Advice To The Co-operative Bank III

Despite sending the Co-operative Bank several emails and going through the tortuous phone menu to try to remove my number from their database, it would seem that the Co-operative Bank is either asleep or remarkably incompetent.

I am still being plagued by calls from their computerised call centre, asking for a woman who is unknown for me.

Today I have emailed them again, this time using the email addresses of several members of their PR department.

Suffice to say, my experience of this bank leads me to conclude that it is very poorly run.

Here are few emails addresses for their "PR" people. Those of you are also experiencing harassment from the Co-operative Bank may find them useful:

cfsinvestorrelations@cfs.coop
public.relations@britannia.co.uk
duncan.bowker@cfs.coop
catherine.laycock@cfs.coop
andy.hammerton@cfs.coop
russell.brady@cfs.coop

Here is the email of David Anderson, the CEO of Co-op Financial Services david.anderson@cfs.coop

UPDATE

Third call received today from these idiots.

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Advice To The Co-operative Bank II

Despite forwarding the Co-operative Bank with a copy of my piece the other day about being bombarded with calls from their automated dialler, and despite pressing the correct buttons on my phone to remove my number from their database, they persist in calling me and asking for an unknown female.

Are these people completely incompetent?

I am very glad that I do not have an account with them, but wonder what it will take to get them to stop ringing me?

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Advice To The Co-operative Bank

Yesterday I was plagued by calls from this number 08453550305.

An automated system kept calling with a pre recorded message, allegedly from the Co-operative Bank, asking for an unknown lady (not myself or anyone known to me) to press a button in order to speak to an operator.

Not unreasonably I hung up each time, as it bore all the hallmarks of a scam.

However, on conducting some research into the matter I see that in fact this is the preferred means of contact that the Co-operative Bank employs when chasing its customers (I am not a customer of the bank).

The fact that many people have complained to the bank (see this site for examples), telling them that it sounds like a scam, and as such they hang up, appears to matter not one jot to the bank.

They continue to use this system; plaguing their customers and non customers (such as myself) morning, noon and night.

My advice to the Co-operative Bank is simple:

1 Do not use automated systems to contact your customers.

2 Listen to the complaints for your customers, and innocent third parties.

3 Take my phone number off your database.

In the event that you are plagued by calls from the Co-operative Bank, call 0161 837 8769 and ask for the Chief Executive's Office.

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Contact4

Whilst the Treasury, Bank of England, FSA and assorted financial experts argue amongst themselves as to the causes, cures and effects of the current credit crunch and debt crisis that is swamping the UK, they may care to consider the consequences of this to the people in the street.

There are finance companies and call centres that happily cold call thousands of people a day trying to foist unwanted, unnecessary and unwise financial products onto them. They use times of financial uncertainty to their advantage.

Whilst those of us who are financially literate can easily dismiss these calls/offers, as one would swat an annoying fly, there are many in the UK who are not financially literate and who are easy prey for these odious people.

Allow me to provide you with my own personal experience of the type of organisation that operates in this field.

Over the past four weeks or so I have been swamped with cold calls from one particular call centre operating in Scotland, called Contact4. They claim the following:

"Our team of Contact Service Consulting Specialists bring unparalleled experience and deliver the highest standards in both the Inbound - Outbound Industry.

Services provided by Contact4 are underpinned by 4 key principals: Passion, Decisiveness, High Standards and Respect."

The cold calls that I have received from this group claim to be "courtesy calls" on behalf of two finance companies, one of them being Smarter Loans (oddly enough the owner of Contact4, Pearse Flynn, is also Chairman of Smarter Loans).

I have on numerous occasions said quite directly, at the beginning of the call, "no thanks" and put the phone down.

Does this stop them?

No!

The fact that I have been receiving the calls in the first place is rather troublesome:

1 I am ex directory

2 I have not in the last year applied for any credit, nor am I financially distressed, nor am I looking for a loan or extra credit.

3 I have, for a very long time, been registered with the telephone preference service. This means that cold callers are obliged not to call me. Quite why Contact4 have nee calling me is therefore a bit of a mystery.

Last week I formally complained in writing to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO). The ICO has legal powers to ensure that organisations comply with the requirements of the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations.

I have heard nothing back from them, as yet.

However, still being plagued by Contact4 I blocked the number that they used (08445560022) using BT's "choose to refuse" service this week.

That worked until last night, when I received another call from them this time using 08445560020; it seems that their computer has been programmed to navigate around phone blocks.

