GDPR Requirement to give personal Information

ChrisK....._3

Pretty obvious that the sales rep was not used to speaking to customer representatives and all you had to do was exit the call and let the actually customer make the call and authorise you to speak on their behalf. Not sure why you are turning this into an Data Protection/ Legal case/issue?????? As "the caller" they are allowed to identify you - OBVIOUSLY, so if you intent to go to court over it, I can tell you that you have lost!!!

darkan9el wrote: »

Hi, I have a situation regarding GDPR and a customer service call.

I have a friend who had a slow broadband issue on BT, he is 85 and not very knowledgable on IT things so asked me to help him. I made the service call to BT (0800 800150) to request they look into why his line was so slow (0.21 down and 0.50 up) I know quite a bit about IT so had already done any preliminary tests and had moved the router to the main outlet, the issue still remained.

Anyway, as part of me making the call the customer service rep (csr) asked for my name, I gave her my first name, I expect this as part of courtesy so the csr can refer to me by name, then she asked for my surname, contact number and address, I refused, they cited GDPR as the lawful reason to request this info and if I did not give her this info she would terminate the call,, I told her all she needed was my first name and that I had their customer in front of me and that he had given me permission to act on his behalf, unfortunately they did not see is as a valid reason and insisted on me giving out my personal data else they would terminate the call. I told them their customer was in front of me and all they had to do was validate his ID (a simple process that I have been through countless times before) but they had become fixated on obtaining MY info not his, none of my personal information would have helped fix this issue and validating their customer should have been the primary goal so that he could then give them permission to deal with me. There is more to this phone call but I have outlined the main points.

My question: Under GDPR, was it Lawful for them to try and obtain my information and was I legally bound to give it or terminate the call?

It's very difficult to find information relating to this situation that's why I'm asking here and on other forums.

I consider this a very serious matter and a breach of my rights to protect my personal info, I make calls for people regularly and have never come across this and it actually scares me where all of this going.

I am fiercely protective of my information and what I find odd is how people become suspicious and defensive when I apply my right to privacy, I find it creepy.

darkan9el

Small update: Service engineer confirmed it was a faulty line as I predicted, they also replaced the box internally.

Just thought you'd like to know.

You guys do get carried away bless you, "going to court" lol! !!!!!!, I asked the question because the next time someone uses GDPR as a reason to obtain information and call it "the law" I can correctly inform them that they are in error.

steampowered

I'm glad the internet has been fixed, but I still don't understand what any of it has to do with GDPR ...

darkan9el

steampowered wrote: »

I'm glad the internet has been fixed, but I still don't understand what any of it has to do with GDPR ...

The CSO and her Manager cited GDPR as the reason I had to give my personal Info and to compound that lie they said that it was the Law. I didn't know whether it was or not so I thought I'd ask on the forums hoping someone had some knowledge on the matter so the next time such a thing happened I could correct them and tell them why they were wrong.

An important aspect for companies is Consent, You cannot force a person to hand over personal information, saying you will terminate a call if they don't is threatening behaviour and the caller is being placed in an untenable situation, the CSO's placed me in an untenable situation even after I had offered them a way out, but they wouldn't back down they behaved unprofessionally and lost control of themselves and the situation. There was nothing more I or the customer could do with that so all we could do was to agree to halt the call.

steampowered

You don't have to provide the information.

But if you don't, they are perfectly entitled to terminate the call.

I think that sums it up ...

ChrisK....._3

Its not a lie and You are still dead wrong - You are still treating yourself as a third party, when they, were treating you as "THE CALLER", and as "the caller" discussing an account you can be expected to identify yourself under GDPR - you could/should have ended the call yourself and let the account holder make the call - If you dont understand 'the parties' involved it's not their fault.

darkan9el wrote: »

The CSO and her Manager cited GDPR as the reason I had to give my personal Info and to compound that lie they said that it was the Law. I didn't know whether it was or not so I thought I'd ask on the forums hoping someone had some knowledge on the matter so the next time such a thing happened I could correct them and tell them why they were wrong.

An important aspect for companies is Consent, You cannot force a person to hand over personal information, saying you will terminate a call if they don't is threatening behaviour and the caller is being placed in an untenable situation, the CSO's placed me in an untenable situation even after I had offered them a way out, but they wouldn't back down they behaved unprofessionally and lost control of themselves and the situation. There was nothing more I or the customer could do with that so all we could do was to agree to halt the call.

darkan9el

Sheeez! this is taking some drilling in, I offered to hand over the phone to the customer, the CSO disregarded several attempts to do so, and threatened to terminate the call, this was totally uncalled for because all she had to do was accept that offer and speak to the customer which part of that don't you understand?

I didn't NEED to discuss his account nor any details pertaining to his account, I had the customer in front of me and he could have had any discussion that was required regarding his account, all I was providing was technical understanding which I am very competent at as can be seen in my correct diagnoses of the actual issue.

We are going round in circles again and never the twain shall meet.

I don't know whether you close posts on this forum, but if you do can the mods now close this post because all that is happening now is repeated posts with the same inane replies, and me answering those replies with the same answers, they just aren't getting it so this post is now done as far as I'm concerned.

Thank you for your opinions.

ChrisK....._3

And whilst you keep wanting to trivialise your involvement on one hand and at the same time raise a legal stink about GDPR, they were treating you as THE CALLER asking about an account and they need to identify YOU as THE CALLER

All you had to do was end the call and let the account holder make the call

darkan9el wrote: »

....I offered to hand over the phone to the customer......

DoaM

darkan9el wrote: »

Sheeez! this is taking some drilling in, I offered to hand over the phone to the customer, the CSO disregarded several attempts to do so, and threatened to terminate the call, this was totally uncalled for because all she had to do was accept that offer and speak to the customer which part of that don't you understand?.

We understand perfectly what you're saying ... we simply disagree and it is YOU that doesn't "get it".

* YOU made the call, therefore YOU were the caller.
* The CS agent has to verify THE CALLER ... whatever you said is irrelevant as they have to verify THE CALLER.
* If the account holder had initiated the call, verified and then handed over to you then there wouldn't have been any problem ... YOU chose not to follow this normal procedure therefore it is YOU that is the problem, not BT.

NeilCr

DoaM wrote: »

We understand perfectly what you're saying ... we simply disagree and it is YOU that doesn't "get it".

* YOU made the call, therefore YOU were the caller.
* The CS agent has to verify THE CALLER ... whatever you said is irrelevant as they have to verify THE CALLER.
* If the account holder had initiated the call, verified and then handed over to you then there wouldn't have been any problem ... YOU chose not to follow this normal procedure therefore it is YOU that is the problem, not BT.

While I think the OP has rather over dramatised this, personally, I have never had a problem

I, regularly, ring organisations on others behalf (I volunteer for a charity). I explain who I am and I am, usually, asked to hand the phone to the client to validate who they are and give permission for me to speak on their behalf. I initiate the call in most of the cases. To be fair I have never had to call BT but I don't understand why they would be different to other organisations.

I think it's more likely that there has been a communication breakdown between the OP and BT. Somehow, BT were thinking OP was the client.