Non-motoring > Non-existent business advertising my phone number Miscellaneous
Thread Author: Dave_ Replies: 11
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New Tue 18 Jan 11 12:23 
 Non-existent business advertising my phone number - Dave_
Bit of a strange one, this. I started getting phone calls at home before Christmas, only one or two a week, from cold-calling salespeople who thought they'd got through to a business number. They were perfectly polite when I told them it was a residential line, but I'm still getting calls every other day or so from people offering me business services.

I asked the sales rep who phoned this morning who they thought they were calling and they gave me a company name and address. I googled it and took a walk into town to find it, turns out to be an empty shop (empty since last August). This business is listing my home phone number as its only contact number on a dozen or more internet directories but nowhere else that I can find. No email address or any other numbers are listed for it.

I'm not fussed about a handful of unwanted phone calls, but is there anything I can/should do? I don't want to post the details here or I'll end up with you lot ringing me as well...
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New Tue 18 Jan 11 17:21 
 Non-existent business advertising my phone number - Zero
You wait till the mail starts pouring through the letterbox.


what did the company do? could you make money from the free advertising?
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New Tue 18 Jan 11 18:01 
 Non-existent business advertising my phone number - Dave_
Nope, the company in the directories isn't the one that moved out of the shop last year. Three or four large retailers cleared off from the town centre last summer, this shop was one of those.
Last edited by: Dave_TD {P} on Tue 18 Jan 11 at 18:03
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New Tue 18 Jan 11 18:04 
 Non-existent business advertising my phone number - Robin O'Reliant
What sort of services were they offering, bulk buy condoms, phone box business cards, uniforms etc?
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New Tue 18 Jan 11 18:35 
 Non-existent business advertising my phone number - Dave_
Nope. Butchers. The empty shop used to be an electrical superstore. Not giving any more info!
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New Tue 18 Jan 11 18:37 
 Non-existent business advertising my phone number - Stuartli
Might just be a case of listing the wrong number, perhaps differing in one of the digits.
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New Tue 18 Jan 11 18:42 
 Non-existent business advertising my phone number - Iffy
My landline is a mixture of fives and fours and one digit away from a local taxi firm.

I used to get two or three requests for a cab every week.

I'm not certain, but I suspect the taxi company used my number by mistake in a print run of cards or leaflets.

The calls died down, but I had the first one for several months a few days ago.

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New Tue 18 Jan 11 18:51 
 Non-existent business advertising my phone number - Dave_
The confusing thing is, there's no other butchers with the same name listed anywhere in the UK. And the address given is definitely the empty shop, correct down to the postcode. No sign of any works taking place in the empty shop either.
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New Tue 18 Jan 11 18:55 
 Non-existent business advertising my phone number - R.P.
Is it a Ltd Company - may be worth having a look online at Companies House....the other option is change your number, dunno if they are as flexible as they used to be but they may do a freebie if you explain the circumstances with some evidence. They changed mine when the BBC boradcast my home phone number (I'd provided it so that they could phone me to do an interview)
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New Tue 18 Jan 11 18:56 
 Non-existent business advertising my phone number - Runfer D'Hills
Probably callers looking for a cheap ham shank.
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New Tue 18 Jan 11 18:59 
 Non-existent business advertising my phone number - Zero
One off the bone?
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New Tue 18 Jan 11 19:11 
 Non-existent business advertising my phone number - Dave_
Nothing registered at Companies House. A quick google search for my telephone provider plus "change my number" reveals lots of forum posts containing phrases like "useless cretins" and "I should have stayed with BT", so I'm guessing that option is a non-starter.
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