The man who got revenge on cold calling menace

Wayne Naylor's company was the victim of a barrage of spam calls, which were made to his company day and night. His ski travel firm, Brentaski, was even missing calls from clients because the cold calls were tying up the phone lines. Naylor was climbing the walls with frustration, when it suddenly occurred to him how he could get his revenge.

Wigan Today reported that Naylor, a 54-year-old from Wigan, decided to invoice the cold calling company for his time - at £60 per call. The company refused to pay his invoices, so he took them to court. The court agreed that the company had to pay up.

He told the Daily Mail that in each instance the company had claimed that they never made the call, so he said recording the conversation was essential in order to prove it had taken place.
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Can you do it?

This court case itself doesn't set a legal precedence (because it was decided in a county court and it doesn't have the power to set a precedent). However, it demonstrates that this approach can work.

And it's not just something that businesses can try, because back in 2012 a man from Sunbury-on-Thames in Surrey took a similar approach in order to claim £195 from the PPI reclaiming firm that had been plaguing him with calls.

He was particularly angry because they had been calling despite the fact he had registered with the telephone preference service - which should have stopped all these calls - so he came up with his solution.

During the next call, he told the firm he would be billing them £10 a minute for his wasted time. The next time they called, they were on the line for 19 and a half minutes, so he billed them for £195. This victim also recorded his calls to prove his side of the story. When they refused to pay, he started court proceedings. The firm agreed to pay before the matter went to court.

He said anyone could do this. His advice was to get the company details as soon as the firm becomes a nuisance. Then on the next call tell them they will be billed for their time - and record the call. If you are called again, play along to build up the length of the call, then invoice them, If they don't pay after 30 days you can issue proceedings in the small claims court.

But what do you think? Would you consider this approach to get revenge on cold callers? Let us know in the comments.