One in the eye for the DCA's - Avoiding harrassing phone calls if you dont want to change your numbers

[summanotre]

Ive mentioned this service on a couple of posts, but I thought Id post it here in the hope it will help people who are experiencing distressing phone calls (from anyone) at all times of the day and night.

 

www.yac.com offer a free telephone service whereby when you sign up you will be given 070 number which is an all-encompassing number, therefore allowing you to screen the calls you receive - but if you only give the number to the DCA's they will constantly be phoning a number where they will receive no reply. All you have to do is not check the answering service - so no distressing phone calls from DCA's. Yac's site states:

 

'Instead of having to give your contacts your home number, mobile number, work number, and fax number, you can give them just one number, your Yac Number!

 

Please note that 070 personal numbering services are not guaranteed to be accessible when called from outside the UK – therefore are only suitable if your callers are based in the UK'

 

 

It is available to private individuals and businesses - I was advised of the service a bit late after changing my phone number 3 times. However, I'd never notified any of the DCA's or OC that I changed my phone number, so I cant enjoy the effects of Yac on DCA's. However, I find it a useful service for a variety of things. You dont even need a phone to use the service! It has provisions for email also.

 

The absolute beauty of it is that the caller has to pay 42.533ppm excluding VAT; what a sting in the tail - I suspect thats what funds the free service.

 

If you're interested check out the website and look at the bottom right hand corner of the home page where it has the link for the personal service www.yac.com

 

They've got a call queing service but that incurs a charge. I would have really liked that service giving the yac number to all the DCA's so if more than one called the number at the same time, they'd be told they were in a que, hear piped in que music and when they reach the top of the que they'd get an answerphone - thats on a 30 day free trial atm - such a shame I didnt have knowledge of this sooner

 

On their testimonial page, I have noticed that one testimonial is a technical officer at BT.

I highly recommend the service .

 

 

Oh I forgot to mention so Im adding this in edit - as well as screening calls, you can bar phone numbers so that they go straight to voicemail. You can also analyise the calls you've received so you can see how many times a DCA called and which number the call was from. Please note, there may be a charge for email to fax, name call screening and the call history report, but I havent needed these services so I dont know about that one. If your interested just make an enquiry to Yac. I hope this all helps.

Edited May 28, 2009 by summanotre
extra info

[Conniff]

Then again - if you don't give them any number they can't call you anyway, as long as your not in the book.

[summanotre]

Yes agreed. But all of my 3 previous phone numbers were ex-directory - each OC passed on my telephone details until I got savvy and after the last change I have only communicated in writing.

 

The point is that if you do use yac the DCA's can no longer continually harass you using a phone number that you dont want to change just because of them (thread title states this) - if your phone is not already a witheld number just dial 141 (to hide your number) when you get through to the DCA you give the yac number and tell them its your new contact number. It goes straight onto the computer. And as you have notified them that you have changed your phone number to a legitimate number the call will be logged and therefore you have 'assisted' them with your account.

 

Personally, I would have liked to have used the service just for the pure satisfaction that some brainless twit from a DCA would keep calling this number, always getting a voicemail message and paying 42.533ppm excludingVAT for the privelege, especially when a request has been made to put all communication in writing that has been ignored by the DCA.

 

[buzby]

In addition to YAC, you can also use Redstone, Flextel, Skype, and a slew of VOIP providers who will issue you with a virtual telephone number that can even be set up to reject anonymous calls, and/or sent the recorded call to you as an MP£/WMA file to listen at you leisure.

 

If anyone supplies their number as part of an application process, they need to remember that this number will be passed on to anyone down the line should the firm wish to contact you or if the account falls into arrears. I originally used to put Ex-D when it asked for a phone number, for those that insisted on a number, I gave them an 07050 or 0870 alternative. That shut them up, and my home phone remained unsullied by their attempts to sell me more items.

 

Best yet, when you DO get a call offering to 'upgrade' your mobile (or whatever) you KNOW it is a [problem], and they've simply random dialled your number.

[summanotre]

Thats great - so many! which company gives you an 0870 number & what is the charge to the caller?

[buzby]

Flextel, but these will be ending shortly....

[summanotre]

Oh bum!

 

Do you know which one charges the most for callers? *snigger*

[buzby]

There's still 070 numbers (for now) - there's no revenue share, but it does cos them a fair bit to call you, and I think I earned almost £40 over the years just by keeping them talking...

[summanotre]

I checked flextel because I was intrigued, so the 0701 & 0705 are for personal users - but 0844, 0870 & 0871 are free for business users - those may come in handy for people who run their own businesses.

 

I think Im going to check what their rules are for free business numbers...

