Harassed by a major UK credit card company
cmsamo
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
2 years ago, we had a room-mate who lived at our place. He moved out, and is now travelling the world (as far as I know). Before he left, he changed his postal addresses for most of his stuff (we still occasionally get the odd letter)
For the last 5 months, we have been getting fairly regular automated calls from Barclaycard - wanting to speak to this person, who left the property 2 years ago. The calls are from a machine that require you to enter your card number to go through to an operator. Exhausing all the "options" from the automatic menu doesn't put you through to an operator.
The first time this happened, we would get the calls every half an hour, day after day. We called through to Barclaycard's customer complaints line, and they said they would get our telephone number disassociated with the account. We also called the guy in question, and he contacted them direct and told them he no longer lived at the address.
Ever since this initial instance (and their insistance that they have removed the number), we have had regular outbursts of calls from them. Each time, the cycle repeats. They start hammering our phone with automatic calls, we call them, tell them to remove the number, they say they will, and then the calls continue. This has gone on for 5 months.
The other day, the phone rang for the 5th time in 2 hours. I answered (expecting to hear the automated message), and it was actually an operator. She asked to speak to the guy who used to live here, and said she was from Barclaycard. I basically lost my temper and exploded on her, telling her about the harrassment calls, and that they need to stop. She said she would guarantee that our number was no longer on the system. I asked to speak to a supervisor and she said there was none, but that i could rest assured they would not call again.
The next day - they called AGAIN, and the cycle repeats.
We are on the telephone preference list so we don't get unsolicited calls etc. But my question is this - what is our next step? We are seriously considering reporting these people to OFTEL (the telephone regulators) but I would like to take this even further as I feel that this corporation is basically harassing us in our own home, and disrupting our lives. One of my room mates is on night shifts and the only way he can guarantee sleep is to unplug the telephone.
I should also mention that these calls even arrive on weekends. I was woken at 8am on Sunday morning by a call from them.
For the last 5 months, we have been getting fairly regular automated calls from Barclaycard - wanting to speak to this person, who left the property 2 years ago. The calls are from a machine that require you to enter your card number to go through to an operator. Exhausing all the "options" from the automatic menu doesn't put you through to an operator.
The first time this happened, we would get the calls every half an hour, day after day. We called through to Barclaycard's customer complaints line, and they said they would get our telephone number disassociated with the account. We also called the guy in question, and he contacted them direct and told them he no longer lived at the address.
Ever since this initial instance (and their insistance that they have removed the number), we have had regular outbursts of calls from them. Each time, the cycle repeats. They start hammering our phone with automatic calls, we call them, tell them to remove the number, they say they will, and then the calls continue. This has gone on for 5 months.
The other day, the phone rang for the 5th time in 2 hours. I answered (expecting to hear the automated message), and it was actually an operator. She asked to speak to the guy who used to live here, and said she was from Barclaycard. I basically lost my temper and exploded on her, telling her about the harrassment calls, and that they need to stop. She said she would guarantee that our number was no longer on the system. I asked to speak to a supervisor and she said there was none, but that i could rest assured they would not call again.
The next day - they called AGAIN, and the cycle repeats.
We are on the telephone preference list so we don't get unsolicited calls etc. But my question is this - what is our next step? We are seriously considering reporting these people to OFTEL (the telephone regulators) but I would like to take this even further as I feel that this corporation is basically harassing us in our own home, and disrupting our lives. One of my room mates is on night shifts and the only way he can guarantee sleep is to unplug the telephone.
I should also mention that these calls even arrive on weekends. I was woken at 8am on Sunday morning by a call from them.
cmsamo on
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Then report them anyway.
@gamefacts - Totally and utterly true gaming facts on the regular!
It's a pain in the arse, but make sure things are in writing and make sure you keep a record.
This forum is a god-send for such matters:
http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/
On Sunday, I spoke to an operator, and told her that I was going to initiate legal action against them unless the calls stopped. She said they would stop immediately.
Monday morning, we got more automated calls!
I'm hoping the letter will do the trick.
Christ sakes. Are they incompetent or deliberately obtuse? How hard can it be to take your number out the dialling computer?
In that case I would start legal action, they clearly aren't going to do anything until you lawyer up. It'll be a huge pain in the arse but you'll win so it shouldn't cost you anything and you may get some money out of it.
Why is this not an option? It takes 5 minutes, it's likely free, and 100% effective.
Call you phone company and explain the situation. I don't know why the phone company wasn't your first course of action after the calls continued the first time.
Of course that does nothing about the principle of the thing, pain and suffering etc. If I had been dealing with it this long I know I personally wouldn't want to resort to what amounts to a workaround.
It depends OP, are you willing to have it fixed easily and quickly, or do you want to try to stick it to them consumer style?
Probably because Barclaycard have numerous call centers, all with multiple numbers, most of which (if not all) will not show callerID.
It would be like asking an a phone company to "block Bank of America from calling".
Call OFCOM, keep records of all the calls and put your request to Barclaycard in writing, even if it's just a note that says "X does not live at this address with this phone number."
We were always told that putting a customer through to a supervisor was a last resort, so when they say there isnt one there it wouldnt suprise me if they were simply lying. If its an operator that rings keep pestering them to be put on with a manager, becasue they are the ones who actually get stuff done. Normal phone operators simply email managers with problems like this and more often thatn not them simply get ignored, but if you talk to the manager directly its on their ass so they should get it sorted.
check UK laws, b/c they may be buying you a new car soon
and yes, pretty much every outbound call center (especially debt collection / credit card companies) is going to have it's caller id info blocked.
Do NOT do this.
This is awful advice. The absolute worst.
The guy who you end up talking to on the phone can not talk to you about legal issues, and the second you mention it, he or she probably is required to refer you to a legal department.
Wait, you mean that he might actually talk to someone who has a clue about the legality of the situation and the deep shit the company could be in?
You know when it's a bad idea to drop the Lawyer-Bomb? When you're in the wrong.
You know when it's a great fucking idea? When you're not.
Can trade TF2 items or whatever else you're interested in. PM me.
We have actually found a way to semi-stop the phone calls for now - we harass the guy who's account it is, and get him to call them up. (God bless facebook messages)
In terms of how to stop the calls - I've written a letter, which I'll send recorded delivery today. It basically states the situation (you keep calling us, but we aren't your customer), and states that we are now making records of their calls, and recording them, and should they continue, we will be forwarding the call information to OFCOM.
Hopefully, that will stop it. If we get one more call after that, I think my (night-shift working) room-mate might go postal. The phone has already been torn out of the wall several times!