Double glazing sales calls on your mobile?

You may have already heard about this but, early next week apparently, 15 million UK mobiles will be on a directory which will mean that anyone with time & £1 to spare will be able to contact the owners of those numbers. It’s easy to unsubscribe but, again apparently, it must be done before the beginning of next week to make sure that you are ex directory. If you, like me, have an ex-directory, number witheld landline & subscribe to TPS (ah, bliss, no more double glazing sales calls as I start serving up dinner) you may want to suggest it to your friends and family who have UK mobiles or they could be swamped by unsolicited messages and calls. Removal is recommended by the BBC - see link HERE

To remove your number click on the link below, you'll need your mobile phone with you to do this as they text you a code
1, http://www.118800.co.uk/
2, Click on ‘Ex Directory’ at top right hand side of page, from there it’s straight forward (apparently).

Alternatively, you can text 'E' to 118800 from your mobile, they send you an SMS......... Funnily enough, I've sent them an 'E' today from both my UK mobile phones - have I had an SMS back? No, I haven't. So I've already drafted my email to the Information Commissioner's Office I'll hang fire until lunchtime tomorrow & then send it if I haven't had a response.

I emailed about this to some of my friends - one of them came back with the comment that by contacting the company in any way you were merely validating your mobile number & what happens if later on, they sell their whole database, complete with your validated number? His suggestion was just never to answer a call where the number is not already in your phone book. So, two different suggestions for dealing with mobile calls you may not want - the choice is yours.

UPDATE 17/07

I had tried emailing the Information Commissioner to complain but a) you have to fill in a long form & b) you have to have contacted the original company first & failed to get any result. Typical bureaucratic toothless talking shop it would appear - no wonder the govt are so light hearted about the continual losing of data - there seems to be no real punishment for flouting all the data/information protection laws.

So I emailed Working Lunch instead. They have had the 118800 boss on the program again - a different boss this time - and he explained how the new singing, dancing 118800 site would be all things to all men (and women). He also said that they were working their way through the 1,000s of opt out requests they've had. See the interview HERE