Culture, Media and Sport CommitteeWritten evidence submitted by Bryan Jefferson [NTC 017]
This is a submission from one of a huge number of frustrated and angry telephone subscribers. My frustration is generated by the poor effectiveness shown by both Ofcom and ICO in dealing with this problem. They are at best reactive; at worst indifferent to the adverse effect of these calls on hundreds of thousands of UK citizens.
The current default position is that callers can safely assume that everyone for whom they can trace a number will be grateful for such a call. The default position should be that callers are allowed to call only existing customers who have opted to receive marketing calls.
The current default position is that callers can safely withhold their number, whereas this practice should be prevented by technical changes to all telephone networks. If you answered your door to an invisible person, you would close it very quickly.
The current default position is that the onus is on those who feel sufficiently aggrieved to ask the caller for further details and report the company for ignoring the fact their number is on the list provided by the Telephone Preference Service.
Despite the fact that thousands of citizens have filed such reports, the problem persists; therefore the current system is not working. Callers will often not co-operate with the person called and decline to give further details when asked. In some cases the mere mention of TPS causes the caller to end the call quite suddenly.
In a recent experience of mine I answered the phone to hear a recorded message telling me I qualified for a new central heating boiler for no charge, courtesy of a Government initiative. I was invited to press a key to be put through to someone who could help me. When I pressed the key, nothing happened so I hung up.
About five minutes later I received a call from a different number and the caller proceeded to ask me several questions about my central heating system. When she asked me whether I was in receipt of a means tested benefit, I replied “no” at which point she informed me I was not entitled to a free central heating boiler.
The only good outcome from this episode is that this company will not call my number again because I took this lady to task in a very robust manner. The onus should not, however, be on the person called to administer stern reprimands to this type of caller. Nuisance calls should be better regulated and controlled by those elected to represent us; ie the UK Government and its subsidiaries.
August 2013