Barclays fined for "silent calls"

J

Jorumian

Facilitator
Sep 1, 2008
347
3
0
Birkenhead
Barclays have been fined £50,000 for the most "serious and persistent" case of silent calls ever seen by Ofcom.

BBC NEWS | Business | Silent calls fine for Barclaycard

These calls absolutely drive me potty. They call during the day, often when I am working, then there is silence for about 30 seconds, and then often it either clicks dead, or I get a recorded message telling me that I am important and should hold on the line until an operator is ready to talk to me!

Is it just me that thinks this is possibly the rudest form of interruption there is? "Answer the phone to us, but then wait until we can be bothered to speak to you." It infuriates me, to the point now where if I don't hear a human response within two seconds, I put the phone down.

Ofcom should have added a few more zero's to the end of that fine.
 
G

greatscotuk

Facilitator
Sep 1, 2008
31
0
0
It's a dialler system. Call centre agents are plugged into the system, which dials 250+ telephone numbers at a time. When somebody picks up, the system recognises this and pipes it through to an agent (there is upto a three second delay though). However, when there are no agents available, you get silence – even a message asking you to hold.

As a business owner, I make a point of hanging up the phone when nobody immediately responds. If they value my business, they'll take the time to punch my number in manually.

Additionally, because the system only loads your I.D details when the call is piped through, the agent very rarely pronouces your name correctly which only adds insult to injury on a sales call – how unprofessional can you get?
 
J

Jorumian

Facilitator
Sep 1, 2008
347
3
0
Birkenhead
Oh Good! I am so glad someone else cannot abide these calls...

I am firmly of the belief that I am a capable enough person that if I want something, I will call myself to enquire. Is there a section of the population who cannot do this, that these call centres cater for?

Also, why do these call centre operatives plaintively tell lies? Why, on the rare occasions someone is on the other end of the phone, am I told "Hello Mr John, my name is Colin or Geoff..." in the broadest Indian accent possible? And this happens ALL the time. Has there been a rush of colonialist fervour in the sub-continent that has seen typically English names bestowed upon millions? Or could it just be a rather pathetic attempt by companies who have fled British call centres, to still appear as if they are "Brit" friendly?

I've hit upon an answer though. If someone starts talking with a "Hello Mr John, my name is Derek and I am calling from..." in a broad Indian accent I say "I'm sorry, you have the wrong number, my name is Kunwarpreet Balasubramanium..." to which you usually get "Oh Ok... "and the line goes dead.
 
M

Matt26

Facilitator
Aug 27, 2008
45
0
0
Guildford
They annoy me too, of course they do.

Though, I try not to get annoyed with the poor bloke making the call. It's hard to begrudge a guy in the developing world a living.

Also, having had a call centre job, I know just how hard, soul destroying and bleak it is... Good times.
 
S

scotchlass

Facilitator
Sep 5, 2008
111
2
0
can see both sides. I am now on the receiving end of these calls but worked in an inbound only call centre for 10 years. Gone, it seems, are the days when you manually type in someones number to speak to them or phone them back to save them money.

I know of at least one company that moved all their call centres offshore to cut costs and then moved it back again because of the language and understanding barrier- pointless exercise? LOL
 
K

katealpha

New Member
Sep 1, 2008
142
1
0
Beds
Personally I think these silent calls should be banned. Why can't call centre people simply call one number at a time.
 
U

Unregistered

Guest
Barclays should be ashamed!

The system is known as "predictive dialling" and I was under the impression it was against the law in the UK. Why can't call centre people make one call at a time? Well, they would not make enough calls to make their quota if it was left up to them. These systems are designed to "do the dialling" for the call centre person ensuring "optimal" use of the call centre operative - as a business person I can understand the desire to be efficient but ethically this is just plain rude if your predictive dialler is going faster than your call centre and the called party is given the silent treatment. It personally drives me nuts when I get these types of calls, I think its really rude to have a machine dial me, causing me to stop what I am doing and answer the phone on the off-chance that a Barclays call centre person is available to talk to me.

Just so you know, some of these systems dial you on purpose with no intention to patch you through to an operative but instead to "check" to see if you are in and willing to answer the phone - this invariably means that when you answer the first time and get the silent treatment you can expect a second call within the hour.

These organisations will argue that this is reasonable practice yet they refuse to disclose their number through the CLI system (where you can see the caller’s number before you answer the phone) - presumably so you don't have the option to choose not to answer the phone to them!

A £50k fine for Barclays is a bit like saying "don't do it again to a teenager!". Barclays you should be ashamed of yourselves!

Gerry
 
J

Jorumian

Facilitator
Sep 1, 2008
347
3
0
Birkenhead
Thanks for the advice Katealpha, I am registered with the TPS, I have been for a while. I checked on the site and my number is still there.

I am wondering if it is worth noting the details down of any company that does call me to register a complaint with the TPS?

I had a call yesterday which went something like this (after a short pause while we were connected)

Me : "Hello ?"
Call Centre : "Hello can I speak to Mr Joan"
Me : "Who's that sorry?"
CC : "Mr Joan..."
Me : "Mr John ?"
CC : "Yes Mr Joan."
Me : "Oh that's me..."
CC : "How are you today Mr Joan, now Mr Joan I am calling you today from **** ****** as we are offering an exciting new car insurance service..."
Me : "I already have car insurance thankyou, bye..."
CC : (RAISED VOICE) "I am not selling you car insurance Mr Joan, all I want to know is when your car insurance expires..."
Me : (LIVID AND ABOUT TO EXPLODE) "...It expired in September."
CC : "Have you renewed it?"
Me : "Yes"
CC : "Mr Joan, what we would like to do is call you when your current car insurance expires to offer you a quote..."
Me : "So... How is that not trying to sell me car insurance?"
CC : "No Mr Joan.. I don't want to sell you it now... just when your current insurance expires..."
Me : "And when my current deal expires I will call you if I need a quotation."
CC : "So can I get one of my colleagues to call you?"
Me : "No."
CC : "I'll put it down for next September."
Me : "No, don't put it down for next September. I don't want to receive a call. I will call you if I require anything..."
CC : (pause) "... mmm... ok... Now, Mr Joan... Can I ask if you have Home insurance?"

At this point I am ashamed to admit I just sighed and put the phone down. I hate discourtesy but I was in the middle of a rather awkward piece of writing and didn't need the interruption. As for being shouted at when I tried to end the call, I almost blew my stack... He wasn't shouting angrily, but it was obvious that he knew I was about to put the phone down. Perhaps I should have done.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom