Some of you might know that when someone leaves a message on ClaudeStreet's 'answering machine' it gets emailed to me. I got a message today and it was just the call has ended tone, so someone's just hung up :(
Doing a 1471 told me that I was called by 0870 011 04 15. This intrigued me, so I searched on the web for the number to try and find out who they were. I couldn't find anything, so called them back...
You have been contacted by Excell Contact Centre when you were not available when we called. We are working on behalf of a client who wishes us to speak to you regarding an offer or service they provide. We do not need to speak to you at this time as we will call you back at a future date. Thank you for calling.
That cost like 5p to find that out and will have probably made the call centre about 2p. So, there you go, I've decided it's my public duty to tell anyone who now searches for the number on the net (and finds this site - because there aren't any others) what you'll get if you call the number, so you don't have to, and won't line the pockets of the direct sales people.
I'm now seriously considering paying BT £1.50 a month for Caller ID, so when a call comes through I can blacklist them if I want and direct them to some humourous time wasting exercise. Like 'me' answering and saying "Hi, one second my hands are full" and then just leaving them for as long as it takes for them to bugger off. The joy of this is that I don't even have to know it's happening, and no phones need ring - it'll just happen in the background :-)
Of course I could do other things like divert voicemail to people in the house depending on who it is who's calling :-) 'tis only a pint of beer a month... hmmm...
These are other ways of writing the number which you might have searched for: 08700110415, 0870 0110415. Edit: you might also search for Excel Contact Centre, 'cause it sounds similar...
Update: After the comments posted earlier today by an Excell employee, I've been politely asked to edit/remove some of the comments to the blog.
I've also taken the decision to close further open comments to this post.
If you think you've got something to add to the discussion that might be useful, feel free to email me with it at ivebeencoldcalled@bloged.co.uk. I'll then review it by hand and add it to the post if I feel it doesn't contain information which Excell might consider commercially sensitive.