Silent calls happen when companies using call centres
place more calls to households than they have staff to be ready at
the end of the line. Some call recipients are faced with a silent
phone line because nobody at the call centre is ready to make the
call when the system automatically dials the number.
"Taken as a whole this is the most serious case of persistent
misuse by making silent and abandoned calls that Ofcom has ever
investigated," said Ofcom chief executive Ed Richards.
Ofcom's rules say that silent calls must not constitute more
than 3% of the calls made in any marketing campaign in any 24 hour
period. The rules also state that a recorded message must tell
recipients who has made the call.
Ofcom investigated Barclaycard's use of automatic calling
systems between October 2006 and May 2007 and found that it had
made "an extremely high number" of silent calls in that period.
The investigation also found that recipients had no way to know
who was behind the calls.
The Barclaycard fine is the maximum that Ofcom was permitted to
levy and the biggest fine ever handed out for silent calling.
Richards said that he would have increased the fine had he been
allowed.
"Had we not been limited by the statutory maximum, we would have
imposed a larger financial penalty to reflect this misuse," he
said.
Barclaycard said that it had changed its processes and was now
compliant with Ofcom's rules.
Ofcom has previously fined a number of other companies over
silent and abandoned calls, including Abbey National, Complete
Credit Management, Space Kitchens, Bracken Bay Kitchens, Carphone
Warehouse and Toucan, it said.
Ofcom's guidance on the persistent misuse of an electronic
communications network says that companies should ensure that they
are:
limiting abandoned calls to a rate not exceeding three per cent
of all live calls made on each individual campaign over a 24 hour
period;
playing a brief information message giving details about any call
answered before an agent is available;
providing calling line identification (CLI) information on outbound
calls, so that consumers are able to make a return call;
[leaving] a 72-hour period before a telephone number receiving an
abandoned call may be called again without the guaranteed presence
of an agent; and
[letting] unanswered calls must ring for a minimum of 15
seconds.
