The cold-call blockers ...sold by cold callers!

D.B. writes: My brother-in-law David was stopped on the main shopping street in Lancaster by a canvasser promoting a callblocking device supposed to stop cold calls. The canvasser obtained his phone number and he was later subjected to a hard sell in a call to his home. He has no need of any call blocker as he is registered with the Telephone Preference Service.

David is a pensioner with a learning disability and is vulnerable. We realise that legally, he has purchased this device from Do Not Call (UK) Limited, even though he has little idea how it works. What we really cannot understand is why, using his bank details, this company has not just charged the £89 cost price, but three months on it has also taken a further £98 from his bank account with no explanation nor paperwork. THE call blocker that was sold to your brother-in-law is of doubtful value. For a start, it only works if you also set up ‘caller ID’ with your phone company, so you can see who is ringing you.

Then, with the call blocker plugged in between the wall socket and phone, it is up to you to tell the blocker not to accept any more calls from numbers you do not want.

In other words, it only blocks future calls, after you have first identified them as sales calls or some other sort of nuisance. If the same caller rings you again from a different number, they will still get through to you. Technically, you could block a range of numbers, such as all international calls or all withheld numbers, but this risks blocking a call that you would want to receive.

A simple internet search found the call blocker on sale at far less than the price charged by Do Not Call (UK) Limited – but overcharging is not illegal. The real question mark is over the extra £98 lifted from David’s bank account after the company got his debit card details.

There is nothing in its terms and conditions about any such extra payment. If David has not done so himself, do contact his bank on his behalf and explain that the money was taken without his consent and should be snatched back.

This is not an isolated complaint, though. Others who have bought the call blocker for a one-off payment report they have also been told later that this is a long-term contract with further costs.

Do Not Call (UK) Limited’s boss is Luke Dean Ashbee, 31, who is known to the local council as the former premises licence holder of the Alika Nightclub, a troublespot that was the source of frequent problems for neighbours, the council and the police. He recruited students as his sales force, so it is quite possible David was targeted by one in Lancaster.

Ashbee did not respond to repeated invitations to explain the extra charges imposed on David and other customers – above the already exorbitant price of the blocking device. His company is based in Bourne- mouth. For some reason, this area is a hotbed for call blocker rip-off firms, many of which do not even go through the motions of using salesmen on the street.

John Mitchison, head of the genuine Telephone Preference Service, told me: ‘It’s ironic that a number of companies that purport to help consumers block nuisance calls are themselves making nuisance calls and breaking the law by calling members of the public registered on the TPS.’ Anyone can register free of charge to stop cold calls by contacting the TPS on 0345 070 0707.