Does the TPS (telephone preference service) really work?

Question

I still get UK based cold canvass calls and have reported some of them to the TPS. I have had no acknowedgement. Has anyone information on any cases of reported cases being followed and and offenders brought to justice?

Answer 1

The TPS certainly worked for us at our old address. Since moving, we have been lucky not to receive any "cold calls". Yet !!

One thing the TPS cannot stop is the company which uses software to just dial numbers in sequence. The company will get a lot of "non-hits", such as fax machines, computer lines, etc., but these are usually automatically discarded. Once a voice answers, bingo ! There is, unfortunately, no way to stop this.

Answer 2

You need to make sure you are ex-directory, too. Some companies use that to get numbers from without caring if you're registered with the TPS or not.

It has been known in the past for telephone companies to 'accidentally' put your number in the directory even if you have been ex-directory for years. We only noticed that this had happened to us recently when he started to receive daily calls asking us to take part in market research.

Answer 3

Yes. I no longer receive calls from UK based telemarketers at all. The few that did still call I reported. One was fined about £15,000, which is probably nothing compared to the amount of money they might have made.

Unfortunately I have started to receive calls from American based ones, who are usually very rude and don't care that they are breaking UK law.

Answer 4

Not very effectively.  It may work in a few cases, such as stopping legitimate businesses from calling, but I'm still getting nuisance and silent calls, several times a day or night mostly from the same set of numbers.

Answer 5

I don't know but the mailing preference system certainly does as it has cut out 90% of junk mail that was delivered to me.