 

Wouldnt it be funny if you gave out an 08XX number as your business/work number & 070X as your mobile number (they do resemble mobile numbers)? Theyd be going round in circles and getting charged through the nose for it - Oh I soooo wanna do that!

Edited May 30, 2009 by summanotre

[buzby]

Ah - you do appreciate what I've set up then. Dince the system also detects anonymous numbers and allows you to send them directly to voicemail unanswered or transferred to a 'real' phone, it is a very clever 'free' service.

 

CAG was to investicgate offering a branded service for members (or some form of 'deal') but after 2 years nothing was heard of it....

[summanotre]

Indeed I do - so smart! Having read your post that intrigued me, I checked out Flextel & it appears I can still have an 08XX and have it set up to divert calls to the Yac number (the one that costs the caller 42.533pm ex vat) & on top of that there is great flexibility with both account providers (or probably all similar providers) to adjust your services to suit you!

 

So if Ive got this right, DCA's will pay for the call to the 08XX number then pay 42.533ppm for the call from the flextel 08XX to the yac 07XX, thereby paying 2 charges??

 

Sweeeeeet if thats the case! Sweet in any case!

 

Its a shame CAG have'nt done the branded thing - I for one wouldnt have minded paying a reasonable set up fee

[buzby]

No - there's no doubling up. I discontinued YAC as there were reliability issues, but Flextel has never let me down. A double divert that you outlined may well fail, as there is a limit on the number of times a divert can take place, and in any event a DCA will only pay the billed rate for the for the first call - nothing more.

 

Interestingly, Flextel will also provide you with the initial CLI of any Withheld number calling you, the last few sigits are replaced with XXXs.

[summanotre]

No doubling up? What a shame! Still in DCA's eyes you will have provided 2 phone numbers they can call you on.

 

What sort of reliability issues were they with Yac?

 

Ive not had my yac number for a very long time - so far no problems, but its not used that much - mostly emergency back up.

 

'Interestingly, Flextel will also provide you with the initial CLI of any Withheld number calling you, the last few sigits are replaced with XXXs.'

 

So you cant see all of number? Do any providers allow you to see the whole of the witheld numbers? Although my understanding is that you have the choice to activate a service to redirect witheld numbers to where you want such as voicemail where they have to identify themselves.

 

And do you mean that if a DCA phoned one of the yac or flextel numbers they would only be charged once but if they phone you after the first call on a regular basis they wont be charged for any subseqent calls?

 

Or have I got that screwy?

Edited May 30, 2009 by summanotre

[buzby]

YAC was prone to fail when it had multiple calls arriving to the same destination, or there was silence as it failed to route the inbound call anywhere useful. It didn;t happen all the time, and no recognised pattern to the failure could be ascertained, but it wasn't a major concern.

 

As a telco, Flextel would be in breach of their T&Cs with the regulator if they provided in full a number that was withheld/private, as it is not meant to be displayed. The fact you get a location it a considerable step forward, and keeps them on the right side of the rules.

 

As you may know, there are TWO number streams, the actual line number the call comes from, and a 'presentation' (or virtual) number that is shown to the recipent as part of the call set up process. In this latter instance the call recipient would see perhaps an 0800 or 0870 number to call back on - another scenatio with digital PABXs is that when using ISDN, the PABX inserts the first part of the line number, with the PABX inptting the last 2 or 3 digits, so that the CLI will provide a number that can be dialled back successfully. In these cases, the actual line number used isn't very useful.

 

How can you get access to these numbers? YOu need a digital connection like ISDN30 which provides a data channel and will provide ALL the data, and tell your system not to display it if flagged as withheld or private. Alternatively, when Skype opened their Skype In service, all nunbers were shown regardless of the 'withheld' flag, but someone complained and they stopped it. Some SIP protocol VOIP providers find it difficult to suppress these numbers so is a useful compromise!

[summanotre]

I was surprised to find quite a few companies offering similar services when I was looking for a wifi hotspot in milton keynes.

 

www.inweb.co.uk/ is an informative site.

 

www.oncetell.co.uk/ is a similar site to those weve been discussing although I was pleased to see that they can provide free temporary phone numbers - one Ive added to my favourites. You could have so much fun with those!

 

www.rectel.co.uk (are they havin a laugh!!) Bit of an unfortunate name *ahem* but they also supply similar services and a telephone call recording service - but for this one make sure you read all the FAQ's as some costs are involved - it depends on whether you dont mind paying per phone call to retrieve the recordings compared to a personal recorder at home.

 

They are introducing a subscription service whereby when you are called on the rectel phone () the caller will pay for the call whilst you are recording the conversation - but as yet there are no details about the subscription service bit.