TalkTalk has been given a talktalking to for calling people and hanging up. Ofcom has fined the phone company £750,000 over excessive silent and abandoned phone calls.
Telecoms watchdog Ofcom slapped TalkTalk with the fine for making 9,000 silent or abandoned calls to potential customers during a telesales campaign in 2011.
TalkTalk blames two call centres, run by Teleperformance Limited and McAlpine Marketing Limited, that went over the limit for telemarketing calls on four separate occasions in two months. TalkTalk has cut ties with the companies and intends to get them to pay the fine.
If you have a landline you probably know the drill: you've just settled down to watch The One Show with some cold cuts and a flagon of mead, when the phone goes. When you answer, you're greeted by silence or a dead line.
Automated calls often fail to realise the phone has been answered by a real person. Thinking you're an answering machine, the robophone either ends the call -- an abandoned call -- or fails to play the intended message -- a silent call.
The maximum fine for abandoned calls is £2m.
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