Author Topic: Sounds like someone hasn't done their homework  (Read 2115 times)

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Offline Grumpmeister

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Sounds like someone hasn't done their homework
« on: August 08, 2015, 03:28:24 PM »
The government has announced new rules governing the use of valid phone numbers by call centres when contacting people. Sounds great I hear you say, well it would be except most of what has been announced was implemented back when I was running diallers for call centres years ago.

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The new regulations will have to grapple with the problem that many cold-calling firms are based overseas. Most also use internet phone lines, potentially making it easier to mask their origin.

Mr Vaizey will also set up a taskforce with members of the industry, regulators and watchdogs to address the blight of cold-calling. The new rules will apply only to cold-calling firms and similar companies, and not to members of the public or others who wish to withhold their phone number.

One of the biggest problems with the call centre industry is silent calling and a large part of that problem is down to answerphone detection. There is a simple method that can be implemented that will drastically reduce this as an issue given that the majority of people who need it use the virtual voicemail service provided by their service provider. Add a specific beep code to the start of the message that will tell a dialler it is an answerphone and to end the call and then make it an industry standard. While it won't help people with physical answering machines it will cut down the problem by 80-90% and would be a hell of a lot more effective than the manual 'calculate false positive answerphone detection' bollocks which was developed using pure guesswork on the basis that all diallers use the same detection algorithm with the same settings, something which is never going to happen.

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Separately, the Ministry of Justice is also considering making directors personally responsible for the calls made by their firms. This could open up new legal routes for victims to claim compensation.

So it isn't all bad then, OFCOM already has something like this in place and it absolutely terrified me back in the day as both the company and the dialler manager could be hammered for excessive cold calling and 'abuse of technology' with massive fines and prison sentences. Given past experience of sales driven senior managers speeding up the diallers without consulting me which meant that we would end up with silent calls well above the regulatory limit, going after the directors as well can only be a good thing.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3189841/Cold-caller-face-ban-using-unknown-phone-number-ruse-Spam-marketing-firms-forced-display-number-new-rules.html


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Offline apc2010

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Re: Sounds like someone hasn't done their homework
« Reply #1 on: August 08, 2015, 04:48:46 PM »
Darwin's way is best...... ;D

Offline Grumpmeister

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Re: Sounds like someone hasn't done their homework
« Reply #2 on: August 08, 2015, 05:05:23 PM »
I admit I used to have a tendency to 'helpfully' update the information a call centre would have on me whenever I received a sales call, unfortunately as I have a memory problem I kept mistaking my 'new' phone number for the contact number for that company. It was purely accidental I assure you...  whistle:
The universe is run by the complex interweaving of three elements. Energy, matter, and enlightened self-interest.

Offline Steve

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Re: Sounds like someone hasn't done their homework
« Reply #3 on: August 08, 2015, 07:07:31 PM »
I admit I used to have a tendency to 'helpfully' update the information a call centre would have on me whenever I received a sales call, unfortunately as I have a memory problem I kept mistaking my 'new' phone number for the contact number for that company. It was purely accidental I assure you...  whistle:
:thumbsup:
Well, whatever, nevermind

Offline Grumpmeister

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Re: Sounds like someone hasn't done their homework
« Reply #4 on: August 08, 2015, 07:18:32 PM »
I admit I used to have a tendency to 'helpfully' update the information a call centre would have on me whenever I received a sales call, unfortunately as I have a memory problem I kept mistaking my 'new' phone number for the contact number for that company. It was purely accidental I assure you...  whistle:
:thumbsup:

Took it a step further once when I found out a certain data supply company was still handing out my details even though I had told the they no longer had permission to do so and gave the company owner's mobile number (the joys of having good contacts in the industry)...  eveilgrin:

Had a rather irate call off him a week or so later which rapidly turned into an extremely apologetic one when I pointed out I had phoned written and emailed them to tell them to stop using my data and they had ignored all three so this seemed to be a good object lesson instead as the next step would involve contacting the Information Commissioner.

The company went bust a while ago after being fined to hell and back so I'm guessing that other than flagging me as do not use or sell data under any circumstances they didn't learn from their mistakes.  noooo:
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Offline Steve

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Re: Sounds like someone hasn't done their homework
« Reply #5 on: August 08, 2015, 09:26:46 PM »
 :thumbsup:

Wasn't there a guy recently that took out his own premium rate number and got all the money when stupid call centres kept calling it

So I think you get a highly creditable second place
Well, whatever, nevermind

Offline Grumpmeister

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Re: Sounds like someone hasn't done their homework
« Reply #6 on: August 08, 2015, 11:23:40 PM »
I did consider doing that back when I was in the industry but naively thought that as I made sure that premium rate numbers were removed from the dialler before they could be used that every call centre did the same.

Looking back I'd have easily made a small fortune.  sad24:
The universe is run by the complex interweaving of three elements. Energy, matter, and enlightened self-interest.