-------- Original Message --------
Subject:      SMETS2 Call From Illegal 0844 Lowri Beck Number
Date:      14.8.2019 09:45
From:      NGMsGhost
To:      bob.vernon@lowribeck.co.uk
Copy:      keith.anderson@scottishpower.com, colin.mcneil@scottishpower.com, andrew.lappin@scottishpower.com, charles.langan@scottishpower.com, "chris.walker@lowribeck.co.uk." <glyn.jones@lowribeck.co.uk>, grant.qualey@lowribeck.co.uk, stephen.moores@lowribeck.co.uk, robin.bradshaw@lowribeck.co.uk, tracy.sanderson@lowribeck.co.uk, robin.bradshaw@lowribeck.co.uk, frank.caldwell@lowribeck.co.uk, robin.bradshaw@lowribeck.co.uk, david.barratt@lowribeck.co.uk, dermot.nolan@ofgem.gov.uk, sarah.cox@ofgem.gov.uk, mary.starks@ofgem.gov.uk, jonathan.brearley@ofgem.gov.uk, rob.salter-church@ofgem.gov.uk, rachel.clark@ofgem.gov.uk, sacha.deshmukh@smartenergygb.org, alistair.gibbons@smartenergygb.org, gavin.sheppard@smartenergygb.org

Dear Mr Vernon,

SMETS2 Meter Installation Call From Illegal 0844 Lowri Beck Number

Please can you explain to me why I received a call just now (8.17am on 14th August) from Lowri Beck on behalf of Scottish Power about installation of a SMETS2 gas and electricity meters in my home from a number with a CLI of 0844 245 1260?  This is in addition to the fact that the call was made to me at 8.17am, which I consider to be too early in the day not to inconvenience retired people or people taking a day's leave but staying at home.  I think the earliest such calls should be made is after 9.30am and indeed customers would probably be far more receptive to such calls between 5pm and 8pm in the evening and/or at the weekend than early on in the morning and/or during the working day.

However returning to the main issue at hand this article on the Call Centre Helper website at www.callcentrehelper.com/companies-still-ignoring-ban-on-0845-numbers-86142.htm in April 2016 noted that some call centres were still ignoring the transposition of the EU Consumer Rights Directive in to UK law in summer 2014 when the relevant UK statutory instruments clearly required that only standard rated numbers starting 01, 02 or 03 (all 084 numbers having an 03 equivalent reserved for them by the number vendor which can be immediately and painlessly switched to).

So having already previously been plagued with calls by Lowri Beck to install what I knew to be an entirely pointless and soon to be redundant SMETS1 meters that you and Scottish Power knew full well would become redundant if I moved supplier I find it extraordinary that when contacting the band of refusenics who have been intelligent enough to avoid installing SMETS1 meters you continue to break the requirements of an EU Directive and the relevant UK statutory instruments by still using an 0844 number as though you are some bandit company with no customer service values whatsoever and who apparently only cares about funding its switchboard equipment and phone maintenance at the customer's cost.

If you doubt that the requirement to not use 084 numbers does not exist and think that you as company directors are not liable for legal action over the misuse of such numbers then perhaps you should also check out the articles at www.gov.uk/government/news/government-cuts-off-costly-calls and www.fairtelecoms.org.uk/consumer-contracts-regulations.html which clearly specify that this is the case.  So I would like to know why a large organisation like yours making tens of thousands of calls a week to UK consumers shows so little care for complying with the law that you are still illegally using an 0844 number as your call back CLI?

Lastly since I also have a difficult meter location in a basement store room (my flat is on the ground floor above several, corridors, walls and doors away) that only has a small ventilation opening that when last checked only allowed signal through on one network I was also unimpressed that the lady calling me today could not email me with any technical details of how the smart meter and/or in the in home customer display worked in terms of their ability to communicate with each other or send readings back to Scottish Power via the mobile network.  Instead you just expect customers to blindly agree to the smart meter being installed without checking if it is a location where this may be difficult.

Continued Below...

-------- Original Message --------
Subject:      RE: SMETS2 Call From Illegal 0844 Lowri Beck Number / SCOTMOP2019-13154
Date:      14.8.2019 13:08
From:      LBComplaints <LBComplaints@Lowribeck.co.uk>
To:      LBComplaints <LBComplaints@Lowribeck.co.uk>,

Good afternoon sir

Thanks for your email.

We have logged a complaint for you, the reference number is SCOTMOP2019-13154.

We will investigate this and get back to you soon.

