Plumbing company targeting elderly and vulnerable
08/01/2014
Boilershield- now known as Kwik Fix Plumbers- have been fined for cold calling vulnerable people, many of who were registered with the Telephone Preference Service.
The information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) decided to fine the company after it was revealed many of the phone calls were made to elderly people with dementia, who ended up paying for insurance they did not need. Many people called where also registered with the Telephone Preference Service- a service where you choose to opt out of unsolicited sales or marketing calls.
The ICO issued the £90,000 fine when its investigation found Kwik Fix Plumbers had no processes in place to stop calls being made to people who had registered to not receive cold calls.
Kwik Fix Plumbers have said that they have now fixed the problems that were highlighted.
Calling someone who is registered with the Telephone Preference Service without their consent is breaking the law. The ICO said they thought the 214 complaints they received were just the tip of the iceberg, and the company could have made many more unsolicited calls.
Kwik Fix Plumbers said:
"These complaints were caused by a combination of naivety to the rules and regulations combined with technical problems.
"When the Information Commissioner's Office contacted us we took immediate action and took the necessary steps required to eradicate the issues."
Andy Curry, the ICO's enforcement group manager at the regulator said:
"We first alerted Kwik Fix Plumbers at the beginning of 2014 so they had ample opportunity to rectify the systems they had in place and stop calling people.
"We didn't find any evidence they deliberately targeted older people, but the majority of the complaints were from carers of people who had Alzheimer's or other debilitating conditions."
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