Nuisance calls

Recently I've been increasingly annoyed by sales calls.

We signed up to the Telephone Preference Service years ago and for many years we had peace and quiet. We had been abandoned by those wanting us to take out a loan, remortgage the house, buy double glazing, write our wills, invest in a new kitchen, etc.

The last few months have seen these calls returning and these people have picked on the wrong person.

I wait patiently for the caller to advise me of the reason for the call. I ask for the name of the company, the individual calling and their telephone number and location.

I then politely advise them that they shouldn't be calling me because we've signed up to the Telephone Preference Service and that I will be reporting the company for not following the appropriate procedures.

When apologies are offered I am grateful but advise that this will not change my decision to report the company.

When they advise me they'll remove my details from their list, I tell them that removing me won't solve the problem it's their processes that need changing.

The last unwanted call I received was from a company trying to promote voice over internet phone (VOIP) calls.

I went through my usual routine but with a difference. This time I followed through with my threat to report the offence. This is easily done with a visit to the TPS website.

Today I received a letter from TPS, which wasn't unexpected. Having complained before I knew this would be a letter advising that the complaint was received and would be processed.

It wasn't. The letter said "We have no record of you on our database."

Er.