I wrote earlier this month about the plague of cold calls that I had been receiving from Contact4 who hide behind a variety of phone numbers (eg 08445560022, 08445560020 and 016131787000) in order to evade call blocking.
I had, at the time, raised a formal complaint with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO).
I have now received a written response from the ICO. The ICO confirm that Cobntact4 has breached the requirements of the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003.
So far so good!
The ICO then goes on to say that the Commissioner has no powers to punish an organisation for breach of the regulations, all that he can do is write to Contact4 reminding them of their obligations.
The ICO have written to Contact4.
Seemingly Contact4 have to continue to make a pain in the arse of themselves, before the ICO will pass on my complaint to the Regulatory Action Division.
Clearly this is not a system designed to help the individual complainant.
My question therefore is this:
What is the point of the regulations, the Commissioner and the ICO if they will not enforce the regulations?
I sent the ICO a link to this post today, together with the following questions:
"Thousands of people are being plagued on a daily basis by Contact4 (do a Google on them, or their phone numbers), why do you sit back and do nothing (ie merely write to them "reminding them of their obligations")?
What is the point of the regulations, the Commissioner and the ICO if they will not enforce the regulations?
Kind regards
Ken Frost"
Showing posts with label ico. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ico. Show all posts
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Thursday, November 08, 2007
Contact4
Whilst the Treasury, Bank of England, FSA and assorted financial experts argue amongst themselves as to the causes, cures and effects of the current credit crunch and debt crisis that is swamping the UK, they may care to consider the consequences of this to the people in the street.
There are finance companies and call centres that happily cold call thousands of people a day trying to foist unwanted, unnecessary and unwise financial products onto them. They use times of financial uncertainty to their advantage.
Whilst those of us who are financially literate can easily dismiss these calls/offers, as one would swat an annoying fly, there are many in the UK who are not financially literate and who are easy prey for these odious people.
Allow me to provide you with my own personal experience of the type of organisation that operates in this field.
Over the past four weeks or so I have been swamped with cold calls from one particular call centre operating in Scotland, called Contact4. They claim the following:
"Our team of Contact Service Consulting Specialists bring unparalleled experience and deliver the highest standards in both the Inbound - Outbound Industry.
Services provided by Contact4 are underpinned by 4 key principals: Passion, Decisiveness, High Standards and Respect."
The cold calls that I have received from this group claim to be "courtesy calls" on behalf of two finance companies, one of them being Smarter Loans (oddly enough the owner of Contact4, Pearse Flynn, is also Chairman of Smarter Loans).
I have on numerous occasions said quite directly, at the beginning of the call, "no thanks" and put the phone down.
Does this stop them?
No!
The fact that I have been receiving the calls in the first place is rather troublesome:
1 I am ex directory
2 I have not in the last year applied for any credit, nor am I financially distressed, nor am I looking for a loan or extra credit.
3 I have, for a very long time, been registered with the telephone preference service. This means that cold callers are obliged not to call me. Quite why Contact4 have nee calling me is therefore a bit of a mystery.
Last week I formally complained in writing to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO). The ICO has legal powers to ensure that organisations comply with the requirements of the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations.
I have heard nothing back from them, as yet.
However, still being plagued by Contact4 I blocked the number that they used (08445560022) using BT's "choose to refuse" service this week.
That worked until last night, when I received another call from them this time using 08445560020; it seems that their computer has been programmed to navigate around phone blocks.
Fortunately the BT service I use identified the "real" number behind the calls, as being 016131787000. I called this number, and got through to Contact4.
They say they got my number from maybe a data package that they bought.
The upshot being I have instructed them to remove my number immediately, and have also blocked their 0161 number.
Whilst I am well able to say no and to see through the fine print of financial products sold in this manner, there are many who can't and who are being pushed into taking on board products they don't/can't understand or indeed afford.
I would therefore strongly suggest to the Treasury, FSA, Bank of England and all other relevant regulatory authorities that if they want to bring some form of order to our over heated and over burdened credit market they need to address the issues on the front line, such as cold calling.
