Call centres face TalkTalk action

talktalkTwo high profile telemarketing firms have been blamed for initiating thousands of silent calls during a campaign for TalkTalk, which has been hit with a £750,000 fine from regulator Ofcom.
The calls were made through Teleperformance and McAlpine Marketing during a campaign to attract new subscribers, both of which were fired as soon as the problem was discovered.
TalkTalk conceded the fine was fair, and said it was in the process of recovering the £750,000 from the two call centres.
In total, the company made about 9,000 silent or abandoned calls, exceeding the limit for such calls on four separate occasions in a seven week period during 2011.
A TalkTalk spokeswoman said: “We demand high standards from the companies we work with and as a result TalkTalk immediately stopped using these suppliers.”
Ofcom has been working hard to tackle the issue of silent calls; last year, HomeServe was also fined £750,000 for the same issue, while energy giant Npower was fined £60,000 in December. Two years ago Ofcom given the power to fine firms up to £2m.
“Silent and abandoned calls can cause annoyance and distress to consumers,” said Claudio Pollack of Ofcom. “Companies must abide by the law and Ofcom’s policies. If they fail to do so then Ofcom will take firm action.”

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