TalkTalk fined £750,000 for nuisance calls
The communications regulator Ofcom has fined TalkTalk for an excessive number of abandoned and silent sales calls.
Ofcom has fined Talk Talk £750,000 for making too many nuisance sales calls.
The telecoms giant was found to have made excessive abandoned and silent calls during 2011, through two call centre operators; Teleperformance Limited and McAlpine Marketing Limited.
Prank calls
An abandoned or silent call can seem like a prank but they are often mistakes made by companies.
An abandoned call happens when the call is answered but the caller hangs up. This can happen through human fault or sometimes by answer machine detection (AMD) technology.
AMD systems are used by call centres to filter out answering machines. The technology can cause an abandoned call when it mistakes a person picking up for the answer machine.
Ofcom rules state that these sorts of calls must include a recorded information message, but in a lot of cases with TalkTalk no message was played, leading to silent calls.
Exceeding the limit
Ofcom sets a limit on the number of abandoned and silent calls that organisations can make.
TalkTalk was found to have exceeded this limit on four separate occasions during a telemarketing campaign to attract new subscribers between 1st of February and 21st of March 2011.
In total TalkTalk made about 9,000 silent and abandoned calls to potential customers via the two call centres.
The fine
TalkTalk is being made to take responsibility for the breach even though it was two call centre operators it used in its telemarketing campaign that did the damage.
But a spokesperson from TalkTalk told us it will seek to recover the fine from these partners.
The telecoms giant will have 30 days to pay the £750,000 which will be passed onto HM Treasury.
Tackling nuisance calls
Ofcom announced it was cracking down on nuisance calls at the beginning of this year with a five-point action plan.
It will be able to fine companies up to £2 million if it finds evidence that any have 'persistently misused an electronic communications network or electronic communications services' which is in in breach of the Communications Act 2003.
If you are suffering from persistent nuisance calls you can register with the Telephone Preference Service (TPS).
For more help take a look at our guide on how to stop unwanted phone calls.
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