I seem to have had an increase in unwanted marketing calls recently, mostly from automated messages telling me I can cancel all my debts if I press 2 on my phone (even though I’m normally listening to an naswerphone message).  Some even say “this is not a marketing call” yet when you call them back their automated messagse says it WAS  a marketing call.  So even they can’t make up their minds.

I used to get hounded by mobile phone companies but some of the claims they were making were torn apart very quickly.  One company called and said I should buy their all new singing and dancing phone with a camera on so that when I was using it to call someone I could see them as well and they could see me.  When I asked what if the other person hasn’t got one of their new fangled camera phones, they said that was still OK, they could still see me and I could still see them, although when I asked how, the phone went strangely quiet. 

Then there was Sky.  Yes, the satellite TV company called Sky, who just basically told me lies from start to finish.

First they proclaimed that if I didn’t sign up to their service I would “lose my TV”.  I asked why and they said because everything is going digital.  I said I had Freeview, they said I would still need to sign up to them and their service was better anyway.  I asked them to tell me what good programmes I could watch then.  They could not name one single good show, in fact the salesman couldn’t name ANY show on ANY of Sky TV‘s channels.

One thing you can do is challenge the company calling to send you the information they have on you under the Data Protection Act.  They are legally obliged to do that when you ask.  When I asked Sky, they said they couldn’t.  When I asked what was stopping them from printing it out and posting it to me, first of all it was lack of printer, then it was lack of envelopes and then it was they couldn’t afford to buy a stamp!

Makes you wonder just how they afford all those TV rights!