topic Re: Blocking a nuisance caller on my TalkTalk landline in Home Phone

Blocking a nuisance caller on my TalkTalk landline

johne53 — Sun, 07 Jan 2024 17:20:29 GMT

I've read a few things online about how to block a nuisance caller - including dialling certain things such as 1572, or dialling 14258, or *60 or enabling something called Callsafe. I tried them all except Callsafe but none of them worked. Will Callsafe work and is it a free service or payable?

Re: Blocking a nuisance caller on my TalkTalk landline

fr8ys — Sun, 07 Jan 2024 17:44:07 GMT

This will answer your queries.

https://community.talktalk.co.uk/t5/Articles/How-to-use-CallSafe/ta-p/2204789

Re: Blocking a nuisance caller on my TalkTalk landline

johne53 — Sun, 07 Jan 2024 17:57:50 GMT

Thanks fr8ys - unfortunately, CallSafe isn't enabled on my line and it doesn't seem to get offered either. I get offered something called Supersafe but that'll cost me an extra £5 per month ☹️

Re: Blocking a nuisance caller on my TalkTalk landline

Gliwmaeden2 — Sun, 07 Jan 2024 18:57:55 GMT

@johne53, you need to tick a box in My Account to have Last Caller Barring - now known as Selective Call Rejection.

https://community.talktalk.co.uk/t5/Articles/Using-Selective-call-rejection-Last-Caller-Barring/ta-p/2222798

You can manually add any number, not just the last one.

It is free. You then need to dial up 14258 and follow the instructions.

It won't just work by dialling the numbers, unless you have selected the choice and allowed the My Account page to UPDATE.

Supersafe is not relevant for this purpose (it's more like Antivirus software etc).

Re: Blocking a nuisance caller on my TalkTalk landline

johne53 — Mon, 08 Jan 2024 08:27:40 GMT

Many thanks Gliwmaeden2 - I found it now. I'll need to give it some thought as it seems to require me to add numbers I don't want to block as well as the one I want to block. Otherwise the unblocked numbers end up getting screened IIUC?

Re: Blocking a nuisance caller on my TalkTalk landline

Gliwmaeden2 — Mon, 08 Jan 2024 08:32:53 GMT

Call Safe and Selective Call Rejection are separate settings (& I don't think that you can use the two together anyway).

With Selective Call Rejection you only input calls you wish to bar, @johne53.

Re: Blocking a nuisance caller on my TalkTalk landline

johne53 — Mon, 08 Jan 2024 09:58:38 GMT

Yeah, this is where it's all going wrong for me. According to the article you linked to, I need to select Network & Connections and then choose My Telephone settings. But in my case I'm having to choose an intermediate stage between them (called My Home Connection). And when I get to the telephone settings there's no option for Selective Call Rejection. The only option showing is to return to My Account.

If I hunt around a bit I can find my CallSafe page but up to now I haven't found any option for Selective Call Rejection 😧

Re: Blocking a nuisance caller on my TalkTalk landline

johne53 — Thu, 18 Jan 2024 13:11:01 GMT

Groan... I couldn't find Selective Call Rejection so I went through the process of setting up CallSafe and it worked pretty well - until a few minutes ago when a supermarket tried to send me a security code for some online shopping (which didn't come through of course...)

So I entered my settings and disabled CallSafe temporarily which allowed the code to come through - BUT - I then re-enabled CallSafe and you guessed it... it's forgotten all the numbers I originally entered!!!

Could some kind soul give me some steps for finding Selective Call Rejection?

Re: Blocking a nuisance caller on my TalkTalk landline

Anonymous — Thu, 18 Jan 2024 13:15:14 GMT

Good afternoon,

I've included a Help Guide below.

Using Selective call rejection (Last Caller Barrin... - TalkTalk Help & Support

Thanks

Michelle

Re: Blocking a nuisance caller on my TalkTalk landline

johne53 — Thu, 18 Jan 2024 14:18:34 GMT

Thanks Michelle but I'm missing something here... I've attached a screenshot showing what I see in My Telephone Settings. I can see an option to block withheld numbers but I can't see anything relating to Selective Call Rejection (BTW I missed the topmost bit off the screenshot because it showed my telephone number)

My telephone settings

Re: Blocking a nuisance caller on my TalkTalk landline

Anonymous — Thu, 18 Jan 2024 14:12:03 GMT

Hi john,

I've just noticed the below in the Help Guide, are you using CallSafe at all?

