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Two appliance repair companies have been collectively fined £120,000 for making unwanted phone calls.
The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has fined them for making illegal marketing calls to people registered with the Telephone Preference Service (TPS).
Tonbridge-based WerepairUK Ltd has been fined £80,000 by the ICO for making 42,688 unsolicited calls. He has appealed the decision.
Service Box Group Limited, based in Hove, East Sussex, has been fined £40,000 for 5,361 calls.
Cold calling: Both companies were found to have made unwanted calls to vulnerable people
These calls were made to people who had explicitly opted out of receiving marketing communications, violating their privacy and causing some distress.
The ICO said there was evidence that in both cases older people and those with conditions such as dementia were targeted.
Some people were subjected to repeated phone calls, attempting to pressure them into purchasing warranties for appliances such as refrigerators and washing machines.
Andy Curry, head of investigations at the ICO, said: ‘We have taken decisive action against WerepairUK Ltd and Service Box Group Limited; two companies that have caused significant distress by targeting people who are at higher risk of harm. These predatory marketing practices are illegal and deeply exploitative.
“We remain steadfast in our commitment to protecting the public, especially those who are unable to defend themselves against such tactics.”
An example of this is Juliet Tibbels’ mother, who was regularly called by companies despite being registered with the TPS. His mother, now 90, has dementia and was living independently at her home near Poole, Dorset, when she received the call.
Several companies that sell services such as appliance warranties and alarm pendants cold-called her.
WerepairUK Ltd sold you an appliance warranty and boiler policy. The company did not provide the ICO investigation with any evidence that it had consented to receive marketing calls from it.
Mrs Tibbels said: ‘My mother has dementia but was living alone at the time. Different companies cold called her every day trying to sell things.
“Even though I left notes all over the house saying not to give out bank details, she played along with the callers because she was confused and felt like if she said ‘yes’ she could get off the phone faster. She didn’t need these policies at all.” .
The ICO calls on the public to:
- Be on the lookout for fraudulent direct debits that are paid for unknown reasons and make sure they haven’t signed up for services you may not be aware of.
- Make sure they are registered with the TPS, which provides a free and easy way to opt out of receiving unwanted marketing calls.
- If you continue to receive unsolicited marketing calls despite being registered, please report these incidents to the ICO without delay.
What companies say
Service Box director James Kedian said: ‘The ICO sanction arose from the actions of a small number of third-party providers to whom Service Box had outsourced part of its sales and marketing operations.
“Each of these third parties had been subjected to extensive pre-contractual due diligence by Service Box and, among other things, had given written assurances to Service Box that they would not call telephone numbers registered with the TPS unless that person had expressly chosen to receive marketing calls.
‘Unfortunately, unbeknownst to Service Box, a small number of providers acted in breach of those guarantees by making calls to TPS-registered numbers without a valid subscription.
‘Service Box recognizes that since those outsourced partners were making calls on behalf of the company, Service Box is liable under PECR for the non-compliance of those third parties.
‘After being informed of these matters, Service Box immediately terminated its relationships with the relevant third parties and has made several improvements to its outsourcing procedures, including improving our due diligence and monitoring of data providers and implementation stricter compliance measures and continuous monitoring.
‘Service Box engaged and cooperated with the ICO throughout its investigation, including making all relevant data and personnel available to the ICO upon request.
‘While Service Box accepts the ICO’s findings and decided not to appeal its decision to proceed with this matter, we are disappointed that a significant number of mitigating factors raised in our written representations to the ICO, which have been recognized by the ICO in similar cases, they were not recognized or taken into account by the ICO in its decision.’
WeRepair UK has been contacted for comment.
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