The Government today announced an Action Plan to tackle the menace that is nuisance calls. Here’s communications minister Ed Vaizey to share how your calls have influenced the Government to take action.
I don’t want to make a claim for mis-sold PPI. But what I really don’t want is anymore phone calls offering to help me make a claim.
I along with many, many others have had enough.
The rules are clear – register with the Telephone Preference Service and the calls should stop if you’ve asked them to. But they don’t. We continue to be plagued by unwanted calls from companies trying to sell us some product or service. It has to stop.
Action to stop nuisance calls
For the first time, we’ve got everyone together. I’ve been meeting with other ministers, regulators, consumer groups like Which? and industry to produce a proper co-ordinated plan of attack. And it’s already bearing results.
Regulators have spoken to problem firms. Legitimate companies, like British Gas and TalkTalk, have swiftly cleaned up their act with complaints against them falling by as much as 75%.
They know annoying your customers with endless, unwanted calls is not the way to build a successful business.
For the others – the cowboys and chancers with no reputation to worry about – they’re being hit where it hurts. Fines worth £2.54m have been dished out since January 2012.
New rules to tackle nuisance calls
We’re going to consult for the first time ever to lower the threshold for imposing sanctions. I’ve asked Richard Lloyd at Which? to lead a task force to make sure that people only hear from who they want to hear from. And we’re now looking at other ways to crack down on these cowboys and stop them from getting your details in the first place.
We’re going to make it easier for regulators to share intelligence about rogue companies, and Which? will lead a review of how people agree to receiving marketing calls.
There is no simple answer to this problem. But we now have a co-ordinated approach to beating this nuisance.
This is a guest post by Ed Vaizey, Minister for Culture, Communications & Creative Industries. All opinions expressed here are his own, not necessarily those of Which?.
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