Gym ringing me even though I didn't leave my number

decogecko

Can anyone help/advise me.

Rang my local gym on Saturday to enquire about membership costs, it is a national chain. The receptionist said I would have to speak to one of their membership team to find out (why? how difficult is it to have a price list on reception? I guess it's a sales tactic).

I said I would call back another time and refused to leave my number (i'm ex-directory). I told her repeatly that I didn't want to leave my number. It turns out they have caller display and the receptionist passed my number (without permission) to the membership team, who have now called me 3 times.

I've looked at the data protection act but cannot fathom whether the gym have broken any particular part of the act by using/keeping my information without my permission. The act mentions something about it but they have kept my info 'in house' (well I hope so!)

Can anyone help?

Thanks in advance

Hintza

Yes press 141 before dialling.

pendulum

I thought if you were X directory, number is withheld automatically for outgoing calls?
Edit: Have Googled and apparently not. Learn something new every day.

decogecko

Hintza wrote: »

Yes press 141 before dialling.

hindsight is a wonderful thing, sadly it doesn't answer my question whether they have breached the data protection act

pendulum

You rang them, they rang you back. You can't do anything about it, even if they did breach the Data Protection Act. You can't even prove you told them not to ring you back, so why does it matter?

The_Pedant

It could probably be argued that by not withholding your number, you willingly passed it to them.
Note for the future if you really don't want to pass it on.

decogecko

pendulum wrote: »

You rang them, they rang you back. You can't do anything about, it even if they did breach the Data Protection Act, you can't even prove you told them not to ring you back, so why does it matter?

Because I didn't give them permission to record my number, they did, it was passed to their membership team. They have rung me everyday since.

I want to put a complaint in as I didn't want to be harrassed, all I wanted to find out was the cost of membership. I was hoping someone on the forum would be able to help in regards to whether they have breached data protection to add weight to my complaint. I hate any type of sales call (I'm registered with TPS as well as ex-directory).

decogecko

The_Pedant wrote: »

It could probably be argued that by not withholding your number, you willingly passed it to them.
Note for the future if you really don't want to pass it on.

I was obviously naive to believe that they would record my number like that - do they not have to give you a warning.

This wasn't a call centre btw it was the local gym branch

pendulum

decogecko wrote: »

Because I didn't give them permission to record my number, they did, it was passed to their membership team. They have rung me everyday since.

They don't need your permission.
If you had rang me, my mobile would record your number under received calls. Every mobile I have ever had would do that. If I wanted to ring you back for whatever reason, I could do it any time.

If you simply answer the phone and say "I don't require gym membership any more - thank you", you won't get any more calls. Doing that requires much less effort than writing letters of complaint and wasting everyone's time.

wealdroam

decogecko wrote: »

I want to put a complaint in as I didn't want to be harrassed, all I wanted to find out was the cost of membership.

Ah... harassment.
It's now become criminal.
Will the police be interested?

decogecko wrote: »

I was hoping someone on the forum would be able to help in regards to whether they have breached data protection to add weight to my complaint.

Yes, I can help there.
They have not broken any data protection regulations or laws by making a note of your telephone number when you freely gave it to them (by not withholding your number when calling them).

As an aside, my home telephone makes a note of the phone number of every caller (up to a maximum of ten I think) unless the caller witholds it.

No idea how many caller numbers my mobile phone records.

arcon5

op may have freely given them the number by not withholding it, but that doesn't mean op gave them rights to contact her!!

If it bothers you that much op, you could write to them by registered post asking them to remove your data and stating you do not permit them to contact you for marketing purposes. Also report it to the ICO.

Personally though i'd just tell them to !!!!!! off and hang up the phone. A few more phone calls they'll soon realise their wasting their own time.