Ofcom reprimands TalkTalk for silent calls

TalkTalk has just been reprimanded by independent regulator Ofcom for hassling customers with silent calls earlier this year. They have also been served with a strict warning from the latter and have been given a deadline until mid-November to respond to the allegations raised with regards to the silent calls. If TalkTalk is unable to address the concerns satisfactorily, Ofcom might slap them with a fine of £2 million.

So what exactly are silent calls? These are defined as calls that have been generated by the dialer which end up getting dropped by the service provider because not enough call centre agents are available to handle all of the calls that have been successfully connected. Some telecommunications companies use automated systems known as “diallers,” which are employed in call centres to generate and connect the calls.

In Ofcom’s guidelines, the regulator stated that providers should have a recorded message play when a phone is dropped or abandoned to inform the person being called that the call has not been placed through. Users had filed complaints against TalkTalk with regards to the silent calls, prompting Ofcom to conduct an investigation that has given them “reasonable grounds” to believe that TalkTalk persistently allowed and made silent calls to its users in February and March of this year. This is not the first time that TalkTalk has landed in hot water with Ofcom, as a report released by the regulator last September showed that TalkTalk topped the list of firms with the most complaints.

TalkTalk had responded to the allegations, saying that the silent calls were tracked down to a South African company and a sales agency based in Britain that the provider worked with earlier in the year. They also released the following statement: “TalkTalk no longer works with these sales agencies and, if Ofcom imposes a financial penalty, we will recover this sum from the third party responsible.”

Ofcom is giving TalkTalk until mid-November to come up with a substantial response before deciding to impose and levy a fine that could reach up to £2 million.

Source – The Guardian