Rogue calls cost insurance firm £750,000 Ofcom fine

The regulator last year launched an investigation into the firm as part of research into the harm caused to consumers by silent and abandoned calls.

Under Ofcom regulations there is a limit on the number of abandoned calls that companies are permitted to make to consumers.

But the regulator’s investigation into HomeServe found that the company exceeded this abandoned call rate on 42 separate occasions between 1 February and 21 March 2011 – resulting in an estimated 14,756 abandoned calls being made to consumers.

“Our rules are there to prevent consumers suffering annoyance, inconvenience or anxiety from silent or abandoned calls,” said Claudio Pollack, consumer group director at Ofcom.

“We hope today’s fine will send a strong message to all companies that use call centres that they need to ensure they are fully compliant with the rules or face the consequences.”

Ofcom rules also prohibit companies from making repeat calls to specific numbers within the same 24 hour period if a call has been identified by AMD technology as having been picked up by an answer machine.

Ofcom found that HomeServe made more than 36,000 calls in breach of this rule.

The regulator added in a statement that it believed it was “appropriate and proportionate” to impose a financial penalty on HomeServe “to reflect the seriousness of their breach, and to act as a deterrent to them and other companies who must comply with the rules”.

HomeServe claimed the problems stemmed from the use of Answering Machine Detection (AMD) technology, which is able to differentiate between a person picking up the phone and an answerphone. If the call is answered the autodialler either plays a message or connects to a person.

The company has come under fire previously from Consumer Focus Scotland for its commercial tie-up with Scottish Water, which it ruled had confused some customers into believing that letters selling commercial insurance products were actually from the state water firm.

A spokeswoman for HomeServe said the company was offering a £10 “goodwill gesture” to customers who received a silent, abandoned or repeat call during the six-week period last year.

She said. “The problem was identified as having resulted from the incorrect use of AMD technology via an outsourcer.

“Homeserve can confirm that it no longer works with outsourcers on its outbound marketing and that AMD is no longer used in any calls.”

• Register with the Telephone Preference Service (TPS) at www.mps.org.uk which should block the majority of unsolicited sales calls.

• If you are registered with the TPS and still continue to receive unsolicited calls, log a complaint with the body through its website.

• Report the receipt of silent calls to telecommunications regulator, Ofcom. The watchdog can then keep a log of trends in complaints being made and where possible identify those companies who are not complying with the regulations surrounding such calls.

• Try to avoid giving out your phone number when buying things online.