Ofcom reminds contact centres to keep to the rules

Following the record £750,000 fine on Homeserve, Ofcom are reminding contact centres to stick to the rules.  Ofcom has sent out an open letter reminding them to stay within the guidelines or risk the consequences.

The letter states “Ofcom strongly recommends that you, as a minimum, carefully read the Guidelines to re-familiarise yourself with our policy and ensure your company and/or parties acting on behalf of your company are compliant.”

Ofcom goes on to remind people of the guidelines.

Policy on persistent misuse

The Guidelines, amongst other things, set out the requirements for the compliant use of automatic calling systems (‘ACS’) and answer machine detection (‘AMD’) technology (used by ACS users to filter out calls picked up by answer machines).

Specifically, the Guidelines set out Ofcom’s current approach when assessing whether to take enforcement action for persistent misuse caused by abandoned and silent calls. They describe the steps they expect ACS users to take to avoid making these calls and, if such calls are made, to limit consumer harm, including:

• ensuring an abandoned call rate (including a reasoned estimate of AMD false positives) of no more than 3 per cent of live calls per campaign;
• not contacting people within 72 hours of their receiving an abandoned call without the guaranteed presence of a live operator;
• playing an automated message in the event of an abandoned call telling the person called who rang and providing a number to dial to end future marketing calls;
• making valid and accurate calling-line identification (‘CLI’) information available to people so they can trace who rang them by dialling 1471 in the event of a silent call; and
• ensuring that where a call has been identified by AMD equipment as being picked up by an answer machine, any repeat calls to that specific number within the same 24 hour period are only made with the guaranteed presence of a live operator (the ‘24 hour policy’).

The letter goes on to say…

“Ofcom takes the issue of abandoned and silent calls very seriously. These calls are annoying, inconvenient and cause anxiety, particularly for older people or people who live alone.

As mentioned, in April 2012 we announced that we had issued a £750,000 penalty to HomeServe for making an excessive number of abandoned calls and non-compliance with the 24 hour policy between 1 February and 21 March 2011.

In 2011, we also issued notifications under the Act to RWE npower PLC and TalkTalk Telecom Limited as we had reasonable grounds to believe that these companies had, during a specified period, persistently misused an electronic communications network or service. We are currently considering both companies’ representations following which we will determine the appropriate next steps in these matters, which may include further enforcement action.

You should note that we continue to review the complaints we receive in order to identify future investigation and enforcement targets. I therefore strongly advise that you take note and act on the advice in this letter.”