Silent Phone Calls

[welshwizard]

I have been receiving silent phone calls from JD Williams (how do I know? I rang them back to see who it was). They are using numerous mobile numebrs to ring and so cannot easily be traced through whois etc. My questions are:

 

• Is is ethical to use mobile numebrs to ring people and expect them to ring them back on these numbers?
  
• Is this practice actually frowned upon by the OFT (They mention premium rate numbers - to me mobile numbers cost more to ring than a local call and so should be seen as carrying a 'premium' charge).
  
• Are silent phone calls a proper way to do business? (I don't really care about whether they are allowed to make calls using automatic diallers, my concern is the growing practice of ringing people 5 -10 times a day using this method).
  
• Do DCA businesses such as JD Williams have to report every official complaint made to them in some form of annual return to OFT? (I do hope so because now I am making separate formal complaints for every silent phone call from a mobile number - it may involve me making work for myself but my goodness its fun!)
  

As a post script to this I would like impart a piece of advice:

 

When you speak to DCAs (if you do), and they give you their name and their agent reference number, it appears to drive them nuts if you refer to them as '1234' instead of Dave/Doris. I have been using this technique and it really seems to pi55 them off!

[loopinlouie]

Suprised they dont scream I am not a number but a name aka the prisoner xxx

 

You could say if they get through, you are number two xx

[Guest Cartaphilus]

phone calls a proper way to do business? (I don't really care about whether they are allowed to make calls using automatic diallers, my concern is the growing practice of ringing people 5 -10 times a day using this method).

Don't have anything to offer about the rest but the above I do. A creditor of mine a while ago was making a ridiculous number of calls per day, which I didn't answer anyway. Then they started playing another game which I was deeply concerned and, least of all, staggered that such a large organisation known globally would resort to such tactics. What they did was phone, I wouldn't answer ... Then picking up the phone later eg around 30 minutes later to find them STILL on the phone, they'd blocked my phone line and taken it over it seemed! They did this several times and I eventually told whomever was on the end to either get off the line or I'd phone the police! They didn't and did it the next day a few more times.

 

I read at the time of other instances of this - also that the creditor concerned had also been fined by one of the regulatory authorities for making a prolific number of silent calls per day - and I complained to the ombudsman about their attrocious behaviour. I didn't get a proper reply from them, except to say 'they were sorry for the inconvenience' I felt about how they were making my phone calls. Wasn't what I 'felt' but I pay for my phone line and they were preventing calls incoming or outgoing. I have read of other cases of this online since.

 

A few times I answered and just spoke like Jar Jar Binks or that I'd suddenly learned Chinese at whichever DCA or creditor was calling cos I'd had enough by then.

 

There was the one time, though, I did tell them to stop calling me or the police would get called. That creditor didn't phone me again.

[harrassed senior]

I do believe they are 'stepping up' the silent calls, I thought it was safe to remove my 'True Call' a couple of weeks ago, and all has been ok, that is until this week and the silent calls are happening again, so True Call is now back on!

[Bazooka Boo]

Ofcom are definitely the ones to make a complaint to about this menace,

 

From TrueCall;

This week the Government bowed to our pressure and increased the maximum fine for call centres making silent calls from £50,000 to £2 million.

 

You will remember that we contacted trueCall customers in January, encouraging them to respond to a Government consultation on the subject. We also carried out a PR campaign explaining the issue and asking people to make their voices heard – we got coverage on TV (BBC 2’s Working Lunch), 4 regional radio stations, and in a number of newspapers/ magazines/ web sites.

 

The campaign was hugely successful – the Government received 117 responses to their consultation from members of the public and we know that over half of these came from trueCall customers. Many of the remainder will have been prompted by the publicity we brought to the issue.

 

The Government paper referred to trueCall, saying: “A considerable number of respondents had resorted to trying various devices at their own expense in an attempt to ensure that they were better protected from such calls”. They used the fact that our customers were willing to buy trueCall to protect themselves against these unwanted calls to put a monetary value on the harm caused by the calls. This helped them to justify such a huge increase in the maximum fine.

 

Here at trueCall we will continue to campaign for call centres to act more responsibly. We are currently looking at 'robocalls' (recorded message calls), calls from debt collectors, calls from international call centres, and telephone scams. Any information you can give us on the sort of nuisance calls you have been receiving, the affect they have had on your life, and how trueCall has helped would be very valuable here (we of course would never identify you without your permission).

 

 

Steve Smith & John Price

 

Nuisance call news

 

9th February 2010 - The Information Commissioner served an enforcement notice on the Labour Party for making nuisance phone calls. They were told that if they did it again it would be a criminal offence.

 

In June 2009 the Labour Party made half a million RoboCalls – recorded message calls – without the prior consent of those being called. The majority of the numbers were obtained from commercially purchased lists. The Information Commissioner had advised the Labour Party in 2007 that such calls were not allowed when they ran a similar campaign.

 

The Conservatives, Liberal Democrats, and the Scottish Nationalists have all also been issued enforcement notices by the Information Commissioner for the same thing.

 

We have had decided to do something about this, and have set up the Political Call Register. Register your phone numbers at www.ThePoliticalCallRegister.co.uk, and we will ask all the political parties not to call you.

[welshwizard]

Firstly, thank you for your replies.

 

JarJar Binks? Hmm maybe not but I can do Barney the Dinosaur!

 

I guess my next step is OFCOM - maybe with one of my formal complaints to JD Williams I can tell them that they may be liable to fines up to £2 million and they may be subject to plagues of frogs, flies and locusts too - OFCOM actually doing something? I doubt it - OFT can't even be bothered to reply to my complaints, neither can ICO.

 

However, whilst they ring me on my mobile it's costing them not me - especially as I ring their mobile numbers back using my mobile (and some of my excessive 3,000 monthly minutes included in my package!) :grin:

I love spending time winding them up after they've 'stung rung' me.