Fortunately the BT service I use identified the "real" number behind the calls, as being 016131787000. I called this number, and got through to Contact4.

They say they got my number from maybe a data package that they bought.

The upshot being I have instructed them to remove my number immediately, and have also blocked their 0161 number.

Whilst I am well able to say no and to see through the fine print of financial products sold in this manner, there are many who can't and who are being pushed into taking on board products they don't/can't understand or indeed afford.

I would therefore strongly suggest to the Treasury, FSA, Bank of England and all other relevant regulatory authorities that if they want to bring some form of order to our over heated and over burdened credit market they need to address the issues on the front line, such as cold calling.

Those of you who have received calls from Contact4, and want to stop them them, here are their contact details:

Location

Glasgow HQ Address
Cirrus Building
Marchburn Drive
Glasgow Airport Business Park
Paisley
PA3 2SJ

Tel: +44 (0)141 305 2000
Fax: +44 (0)141 305 2001

Campbeltown Contact Centre
Kintyre House
Kintyre Business Park
Snipefield
Drumore
Campbeltown
PA28 6SY

Tel: +44 (0)1631 787 000
Fax: +44 (0)1631 787 001

Dingle Contact Centre
Milltown Business Park
Dingle
Co. Kerry
Ireland

Tel: +353 (0)66 915 3102
Fax: +353 (0)66 915 3101

Gweedore Contact Centre
Gweedore Business Park
Derrybeg
Letterkenny
Co. Donegal
Ireland

Tel: +353 (0)74 953 3300
Fax: +353 (0)74 953 3301

Contact4 Achill
One Stop Shop
Achill Sound
Achill
Co. Mayo

Tel: +353 86 58 6515

Here is their contact webpage Contact4

Gordon Hellyar
Business Development Manager
Contact4
Cirrus Building
Marchburn Drive
Glasgow Airport Business Park
Paisley
PA2 3SJ

Telephone: 01631 787000

gordonhellyar@contact4.com

Here are some of the numbers they use to call:

-08445560022
-08445560020
-016131787000

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Outsourcing To China

Those of you who are fed up with ringing your "local" bank or financial institution hoping to talk to a "local" operator, only to find yourselves talking to an operator based in India, may be less than happy to learn that the fetish for outsourcing financial services helplines etc continues.

Indeed, the call centres are likely to be moved even further away from the UK, as the Chinese have now been identified by financial institutions as a source of even cheaper labour.

A report, titled Global Financial Services Offshoring Report 2007, issued by Deloitte notes that India continues to be the global offshoring hub. However, it is likely to lose its share of two-thirds of offshored staff in the next 10 years due to competition from China.

Quote:

"India remains offshoring's hub but is likely to lose share in the future. The DTT GFSI group estimates that about two-thirds of global offshored staff is employed in the sub-continent. China threatens to be India's principal offshoring competitor.

Some 200 million Chinese people are currently learning English, providing a growing pool of skilled labour that may compete with India over the next 10 years. China's share of offshore labour is already rising, with a third of financial institutions now having back-office (mainly IT) processes based in China."

Needless to say, the financial institutions will never bother to consult with their customers over their outsourcing arrangements or the security of their outsourcing arrangements.

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BA Reservations II

It seems that I was not alone in experiencing problems accessing the BA Reservations call centre yesterday.

I tipped off the Times yesterday about my troubles, and they reported today that others had the same issues:

"More fun and games for British Airways customers, who discovered yesterday morning that the main number to make reservations, as specified on the website, didn't work. Nor did another number supplied by BA's Executive Club. The airline, which is by now convinced that I am deliberately persecuting it, admits to 'some call-routing issues' after weekend maintenance."

Despite the phone porblems not being a good omen, I will be flying to Beijing next week on British Scareways on business; let us trust they manage that aspect of their business a little better than they do their phone lines.

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BA Reservations

Well done BA for further damaging their already badly soiled brand value.

I made a bold and futile attempt to contact their reservations line this morning, on 0870 850 9 850 (the number specified on their website).

Having pressed the various option buttons, and listened to the "tinny" music, I was informed that I had dialed the wrong number and was given a new number to dial.

Can you guess what that was?

Yes, that's right 0870 850 9 850!

I rang the Executive Club, and was told that in fact the number should be 0870 850 4 850 and that the BA website was wrong.

I rang the new number...

Guess what?

I had the very same experience.

Well done lads!

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