Those of you who have received calls from Contact4, and want to stop them them, here are their contact details:
Location
Glasgow HQ Address
Cirrus Building
Marchburn Drive
Glasgow Airport Business Park
Paisley
PA3 2SJ
Tel: +44 (0)141 305 2000
Fax: +44 (0)141 305 2001
Campbeltown Contact Centre
Kintyre House
Kintyre Business Park
Snipefield
Drumore
Campbeltown
PA28 6SY
Tel: +44 (0)1631 787 000
Fax: +44 (0)1631 787 001
Dingle Contact Centre
Milltown Business Park
Dingle
Co. Kerry
Ireland
Tel: +353 (0)66 915 3102
Fax: +353 (0)66 915 3101
Gweedore Contact Centre
Gweedore Business Park
Derrybeg
Letterkenny
Co. Donegal
Ireland
Tel: +353 (0)74 953 3300
Fax: +353 (0)74 953 3301
Contact4 Achill
One Stop Shop
Achill Sound
Achill
Co. Mayo
Tel: +353 86 58 6515
Here is their contact webpage Contact4
Gordon Hellyar
Business Development Manager
Contact4
Cirrus Building
Marchburn Drive
Glasgow Airport Business Park
Paisley
PA2 3SJ
Telephone: 01631 787000
gordonhellyar@contact4.com
Here are some of the numbers they use to call:
-08445560022
-08445560020
-016131787000
There are finance companies and call centres that happily cold call thousands of people a day trying to foist unwanted, unnecessary and unwise financial products onto them. They use times of financial uncertainty to their advantage.
Whilst those of us who are financially literate can easily dismiss these calls/offers, as one would swat an annoying fly, there are many in the UK who are not financially literate and who are easy prey for these odious people.
Allow me to provide you with my own personal experience of the type of organisation that operates in this field.
Over the past four weeks or so I have been swamped with cold calls from one particular call centre operating in Scotland, called Contact4. They claim the following:
"Our team of Contact Service Consulting Specialists bring unparalleled experience and deliver the highest standards in both the Inbound - Outbound Industry.
Services provided by Contact4 are underpinned by 4 key principals: Passion, Decisiveness, High Standards and Respect."
The cold calls that I have received from this group claim to be "courtesy calls" on behalf of two finance companies, one of them being Smarter Loans (oddly enough the owner of Contact4, Pearse Flynn, is also Chairman of Smarter Loans).
I have on numerous occasions said quite directly, at the beginning of the call, "no thanks" and put the phone down.
Does this stop them?
No!
The fact that I have been receiving the calls in the first place is rather troublesome:
1 I am ex directory
2 I have not in the last year applied for any credit, nor am I financially distressed, nor am I looking for a loan or extra credit.
3 I have, for a very long time, been registered with the telephone preference service. This means that cold callers are obliged not to call me. Quite why Contact4 have nee calling me is therefore a bit of a mystery.
Last week I formally complained in writing to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO). The ICO has legal powers to ensure that organisations comply with the requirements of the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations.
I have heard nothing back from them, as yet.
However, still being plagued by Contact4 I blocked the number that they used (08445560022) using BT's "choose to refuse" service this week.
That worked until last night, when I received another call from them this time using 08445560020; it seems that their computer has been programmed to navigate around phone blocks.
Fortunately the BT service I use identified the "real" number behind the calls, as being 016131787000. I called this number, and got through to Contact4.
They say they got my number from maybe a data package that they bought.
The upshot being I have instructed them to remove my number immediately, and have also blocked their 0161 number.
Whilst I am well able to say no and to see through the fine print of financial products sold in this manner, there are many who can't and who are being pushed into taking on board products they don't/can't understand or indeed afford.
I would therefore strongly suggest to the Treasury, FSA, Bank of England and all other relevant regulatory authorities that if they want to bring some form of order to our over heated and over burdened credit market they need to address the issues on the front line, such as cold calling.
