Picture this: A busy weekday evening, you’ve just arrived home from work and are juggling cooking the evening meal with tackling your teenage daughter’s GCSE maths homework, a yapping dog and a screeching toddler. Suddenly, your home phone rings. You dash to answer it, panic clouds your mind at the thought of great aunt Edith finally popping her clogs. You answer and all you hear is that familiar two second silence followed by the click of the line being connected to a call centre somewhere in a distant land or, worse still, an automated message kicks in... At Plusnet we know how frustrating it is for our customers to be blighted by these types of nuisance calls and so, working alongside consumer champions ,Which?, we’re helping to identify the culprits. Which? estimates that in just one month 85%* of people get a nuisance call and in an attempt to combat this irritant they’ve developed an online complaints tool. The tool quickly directs consumers to the relevant place to complain, making it easier to register frustration caused by nuisance calls. The reporting tool aims to give authorities greater powers to do more to stop unwanted phone calls by giving them the information they need to take action against companies who contravene personal data sharing rules. Plusnet’s Director of Customer Experience and Operations, Paul Summers, commented:
“Nuisance calls can cause real misery for some people and we’re proud to be supporting the cause of helping bring them to a halt. By using Which?’s online tool to report nuisance calls our customers can help to have a real impact when it comes to highlighting rogue callers that break the law.”
Which? has also called on the Government to step in to strengthen the law on consent and the use of personal data, and to give regulators more powers to enforce the law. Over 76,000 people have so far signed up to pledge their support for Which?’s “Calling Time on Nuisance Calls and Texts” campaign. Consumers can pledge their support at: http://www.which.co.uk/callingtime Communications Minister, Ed Vaizey, said: “This initiative by Which? will make it quicker and easier for people to raise concerns about any company plaguing them with nuisance calls. I am also pleased to be working with Which?, regulators and industry to see what else should be done to cut this nuisance off at source, and will announce our plan as soon as possible.” Plusnet, a four-times Which? recommended broadband provider, offers added extras for customers to add to their call packages to help identify callers. These include caller display and the option to block callers from withheld numbers. You’ll find more information over on our website. *Populus, on behalf of Which?, interviewed 2,070 UK adults online between 19th and 21st April 2013 and 2,101 UK adults online between 3rd and 6th May 2013. Data was weighted to be demographically representative of all UK adults. Populus is a member of the British Polling Council and abides by its rules.