Ofcom fines HomeServe £750,000 for silent calls

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Ofcom has used its new powers on silent calls by slapping a £750,000 fine on HomeServe.

Ofcom has flexed its regulatory muscles by imposing the first fine to a company for breaking its 2010 revised rules on silent and abandoned calls from the contact centre, charging HomeServe with £750,000 for making 36,000 calls that breached regulations, including 15,000 silent calls.

Under Ofcom’s rules, there is a limit on the number of abandoned calls that companies are permitted to make to consumers. Ofcom’s investigation into HomeServe found that the company exceeded this abandoned call rate on 42 separate occasions during the period 1 February to 21 March 2011. This resulted in an estimated 14,756 abandoned calls being made to consumers.

Ofcom rules also prohibit companies from making repeat calls to specific numbers within the same 24-hour period, where a call has been identified by AMD technology as having been picked up by an answer machine. Ofcom found that HomeServe made estimated 36,218 calls in breach of this rule.

In reaching its decision, Ofcom took account of a number of factors, including the steps taken by HomeServe to bring itself into compliance with the rules on silent and abandoned calls, and its offer to compensate consumers who suffered harm from receiving silent and abandoned calls as a result of its breach of the rules.

Ofcom claimed that it was “appropriate and proportionate” to impose the financial penalty on HomeServe and it would act as a deterrent to other companies.

The fine is payable to Ofcom and passed on to HM Treasury. HomeServe is required to pay within 30 days of receiving the penalty notification.

Ofcom’s Consumer Group Director, Claudio Pollack, said: “Our rules are there to prevent consumers suffering annoyance, inconvenience or anxiety from silent or abandoned calls. We hope today’s fine will send a strong message to all companies that use call centres that they need to ensure they are fully compliant with the rules or face the consequences.”

There was broad support for the fine, and it is hoped that fines like this will weed out rogue operators.

“In the right hands, outbound dialling is a highly effective marketing and sales tool. In the wrong hands, however, it can be a persistent menace to consumers and businesses, as we have seen this week,” said Tony Hesketh, Director of Solutions Consulting at Aspect. “The Ofcom regulations are necessary to both ensure consistency in the market and combat rogue companies that are giving the outbound industry a bad name”.

Tony Hesketh

Tony Hesketh

Hesketh concludes: “Essentially, there are contact centres who are acting in the consumers’ interests and those acting in their own interests.  Ofcom must sort the wheat from the chaff – a particularly tricky task given that emotions are running high and the majority of responses it receives are negative.”

Author: Jo Robinson

Published On: 25th Apr 2012 - Last modified: 22nd Mar 2017
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