Barclaycard hasbeen fined the maximum possible amount for what Ofcom calls the "most serious and persistent" case of silent calls ever seen.

 

Ofcom investigated Barclaycard from October 2006 to May 2007 and uncovered an extremely high number of silent calls. The credit provider has been handed a £50,000 fine.

Silent Calls
Typically silent calls occur when call centres with automated systems dial more numbers than staff can deal with.

Consumers answering their phone are left with a silent line and are frustrated as they have been disturbed and have no idea who the call is from.

 

Silent Call Rules
Rules on silent calls in 2006 stipulated that abandoned calls must carry a short message identifying where they came from and must account for no more than 3% of all live calls made in the space of 24 hours.


No Procedures
Ofcom found that some of Barclaycard's call centres had no procedures in place to prevent people receiving repeated abandoned calls over a short period of time.

"Taken as a whole this is the most serious case of persistent misuse by making silent and abandoned calls that Ofcom has ever investigated," said Ofcom chief executive Ed Richards.

"Had we not been limited by the statutory maximum, we would have imposed a larger financial penalty to reflect this misuse."

Ofcom declined to say what Barclaycard's silent call rate was, but said the number of silent, abandoned calls made by Barclaycard was "substantially more" than the 16,000 calls for which Abbey National was fined in a previous case.

Full Apology
A Barclaycard spokesman said: "We recognise that all calls, irrespective of the purpose, should be made in the right way and we accept that our processes, in place at the time of the review by Ofcom, were inadequate.

"As a result, we offer a full apology for any inconvenience and distress to our customers that these calls caused.

"We have made robust and lasting changes to our processes, operations and reporting to ensure that we continue to be compliant and to provide the highest levels of service to all our customers."

Previous Fines
Ofcom has previously fined Abbey National, Complete Credit Management, Space Kitchens, Bracken Bay Kitchens, Carphone Warehouse and Toucan for breaches of its rules on silent and abandoned calls.