I thought some regular members of the forum might be interested in the below email I have today sent to the CEO of GfK NOP about silent calls and/or dubious market research calls allegedly made by their organisation by an Indian call centre using faked London 020 presentation CLIs to my home number today.

If anyone has any thoughts or comments on this it would be appreciated:-


Quote:

-------- Original Message -------- Subject:      Silent Calls & Absurd Research Survey on Directory Enquiry Services Date:      Sun, 11 Oct 2009 17:00:17 +0100 To:      richard.jameson@gfk.com CC:      ukinfo@gfk.com, phyllis.macfarlane@gfk.com, colin.strong@gfk.com, mike.lordan@dma.org.uk, caroline.roberts@dma.org.uk, clive.hillier@ofcom.org.uk, gareth.davies@ofcom.org.uk, stewart.purvis@ofcom.org.uk Dear Mr Jameson, Silent Calls & Absurd Research Survey on Directory Enquiry Services From Indian Call Centre to TPS Registered Number Today (Sunday 11th October 2009) I received a silent call on my landline of 01XXX XXXXXX  at 11.10am from a London CLI of 020 7106 0330 but after 2 seconds of call centre hubbub the line went dead.  I reported this to Ofcom as a Silent Call using their web reporting form for doing so. Then later at 3.33pm I received another call from 020 7106 0330 that was manned by a strongly Indian accented call centre worker who said he was conducting a research survey for GfK NOP about directory enquiry services. I don't mind genuine market research that is brief and to the point but this was a quite ludicrous survey that asked my my opinion of three different enquiry services from endless different perspectives when the reality is that I along with the rest of the computer using public avoid them whenever we can except when perhaps being on a mobile phone makes it impossible to do so.  After a while I became fed up with this survey and told your caller I was not prepared to continue with it and hung up the line.  When I earlier in the call asked why a silent call had been made earlier in the day by this same call centre I was ignored by your caller. At 3.23pm today I also received another call from London CLI 020 7943 2810 but that must have been only one ring or so as I did not manage to answer the call.  I suspect this was also another call from your Indian call centre as like 020 7106 0330 it was permanently engaged when I tried to call it back. If I consult your web page at www.gfknop.com/customresearch-uk/company/infoforgeneralpublic/index.en.html I do not see either of the above numbers listed as being used by your company for market research surveys but they are reported as being connected with your company at http://whocallsme.com/Phone-Number.aspx/02071060330/2 and at http://whocallsme.com/Phone-Number.aspx/02079432810 Please can you tell me why your company is apparently making repeated silent calls from India in contravention of Ofcom regulations and also why the survey is of such a type that it is unlikely that almost any person called will actually be prepared to complete it to the end of the 101 questions of numerous shades of the same thing that you want to ask.  Also whilst realising that genuine market research is not forbidden to those like myself who are registered with the TPS I feel that this survey was of such a type and conducted in such a manner that it did not constitute genuine serious market research work. I look forward to your comments regarding this matter. Yours sincerely,

and this follow up


Quote:

-------- Original Message -------- Subject:      Why Engaged Tone and No Message to Apologise For Silent Call Date:      Sun, 11 Oct 2009 17:14:26 +0100 To:      richard.jameson@gfk.com CC:      ukinfo@gfk.com, phyllis.macfarlane@gfk.com, colin.strong@gfk.com, mike.lordan@dma.org.uk, caroline.roberts@dma.org.uk, clive.hillier@ofcom.org.uk, gareth.davies@ofcom.org.uk, stewart.purvis@ofcom.org.uk References:      <4AD20111.3080404@grenehurst.plus.com> Dear Mr Jameson, Further to my previous email can you also explain why the CLIs being used by this Indian call centre are from London when the calls are not from London and why when called back they are engaged instead of having a message apologising for GfK NOP having called the caller if either the person called was out when called or if GfK NOP were unable to field a call centre operative to take the call when it connected to the customer? The companies that the market research was about included the 118118, 1118247 and 118500 directory enquiry services. Regards,