Yours sincerely

Arunava

-------- Original Message --------
Subject:      Senior Mgmt Ducking Responsibility Re 0844 Misuse
Date:      19.8.2019 08:39
From:      NGMsGhost
To:      Bob Vernon <Bob.Vernon@LowriBeck.co.uk>
Copy:      keith.anderson@scottishpower.com, colin.mcneil@scottishpower.com, andrew.lappin@scottishpower.com, charles.langan@scottishpower.com, chris.walker@lowribeck.co.uk, Glyn Jones <Glyn.Jones@lowribeck.co.uk>, Grant Qualey <Grant.Qualey@lowribeck.co.uk>, stephen.moores@lowribeck.co.uk, Robin Bradshaw <robin.bradshaw@lowribeck.co.uk>, Tracy Sanderson <Tracy.Sanderson@lowribeck.co.uk>, David Barratt <David.Barratt@lowribeck.co.uk>, dermot.nolan@ofgem.gov.uk, sarah.cox@ofgem.gov.uk, mary.starks@ofgem.gov.uk, David Grimshaw <david.grimshaw@lowribeck.co.uk>, sacha.deshmukh@smartenergygb.org, alistair.gibbons@smartenergygb.org, gavin.sheppard@smartenergygb.org

Dear Mr Vernon,

Senior Mgmt Ducking Responsibility Re 0844 Phone Number CLI Misuse

Further to my email of last Wednesday, 14th August, I wanted to make clear that I feel the below reply from Arunava of "LB Complaints" (no last name provided and quite possibly could be an outsourced contract worker based at a customer service centre in India but no way to know given that Arunava gives no address) to be a wholly inadequate way of dealing with the issue of your company and Scottish Power continuing to recklessly disregard a change in legislative requirements on call centre phone numbers that banned the used of non standard rated numbers (that is any number other than 01, 02 or 03 although 080 Freephone would also be permissible) for any customer related call more than five years ago.

The only reason this matter hasn't been fixed so far appears to be because the well paid senior executives of Lowri Beck and Scottish Power haven't bothered acquainting themselves with these requirements themselves and instead presumably allow all of their call centre operations to be run by low cost (for it but not their customers who are ripped off calling back 0844 numbers that cost up to £1 a minute from a mobile phone and are excluded from all bundled minutes packages) call centre operations who don't themselves seemingly feel responsible for complying with legislative requirements when making calls on behalf of their clients.

The below email from Arunava (to which there has been no further follow up so far) is not good enough and I should have received a call back from someone at a senior management level at Lowri Beck and/or Scottish Power to indicate what you are going to do to stop making tens of thousands of phone calls a day or week showing an 0844 CLI that breaks current UK legislative requirements.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Regards,

NGMsGhost

-------- Original Message --------

Subject:      Previous MSE Lowri Beck 084 Misuse Discussion
Date:      19.8.2019 09:16
From:      NGMsGhost
To:      Bob Vernon <Bob.Vernon@LowriBeck.co.uk>
Copy:      keith.anderson@scottishpower.com, colin.mcneil@scottishpower.com, andrew.lappin@scottishpower.com, chris.walker@lowribeck.co.uk, Glyn Jones <Glyn.Jones@lowribeck.co.uk>, Grant Qualey <Grant.Qualey@lowribeck.co.uk>, stephen.moores@lowribeck.co.uk, Robin Bradshaw <robin.bradshaw@lowribeck.co.uk>, Tracy Sanderson <Tracy.Sanderson@lowribeck.co.uk>, David Barratt <David.Barratt@lowribeck.co.uk>, dermot.nolan@ofgem.gov.uk, sarah.cox@ofgem.gov.uk, mary.starks@ofgem.gov.uk, David Grimshaw <david.grimshaw@lowribeck.co.uk>, sacha.deshmukh@smartenergygb.org, alistair.gibbons@smartenergygb.org, ysusf.patel@scottishpower.com, julie.keough@scottishpower.com

I see the issue of Lowri Beck also wrongly using 0845 numbers on cards left by meter readers when the householder is not at home was also discussed in Feb 2018 at https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=5787669

So it seems your company does not care it is breaking the law on this matter and is deaf to all calls to change its 084 numbers to the immediately available 034 equivalents that are always included in call packages and thus do not break the law or cost customers £1 per minute or more to call from a mobile phone...........

Surprised that no one else seems to care …

The Lowri Beck discussion has been continuing further today over at https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?p=76178758

SilentCallsVictim wrote on Aug 20^th, 2019 at 8:58pm:


Lowri Beck is marketing installation of Smart Meters but there is no direct financial consideration from the consumer for having them installed so I don't know if the regulations apply in this case or not.

Whilst you can quote the regulations until the cows come home what we actually need to see is some proactive enforcement of them by the various gatekeepers but in general that always appears to be lacking as Lowri Beck are no doubt well aware.