Wednesday 2 August 2017

Targeting the elderly.

The number of calls offering me much needed work on my home is fast becoming a real nuisance.
I am aware of being targeted in my status as a single old woman living in an area well known for its prosperous inhabitants.
I am now careful about how often I pick the phone up...and I leave many calls on my landline unanswered.
The calls though now are coming on my mobile phone from other mobile phones which I do answer as sometimes it's a friend with a new phone!
Yesterday's call was on a slightly different theme.
A young woman called Holly insisted that I needed my cavity walls inspected...
What cavity walls? She attempted to lecture me on this subject until I stopped her by informing her that my walls are stone. She insisted that all walls have cavities and as "they " were working in my area this week I could get it much cheaper than it should be.
Oh dear! Do they really think they can scare or bribe us into doing jobs which are not needed?
This weeks calls have covered my solar tiles again with much the same message...they just happened to be working in my area.
I'm afraid us old single women are being targeted, especially if we live in a desirable area.
Having almost fallen for one of these earlier this year I know how persuasive they can be.
So I am now trying to make everyone else aware of this . It's too easy to trust people on the phone who seem to be helping us.
The number of new boilers I've been offered are legion.
I am occasionally tempted to call their bluffs... but there really is no point..
I am still capable of fixing my own problems as they arise. Our local tradesmen are wonderful...no need for someone from up country to arrive to sort out solar panels, cavity walls , boilers and all the other building works they can "cure"
Old women be aware....we are being targeted. Time to fight back!


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

4 comments:

Nancy Wallace said...

We've managed to reduce the number of unwanted sales calls by putting a block on all calls where the number is withheld unless we've added the particular number to an exemption list. On the cavity wallls call I feel sorry for the call centre worker given such poor training that they can say something so untrue as 'all walls have cavities'. When we lived in a 17th century timber frame cottage, where the timber frame was infilled partly with wattle and daub, I had someone on the doorstep trying to sell cavity wall insulation. He did not believe me when I told him we had no cavities in our single layer walls, even where there was brick, he didn't believe me. Eventually he gave up and continue to try the neighbouring houses - all of which were similar to ours. His ignorance would not have helped his potential sales that day.

Ray Barnes said...

My luck seems to have changed (dare I say) and my nuisance phone calls are down to less than 6 a month.
The latest unwanted caller was last evening, on my doorstep.
A young man informed me that although my double-glazed windows were obviously not very old (ha!), I might like to consider upgrading them.
No thanks I said, failing to mention that my windows are in fact 25 years old.
What next? A chimney sweep for my non-existent chimney, or maybe cheap insurance for my equally non-existent car.

UKViewer said...

It is the same here. Living in a Victorian, brick built,single skinned terrace, we don't have cavity walls, as a neighbour found out when he got someone to fill his supposed cavities. There was nowhere for the material to go,so the contractor, wisely advised him to let well alone. If we want such insulation, we'd have to board out the inside walls to be filled, and reduce the size of our rooms while we do it. No chance of that.

While I have managed to reduce the number of calls by being ex-directory and refusing to provide my phone number on web sites, and registering with the TPS, some random calls come through. I always report them to the Ombudsman hotline. I have thought about call blocking, but my provider charges for the service and being a bit tight, I won't pay and extra £10 a month for it.

I have even had cold callers at the front door, who are from companies, who just happen to be working in our area...... I find that I need to be very rude to get rid of them. I also report such callers to the local police team, so that they can put out warnings to local house holders.

UKViewer said...

Just as an aside,recently an individual selling double glazing came to the door and criticised our porch and double glazing installed just two years ago, as being old fashioned and out of date and failing modern fire safety standards as the windows, he said,don't open outwards??? His eyesight was obviously defective, because one of those very windows was open from the bottom, fully in his vision. I recommended specsavers to him :)