfriges for years and that my card was still in my pocket (I made him wait while I checked).

"Then it must have been cloned. We'll have to cancel it."

Now the local press had been warning about this scam for some time, so I waited for the following "We'll send a courier to collect the old one" and some dubious reason to give him my PIN (finger on random number generator). I was looking forward to arranging for a gentleman with a blue pointed head to be sitting outside my house, but unfortunately the scammer got cut off at that moment.

[susan-y]

At our office I have been getting a call from a 700 area code. .... apparantly a company that forwards calls.... They are usually silent and I hang up. The other day I let the machine get it. Quite some time later ( I had forgotten about the call I had ignored) I saw the phone flashing so played the message. Rap music! I had to leave the phone off the hook as it played for the length of the voice message box... a good 10 minutes. When I looked up the number on a "report a call" website someone else had stated they had received a call at work from the same number and the person started asking for various employees of the company, by name. When she did not cooperate they threatened to be hiding in the bushes when she got off work as they "knew what her car looked like" She told them she would call the RCMP and did. Problem is...these calls can't be traced.

Sue

PS. Hope your electricity is still working, Pam :)

[AnnB]

After one rather hectic day last week, I answered the 'phone and was greeted by someone (also, strangely called Dave) who said he was calling "about your energy". I said I hadn't got any left and if he could tell me where to get some I would be grateful........he hung up :whistling:

Best wishes
Ann

[spison]

Ann! I'll remember that if an energy company calls. Brilliant!

I have had two calls on consecutive days telling me that due to 'my' bank I was entitled to a $5248.?? refund and could I confirm my details. I acted very interested and got their name (very Australian names of Don and Kristen -their accents were not Australian. They sounded as if they came from SE Asia) and that of the company and their address (The Australian Claim Expert Department, Pitt Street, Sydney). While we were speaking I searched for it and then told him what I had done. Deathly silence and he then hung up. I made a complaint to the spamwarning at NSW Fair Trading and 'registered' his company for him. The next day Kristen rang. I listened and then told her what had happened the previous day and what did she say about that? Another deathly silence and she also hung up. They haven't called back.

(I know we have a do not call register but there are so many exceptions I don't use it.)

Jane

[Procat]

(I know we have a do not call register but there are so many exceptions I don't use it.)

Jane

The register doesn't stop them. They are scammers so don't care about such niceties.

[mfwebb]

The "electricity board" doesn't ring me but the "gas board" does occasionally, offering me cheap deals on my gas. I don't know whether these are genuine calls or not but a little homework would tell them our village doesn't have gas. It's not a village really and it's not big enough to be called a hamlet -- so we call it an egg-let :smile5:

All the best,
Malcolm Webb
Lincoln UK

[busyglen]

After one rather hectic day last week, I answered the 'phone and was greeted by someone (also, strangely called Dave) who said he was calling "about your energy". I said I hadn't got any left and if he could tell me where to get some I would be grateful........he hung up :whistling:

Best wishes
Ann

That was a good one Ann! :) I wish I was as quick thinking.

Glenys

[Nicolina]

The "electricity board" doesn't ring me but the "gas board" does occasionally, offering me cheap deals on my gas. I don't know whether these are genuine calls or not but a little homework would tell them our village doesn't have gas. It's not a village really and it's not big enough to be called a hamlet -- so we call it an egg-let :smile5:
you don't need to have a gas supply, Malcolm. I got a call from the gas board offering me a cheaper tarrif - for my electricity. Ended up saving quite a bit when I took advantage of their offer (over £200 in the first year).

[stepives]

In the early 1990's, in the good old, bad old days of cold calling......I always got called around 6pm. Tea time/dinner time(a ploy used quite a lot).

Anyway.......I had the usual double glazing call, for what seemed the 100th time. So as I was eating my dinner, I gave the usual....'Oh really'.....'That sounds good', type stuff now and again.
This went on for nearly 45 minutes, and then he asked if I was interested in having double glazing.

'No thanks', I said......'I've had it done already'.

'You've wasted my time', he said quite angrily.

'You phoned me mate'......I replied.

He hung up on me..........how rude was that.:yes:


Steve.|cheers|

[Colin Rowledge]

If, and it's a big IF I ever get my hearing restored to the point where I can use a telephone [rather than ignore it], I plan to use use some of these responses.

It'll be fun!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Nicolina]

you are lucky, Steve. My mother got a cold call about double-glazing at 11p.m. as my father was dying in hospital. He certainly didn't get the answer he was expecting and I bet he thought twice before calling anyone else at that time of night. She's not had another call, about double glazing since (10 years).