Those of you who have received calls from Contact4, and want to stop them them, here are their contact details:
Location
Glasgow HQ Address
Cirrus Building
Marchburn Drive
Glasgow Airport Business Park
Paisley
PA3 2SJ
Tel: +44 (0)141 305 2000
Fax: +44 (0)141 305 2001
Campbeltown Contact Centre
Kintyre House
Kintyre Business Park
Snipefield
Drumore
Campbeltown
PA28 6SY
Tel: +44 (0)1631 787 000
Fax: +44 (0)1631 787 001
Dingle Contact Centre
Milltown Business Park
Dingle
Co. Kerry
Ireland
Tel: +353 (0)66 915 3102
Fax: +353 (0)66 915 3101
Gweedore Contact Centre
Gweedore Business Park
Derrybeg
Letterkenny
Co. Donegal
Ireland
Tel: +353 (0)74 953 3300
Fax: +353 (0)74 953 3301
Contact4 Achill
One Stop Shop
Achill Sound
Achill
Co. Mayo
Tel: +353 86 58 6515
Here is their contact webpage Contact4
Gordon Hellyar
Business Development Manager
Contact4
Cirrus Building
Marchburn Drive
Glasgow Airport Business Park
Paisley
PA2 3SJ
Telephone: 01631 787000
gordonhellyar@contact4.com
Here are some of the numbers they use to call:
-08445560022
-08445560020
-016131787000
Friday, April 27, 2007
Barclays Face Investigation
Barclays face an investigation by the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) as a result of the recent BBC programme "Whistleblower", which placed an undercover reporter in a Barclays call centre and one of their high street branches.
Whistleblower alleged that call centre staff accessed private customer files, and made sales calls to people who asked not to be contacted.
The ICO said that the allegations were a cause for concern.
The BBC placed their undercover reporter in the Doxford call centre in Sunderland, where she found examples of mis-selling, employees lying to customers and security failings.
Quote:
"I've seen customers misled, lied to and treated with contempt. I've seen people charged for financial products they neither asked for or knew they had."
The ICO has asked Barclays for the results of an internal inquiry, and for a copy of its policy on telephone sales.
Barclays said in a statement:
"We take the allegations made by the programme very seriously and are conducting our own internal investigation. Where there has been improper behaviour we will take action to improve what we do. Of course we will also fully co-operate with the Information Commissioner's own investigation."
To add to Barclays humiliation Reuters report that it faces a US investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), into allegations of insider dealing by bank staff who served on bankruptcy committees.
The SEC will look at trading activity between 2002 and 2003 by a proprietary trading desk at Barclays.
A separate lawsuit filed against the bank in March by a former employee alleges that Barclays' U.S. distressed debt desk, which deals in bankrupt company bonds, traded debt after "potentially gaining nonpublic information" through bankruptcy creditor committees.
This has been topped off by the news that a group led by Royal Bank of Scotland says that it plans to go hostile if necessary with an offer for ABN AMRO, the Dutch bank that has already agreed a deal with Barclays.
The hostile bid is estimated to be worth around £49BN, compared with the £45BN offered by Barclays.
Not a happy week for Barclays!
Whistleblower alleged that call centre staff accessed private customer files, and made sales calls to people who asked not to be contacted.
The ICO said that the allegations were a cause for concern.
The BBC placed their undercover reporter in the Doxford call centre in Sunderland, where she found examples of mis-selling, employees lying to customers and security failings.
Quote:
"I've seen customers misled, lied to and treated with contempt. I've seen people charged for financial products they neither asked for or knew they had."
The ICO has asked Barclays for the results of an internal inquiry, and for a copy of its policy on telephone sales.
Barclays said in a statement:
"We take the allegations made by the programme very seriously and are conducting our own internal investigation. Where there has been improper behaviour we will take action to improve what we do. Of course we will also fully co-operate with the Information Commissioner's own investigation."
To add to Barclays humiliation Reuters report that it faces a US investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), into allegations of insider dealing by bank staff who served on bankruptcy committees.
The SEC will look at trading activity between 2002 and 2003 by a proprietary trading desk at Barclays.
A separate lawsuit filed against the bank in March by a former employee alleges that Barclays' U.S. distressed debt desk, which deals in bankrupt company bonds, traded debt after "potentially gaining nonpublic information" through bankruptcy creditor committees.
This has been topped off by the news that a group led by Royal Bank of Scotland says that it plans to go hostile if necessary with an offer for ABN AMRO, the Dutch bank that has already agreed a deal with Barclays.
The hostile bid is estimated to be worth around £49BN, compared with the £45BN offered by Barclays.
Not a happy week for Barclays!
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