For the IPs

[mikebdomain]

Is cold calling allowed by the regulators in your industry?

I ask the question as, cold calling has been disallowed in our industry by the FSA since regulation began, and recently I am getting plagued by automated calls for IVAs.

If the practise is disallowed, I am hoping to make some complaints and get them stopped.

The third party company I was passed through to was Debt Free Direct, who so far have been less than helpful in providing me with their supplying firms details…

[MelanieGiles]

I do not think that there is anything in our regulations that specifically excludes it, but it is pretty frowned upon amongst professionals generally. Are you saying that DFD have cold called you as an individual or as a mortgage broker, and were the calls actually from them or agents acting on their behalf?

[mikebdomain]

The actual automated call, was to a number than is on the TPS register (£2000 fine there), it was automated, so not initially aimed at any individual or company directly. It was a third party company who passed me through to DFD without informing me that they were doing so.

I have attempted to get the details of the firm making the calls on a number of occasions, but each time I ask questions, the phone goes dead or they give me details of a firm based in California, which is just a postal address for hundreds of companies.

The questions they ask

Do you have debts with more than three companies?
Are you in full time employment?
If you did not pay your unsecured debts, would you have at least £250 a month spare?
What is your surname?
What is your address?

There is also a little script; Did you know that there is a government blah blah blah, where you could write off debt blah blah blah

Then they say they are going to put you though to one of their advisors and I ended up at DFD

[MelanieGiles]

Well they are the largest provider of IVAs in the country so this sales method must be producing results.

And I wonder why they are targetting you Mike - have you been late paying the phone bill?!!!!

[mikebdomain]

LOL - we have just had 13k's worth of new phone system installed (I think I paid the bill) and we have been assigned a load of new DDIs.

The number they are ringing is one of the new DDIs. BT tell me the number is a new one and they have no idea how anybody got it, so it would indicate this company are targeting random numbers with specific area codes. Funny though we had 20 new DDIs, and it is only this one number that is getting the calls from this company...

[Skippy]

We had one of these on a DDI before we moved offices. Sadly I didn't get the call or else I would have gone along with it to find out more!

[MelanieGiles]

I wonder what strike they get from call to conversion. Extremely low I would have thought, but someone must be paying for those call-centre staff.

[mikebdomain]

Prior to FSA regulation, I worked at Regency Mortgage Corporation, where I ran a mosaix dialler.

This monstrous bit of kit, would dial 1200 numbers a minute, on 30 lines. We only ever had a maximum of 6 people as call center staff. So staffing levels, after initial investment wasn't that expensive.

The call was only put through to an expensive human, once the receiver had met the minimum requirements (generally pressed a number on the keypad) The hardware was virtually outlawed by FSA regulation.

[:)] Maybe karma does exist.. and it's payback time...

[Adam Davies]

Hi
With agreed IVAs down 27%,compared to the same three month period last year,there must be IPs and third parties very hungry for business.
Let's hope there is no silly sales talk and misleading info given out in pursuit of new custom
Regards