Telecom News

HomeServe fined £750,000 for silent and abandoned calls

Ofcom opened an investigation into HomeServe last year as part of its monitoring and enforcement programme aimed at reducing harm caused to consumers by silent and abandoned calls.

Ofcom investigation

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

Ofcom’s investigation into HomeServe found that the company exceeded this abandoned call rate on 42 separate occasions during the period 1 February and 21 March 2011. This resulted in an estimated 14,756 abandoned calls being made to consumers.

Ofcom rules also prohibit companies from making repeat calls to specific numbers within the same 24 hour period, where a call has been identified by AMD technology as having been picked up by an answer machine. Ofcom found that HomeServe made an estimated 36,218 calls in breach of this rule.

In reaching its decision, Ofcom took account of a number of factors including, the steps taken by HomeServe to bring itself into compliance with the rules on silent and abandoned calls, and its offer to compensate consumers who suffered harm from receiving silent and abandoned calls as a result of its breach of the rules.

Ofcom has today decided that it is 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.

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