So I played along to try and find out who is behind this pestilence of modern society.
I pressed 5 to indicate interest. I spoke to a chap from the "PPI Claims Helpline" who asked me a few questions, presumably to check I was genuine.
I then got transferred to the company handling the claim. I continued to pretend to be interested and managed to get the company name, telephone number and agent's name. Dinner was ready, so I cut the call short.
I then wrote to the company and sent them an invoice. Correspondence below:
Dear Sirs Last night I received an unsolicited telephone call from your company to my business line 01256 xxxxxx. This number has been registered with the TPS for many years. I get a significant number of calls from PPI diallers. As the call is illegal, I always try to establish enough information by engaging the caller in conversation in order to try and find out who is making these repeated, unsolicited, calls to my number. I must remind you that such calls are an offence under Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003. By engaging your caller, xxxxxx in conversation, I was able to identify your company as the organisation on whose behalf this call was made. My normal consulting charges are £120 + VAT for the first hour or part thereof. Any further unsolicited calls from your organisation will constitute a binding contract between our companies under our standard terms for which my standard consulting rates will also apply. i.e. for calls lasting up to one hour our standard £120 + VAT charge will apply. As a telecommunications consulting business, your call call last night involved significant work by me to find out who was behind this illegal activity and reporting to the appropriate authorities, for which I am now seeking compensation. Under Section 30 (1) of The Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003 I am entitled to seek compensation for damages due to your lack of compliance with the regulations. I am thus invoicing you for damages to the value of my time taken for the call, and subsequent work in the follow-up.
Dear Mr Robinson Thank you for your complaint regarding the call process from last night, we take compliance issues very seriously unlike a lot of companies in our industry. However I must point out we do not make outbound dialler calls in this process, we are only a recipient of direct transfers after clients have consented to speak with us and you must have spoken with another company/person prior to talking to our advisor xxxxxxxxx and expressed your wish to talk with our advisor. Having traced your number transfer it came from a consented dialler data batch operated by zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzas part of our agreement with them they should only be operating on consented data where they can prove they have the correct right to contact you and if you write to them they will forward on any consent on to you directly. We ourselves did not initiate the initial call in an un compliant way as without consenting directly you would never have been spoken to by a representative of our company, however I can only apologise that you were contacted incorrectly as you state by zzzzzz if indeed they do not have the correct consent. I hope this information is of use to you in assisting to stop the calls.
Dear Mr Rea Thank you for your response. Unfortunately the issue in law is that whoever made the call on your behalf, to a number that is listed in the Telephone Preference Service, your company is still liable for the breach as they were acting on your instructions. I have listened again to the recording of the call. Since the call was received from "the PPI help line" (Did they lie to me?) and was then transferred over to Ms zzzz, as far as I am concerned it was a call from and on behalf of your company. In view of the above I would be grateful if you would arrange to settle the outstanding invoice within the terms stated in order to avoid further action.
Hi Mr Robinson, As we are informed all clients are opt in and consented we have requested a copy of your opt in and consent record, if this has been indicated then obviously as you are aware this over-rules any TPS listing. If they are unable to provide this then they are not adhering to our agreement and we will have recourse on your behalf. regards
Dear Mr Rea I await the outcome of your investigation with considerable interest, as I cannot conceive of any circumstance under which permission would have been granted to you by me to make pre-recorded 'junk' calls to my telephone number. Clearly if your supplier has not adhered to the agreement you have with them then you can no doubt seek remedy from them. Until such time as evidence of consent and opt-in materialises, our compensation claim stands and is due for payment by bank transfer to our account before 2nd April 2013. Our bank details are on the invoice.
Subject: Re: Unsolicited Telephone call 18th March 2013 Dear Mr Rea and Mr Osborne I trust that you have drawn a blank of uncovering the consent/opt-in to call my telephone number from your subcontractor, as it is not a consent I would ever have given and the number has been registered for many years on the TPS. On this basis I would be grateful if you would settle the outstanding claim for damages before the invoice due date. I attach a copy of the invoice for reference.
Hi Mr Robinson We have had the following response from our data provider which they assure me complies with TPS regulations should they be unable to provide you with what you request please let us know immediately however they assure us they will have the consent, by providing you with direct access to our data controller we are fulfilling our obligations. Please keep me posted. Hi, As you are not the data provider, the person in question will need to make the request to us. Kind regards, zzzzz Customer Service Manager zzzzz (call generation company)
Dear zzzzz As you are aware from your customer yyyyyyy, I received an unsolicited 'junk' call on 18th March on their behalf. Please provide them and me with the details you hold that makes you believe that the call originated to 01256-xxxxxx was in compliance with the legislation. This number has been on the TPS "do not call" list for many years. I believe that calling this number without specific consent or 'opt-in' from me represents an offence. I look forward to hearing from you.
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