MSE News: Ofcom to tackle nuisance calls

Dave_save

For the most part, I've found TPS to be effective. However some UK companies completely ignore the TPS registered numbers and I've received a few of these lately. When I've checked the number and company name, the same company has called me before, and complaining to Ofcom/TPS previously has had no effect.

A lot of the calls I get now (average about 3 per week) are from overseas. Usually Asian call centres, usually from someone called 'James' with an Indian accent claiming he lives in Scotland. I'm not sure what Ofcom can do about those.

Then we have the overseas scam calls, from 'computer engineers' to 'charities'. While the ones above are no more than a nuisance, this particular type of call is fraud. Perhaps Ofcom should target these as well.

securityguy

The main problem for both Ofcom and the Information Commissioner is that they spend a lot of time being lunched by the lobbyists for the poor hard-done-by telemarketing "industry", while they never meet or speak to a telephone subscriber. So they are in the pocket of the "industry". I pursued a complaint against one UK caller --- who'd repeatedly called my mobile while I was abroad, thus costing me real money --- through Ofcom and the Information Commissioner, but eventually got some nonsense from the IC about how difficult it was to act. This was a UK registered company, whose accounts were available at Companies House, not some fly-by-night, and Ofcom have sanctions available including preventing them from receiving telephone service. The situation is corrupt, because of regulator capture.

What makes things more savage is that the outbound telemarketing companies are fighting like ferrets in a sack, or perhaps more accurately like an angry dog in the corner. TPS is having some effect, and many telemarketers do adhere to it, even if sometimes it doesn't feel like it. That has discouraged many UK companies from contracting out work to call centres, because the response rate just doesn't justify the expenditure. Those same responsible companies also adhere, up to a point, to regulations on "opt out" from marketing calls to existing customers.

There's therefore a diminishing pool of people who are not TPS registered, being called by a set of telemarketers who are more and more reliant on crooks like PPI "advisors", timeshare and the like. The act of doing that pushes people into TPS/XD/Truecall etc who previously had tolerated a level of nuisance calling, and reminds people to register their mobile as well as their landline. So every week, there are fewer non-TPS phone numbers, fewer customers for telesales companies, and the calling therefore becomes more intrusive to those remaining in the game. Vicious circle, which ends in the extinction of telesales (and good riddance). But in the meantime, Ofcom's sympathy is with them, not you.

ChopinonaBudget

Butterfly_Brain wrote: »

They should investigate BT ....3 calls in 24 hours trying to flog their overpriced broadband,

I got rid of BT's nuisance calls by phoning their customer service, getting myself through to "report nuisance callers" and reporting *them* as a nuisance caller.
It worked, I haven't had a single call from them since.

JimmyTheWig

Dave_save wrote: »

A lot of the calls I get now (average about 3 per week) are from overseas. Usually Asian call centres, usually from someone called 'James' with an Indian accent claiming he lives in Scotland.

I normally ask them what the weather is like there at the moment. Completely throws them off track, whilst I can still remain polite.

Flydrive

I get a lot of 'marketing' calls, silent, recorded message and live. One thing I noticed is that most seem to have 'number witheld' On the assumption that all of my friends and legitimate contacts do not try to hide their number I tried to see if my provider (plusnet) could block number witheld calls but they wanted nearly £5 per month to do it! I think a lot of firms would think twice if disgruntled callers could 'block' their calls or their phone lines by calling back1

Caddyman

JimmyTheWig wrote: »

I normally ask them what the weather is like there at the moment. Completely throws them off track, whilst I can still remain polite.

Again, simpler to just say, "I'll just go and get him/her for you, please wait a moment" then just put the receiver down next to the 'phone and waste their time and money. They'll soon get the message and end the call when they realise they're being mugged off for the price of a call. Far more satisfying in my personal opinion.

annie1975_2

Midnighter wrote: »

Not very well if personal experience is anything to go by. We signed up a couple of years ago and it's had no effect on the number of 'sales' calls we receive.

Me too,in fact we get more now than we did when we first registered with TPA.

molerat

wantmemoney wrote: »

could you please point us to the data figures that backs up your claim.

do you know how the 'TPS' works?

From personal experience I get maybe 3 or 4 calls a year so for me it has worked. The majority of calls I did get were from people I was already a customer of ie BT and Orange but they soon got told !! I also do not go round giving my number to any Tom, !!!!!! or Harry that requests it, if someone actually has the number 01234 567890 they will be getting a lot of calls for me though

scroogeboy

We have a problem with phone calls from a specific person (very long story) and we were being charged about £75 pa for blocking known and withheld numbers

So we got Truecall and this has an additional benefit of blocking other types of calls too. Well worth the £95 it cost (+ £15 pa). I can imagine that this will be a free feature from providers in a few years time, but I'm not prepared to wait. Yes we have TPS but we're talking about scammers here

I'd say that if these calls are a big problem buy Truecall

profscooter

Anyone know if this Ofcom initiative is still going ahead? Even being on the TPS list seems to be making no difference, plenty of 0800 and "unavailable" or international telesales people are still calling. We've been on TPS for years but it seems to me things are getting worse and worse not better. I begrudge having to shell out for Truecall as I believe it's a service BT should offer for free if they are unable to prevent these time-wasters from calling me but it looks like I might have to give in.