Doreen has strong views on cold callers. She says:- I tend to regard these people as invading my space and I think that more should be done to stamp out cold calling.

We are registered with the Telephone Preference Service., I get fewer calls than I used to but there are still some cold callers.  I like to tell them THIS IS A BARRED LINE GET OFF IT!

I do say it quite curtly! If they don’t put the phone down straightaway then my follow-up is I will get your company fined. That stops them.

Before we registered on the Telephone Preference Service, I used to have several strategies for dealing with cold callers. One of my favourites was telling them they had rung a crime scene and I needed their number for further action! That stopped that call dead.