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Ofcom warns industry as new silent calls rules come into force
January 31, 2011
Ofcom has warned industry to comply with new regulations to clamp down on silent calls or face enforcement action, which could include fines of up to £2million.
From tomorrow, 1 February, new rules come into force which are designed to prevent consumers being harassed by repeated silent calls from the same company.
Ofcom has written to the call centre industry spelling out the regulations which place restrictions on the use of automated dialling equipment.
Complaints about silent calls
Ofcom received over 9000 complaints in 2010 about silent calls. Where consumers have complained to Ofcom about silent calls – and told us how often they are receiving them – over 70 per cent say that they have received two or more calls in a day from the same company. These silent calls were often over a period of days or even weeks.
Ofcom believes that this is mainly due to technology used by call centre operators to detect answer machines. This can mistake a ‘live’ consumer for an answering machine and cut off the call without the person hearing anything, resulting in a silent call.
Silent calls can cause significant distress to consumers which can be made worse by receiving these calls repeatedly, leading to some people believing they are being specifically targeted.
The new rules will prevent a company using answer machine detection equipment more than once a day if an answer machine is ‘detected’ on the first attempt. This would mean that consumers currently worst affected should no longer receive repeated silent calls from the same company over the course of a day.
Enforcement action
Ofcom will continue to monitor complaints about silent and abandoned calls and expects to see an overall reduction in the number of complaints it receives. Ofcom will also continue with its programme of enforcement and may take action against companies found to be in breach of the rules.
Ofcom has fined nine companies for making silent and abandoned calls:
Abbey National – £30,000
Equidebt – £36,000
Barclaycard – £50,000 (the then maximum)
Space Kitchens – £45,000
Bracken Bay Kitchens – £40,000
Toucan – £32,500
Carphone Warehouse – £35,000
Ultimate Credit Services – £45,000
Complete Credit Management – £5000
Last September, Parliament approved an increase in the maximum financial penalty available to Ofcom to use to combat silent and abandoned calls, from £50,000 to £2 million. Ofcom intends to use the full extent of the new financial penalty if appropriate.
Ed Richards, Ofcom Chief Executive, said: “Silent and abandoned calls can cause significant consumer harm. Ofcom has given sufficient warnings to companies about silent calls and is ready to take appropriate action against those companies who continue to break the rules.”
The new rules can be found at: http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/con...lls/statement/.
The letter to industry can be found at: http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/bin.../acs_users.pdf
ENDS
NOTES FOR EDITORS
1. Advice for consumers on silent calls can be found at: http://consumers.ofcom.org.uk/files/...7/nuisance.pdf.
2. An abandoned call is where a connection is established but terminated by its originator in circumstances where the call is answered by a live individual. An abandoned call generally occurs when there are not enough call centre agents available to answer every call made by a company (i.e. a call is ‘dropped’ as a result of over dialling). Ofcom expects that when this occurs, an information message should be played stating who has made the call.
3. A silent call is a type of abandoned call where the person hears nothing on answering the phone and has no means of establishing whether anyone is at the other end. Any type of silent call is almost certain to cause inconvenience and is very likely to cause annoyance to the called person. A silent call can be the result of a company not including an information message for calls that it ‘drops’ or as a result of answer machine detection technology.
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How to protect yourself from unwanted phone calls - Yahoo! News UK
Yahoo news about how to protect against unwarranted calls.
January 31, 2011
Ofcom has warned industry to comply with new regulations to clamp down on silent calls or face enforcement action, which could include fines of up to £2million.
From tomorrow, 1 February, new rules come into force which are designed to prevent consumers being harassed by repeated silent calls from the same company.
Ofcom has written to the call centre industry spelling out the regulations which place restrictions on the use of automated dialling equipment.
Complaints about silent calls
Ofcom received over 9000 complaints in 2010 about silent calls. Where consumers have complained to Ofcom about silent calls – and told us how often they are receiving them – over 70 per cent say that they have received two or more calls in a day from the same company. These silent calls were often over a period of days or even weeks.
Ofcom believes that this is mainly due to technology used by call centre operators to detect answer machines. This can mistake a ‘live’ consumer for an answering machine and cut off the call without the person hearing anything, resulting in a silent call.
Silent calls can cause significant distress to consumers which can be made worse by receiving these calls repeatedly, leading to some people believing they are being specifically targeted.
The new rules will prevent a company using answer machine detection equipment more than once a day if an answer machine is ‘detected’ on the first attempt. This would mean that consumers currently worst affected should no longer receive repeated silent calls from the same company over the course of a day.
Enforcement action
Ofcom will continue to monitor complaints about silent and abandoned calls and expects to see an overall reduction in the number of complaints it receives. Ofcom will also continue with its programme of enforcement and may take action against companies found to be in breach of the rules.
Ofcom has fined nine companies for making silent and abandoned calls:
Abbey National – £30,000
Equidebt – £36,000
Barclaycard – £50,000 (the then maximum)
Space Kitchens – £45,000
Bracken Bay Kitchens – £40,000
Toucan – £32,500
Carphone Warehouse – £35,000
Ultimate Credit Services – £45,000
Complete Credit Management – £5000
Last September, Parliament approved an increase in the maximum financial penalty available to Ofcom to use to combat silent and abandoned calls, from £50,000 to £2 million. Ofcom intends to use the full extent of the new financial penalty if appropriate.
Ed Richards, Ofcom Chief Executive, said: “Silent and abandoned calls can cause significant consumer harm. Ofcom has given sufficient warnings to companies about silent calls and is ready to take appropriate action against those companies who continue to break the rules.”
The new rules can be found at: http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/con...lls/statement/.
The letter to industry can be found at: http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/bin.../acs_users.pdf
ENDS
NOTES FOR EDITORS
1. Advice for consumers on silent calls can be found at: http://consumers.ofcom.org.uk/files/...7/nuisance.pdf.
2. An abandoned call is where a connection is established but terminated by its originator in circumstances where the call is answered by a live individual. An abandoned call generally occurs when there are not enough call centre agents available to answer every call made by a company (i.e. a call is ‘dropped’ as a result of over dialling). Ofcom expects that when this occurs, an information message should be played stating who has made the call.
3. A silent call is a type of abandoned call where the person hears nothing on answering the phone and has no means of establishing whether anyone is at the other end. Any type of silent call is almost certain to cause inconvenience and is very likely to cause annoyance to the called person. A silent call can be the result of a company not including an information message for calls that it ‘drops’ or as a result of answer machine detection technology.
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How to protect yourself from unwanted phone calls - Yahoo! News UK
Yahoo news about how to protect against unwarranted calls.
