Ever had those phone calls where as soon as you answer the caller hangs up? Well over the past couple of months I’ve been getting a lot of them on my mobile.

My car insurance was due for renewal end the end of July so I was expecting the occasional letter, email or one-off phone call. I was not, however, expecting the harassment I received from Kwik Fit Insurance.

Between Friday 16th July and Wednesday 4th August, my mobile recorded 24 calls from their call centre. There may have been more that I’ve deleted from my call history but, still, 24 is a lot!

My general policy on dealing with a number I don’t recognise is to ignore it at first, Google it to find out who it is then if they ring back I’ll decide whether or not to take it.

This was exactly what I did and, as it was coming up to renewal time, I decided to answer the next call, but it was dropped. I thought I’d give them another chance with their next call but, again, the call was dropped without any human conversation.

When I’d found out they basically hounded their potential customers with phone calls, most of which were apparently dropped before anyone could get past “hello”, I took the step of adding Kwik Fit to my phone’s blocked list.

That means Kwik Fit have joined forces with people I don’t like along with other Call Centre Wankers, as my other half affectionately calls them. Such calls don’t even make the phone ring or vibrate. The only indication I have to the fact they’ve called is by having a missed call notification.

Here’s the call history from my phone. As I said earlier, this may not be a complete list as I may have inadvertently deleted some from the list. And when I say ‘missed’ you can also take it as ‘ignored’!

I realised, too late unfortunately, that I should have been answering these calls to ensure they were being charged for them.

So what causes these silent phone calls and why are they so frustrating?

Silent calls are usually nothing sinister. They’re made by call centres with telephone systems that dial numbers on a list ready for agents to answer, instead of working the other way around where agents initiate phone calls themselves.

The trouble is, if the system calls more people than the agents can handle, the system drops the calls as they’re picked up.

Ofcom, the communications regulator, says that silent calls are “not only unwanted – they can also be illegal” in cases where companies make large numbers of silent calls.

I’m in two minds as to whether or not to make a complaint to Ofcom and/or to KwikFit. I think I’ll definitely get round to doing the latter. Whether or not anything comes of it, I don’t know.

But that’s not the end of it

Endsleigh, the car insurance provider I’ve actually been with for the past ten years, have recently begun silent-calling me.

My online profile on their site shows I have two current, recently renewed, policies and I’ve not had any phone messages or written correspondence from them so I can only assume their contact isn’t important. Should I go to the effort of calling them back? I don’t think so.

Being as they are my current provider, I’m not adding them to my Call Centre Wankers list. However, I have already sent them an e-mail asking someone to investigate why I’m being silent-called by them.

If it was of high importance to do with my policy I’d have thought they’d have phoned in person and left a message if I didn’t answer.

Endsleigh have always been good to me, with consistently low quotes and good support through my two claims (although they did take a little while to settle), hence why I’ve been a customer of theirs for so long. If they’re going to start harassing me too, I don’t know whether my loyalty will remain.