Note - If you already use CallSafe then the Last Caller Barring feature does not display in My Account and you won't have the option to select it.

Thanks

Michelle

Re: Blocking a nuisance caller on my TalkTalk landline

johne53 — Thu, 18 Jan 2024 14:20:07 GMT

Hi Michelle - hopefully I'm wrong about this but AFAICT if a customer's account package contains the CallSafe feature it can't also contain Selective Call Rejection. It makes no difference whether CallSafe is enabled or disabled 😢

Re: Blocking a nuisance caller on my TalkTalk landline

johne53 — Fri, 19 Jan 2024 10:33:05 GMT

If someone can post a screenshot showing where Selective Call Rejection can be found, I'll disable CallSafe here and see if it'll then appear. Many thanks.

Re: Blocking a nuisance caller on my TalkTalk landline

Gliwmaeden2 — Fri, 19 Jan 2024 11:36:03 GMT

You need to remove Callsafe completely, @johne53 and update the page after making changes.

Also confirm changes.

You will lose your list of approved callers etc.

Only then will Selective Call Rejection show among options. Tick, update and confirm.

Re: Blocking a nuisance caller on my TalkTalk landline

Gliwmaeden2 — Fri, 19 Jan 2024 11:51:52 GMT

I'm not going to dig deeper into my own My Account than this for fear of resetting something inadvertently, @johne53.

If you still have trouble adding or removing a service via My Account, call 03451 720088 or use Chat. They come to the rescue when eg calls boosts can't be removed from My Account by the customer.

NB, you may find it listed as Last Caller Barring.

Re: Blocking a nuisance caller on my TalkTalk landline

johne53 — Fri, 19 Jan 2024 12:04:46 GMT

I understand @Gliwmaeden2 - that's exactly how I lost all my various numbers!

At the end of the day I might need to make a call or do an online chat because CallSafe just seems to come with my package. It's not removable AFAICT (which is a pity... 'cos at the moment, it ain't very good 😢 )

It'd be great tho' if there was some way to disable CallSafe temporarily without having to lose all the data you've entered. It beggars belief that nobody picked up on this in testing...

Re: Blocking a nuisance caller on my TalkTalk landline

fr8ys — Fri, 19 Jan 2024 13:54:54 GMT

I was a tester, and believe me it was mentioned many times!

Re: Blocking a nuisance caller on my TalkTalk landline

johne53 — Fri, 19 Jan 2024 14:09:19 GMT

Well please, please mention that customers are complaining about it Steve. I only lost a handful of entries but it could easily have been dozens or more! It's supposed to offer security - so it shouldn't lose a customer's data just because some situation came up where they needed to disable it briefly.

Re: Blocking a nuisance caller on my TalkTalk landline

fr8ys — Fri, 19 Jan 2024 15:27:59 GMT

A horse flogging dead (rearrange as you wish) springs to mind.

I've mentioned many times. I did have a problem with my phone a couple of years ago which meant is was disconnected from the exchange while being repaired and I lost 5 years worth of calls.

I was a pain for a while whilst people I hadn't put back in approved list called but soon sorted out.

Btw, since I've been on Call safe I haven't had 1 single spam call on my landline, so I'm pro this facility. I know it's not for everyone but it works for me.

Oh and if worried that hospitals, etc won't get through, they do as there is a white list of pre approved numbers from rich institutions so they come straight through.

Re: Blocking a nuisance caller on my TalkTalk landline

johne53 — Fri, 19 Jan 2024 16:33:10 GMT

I've also found CallSafe good for deterring spam callers but the problem in my case was that we'd some deep snow here so I needed to order some groceries online and the only retailer with a convenient delivery slot was Morrison's (not my usual provider). So once I got to their online checkout, Morrison's insisted on sending a security code to my landline. In reality I think it might've come from Morrison's bank (or maybe my credit card provider) but wherever it came from, there was no way to get my groceries delivered without it deleting all my CallSafe entries, which is stupid. So maybe that whitelist needs to include these security code providers? Or preferably, like I said earlier, users need a feature to disable CallSafe occasionally without it affecting all the numbers they've painstakingly entered. I can't even see an option to save entries or back them up.