BBC Promotes Nuisance Telephone Call Company

[Teddy Bear]

Like most people, I find it annoying receiving unsolicited phone calls with people trying to sell me something. But the BBC felt it would be valued entertainment to promote the goings on of one of these companies.

Clearly the BBC has lacked the creativity to produce quality entertainment for a long time now, so try and find something under the 'reality' umbrella to shove on the television for their viewers.

I was under the impression that the BBC wasn't allowed to promote any private companies, but they're certainly giving the one described below a lot of free publicity. I was trying to understand the motive of the BBC for using this particular company, who I see cold call to try and get people who might be able to make a claim for mis-sold payment protection insurance (PPI).

Do you think the BBC might have it in for the banks in their bid to get us closer to communism?

On a lighter note to go with this story here's an excellent humorous radio clip from the US on a comic who brilliantly pranked a telemarketer.

£225,000 fine for TV show call centre after it harassed householders with thousands of nuisance phone calls

• The BBC Three series presents life inside the call centre as something of a comic soap opera
  
• The calls cause real annoyance to millions, while there is evidence that some elderly people feel bullied and harassed

By Sean Poulter

A call centre made famous by a BBC reality TV series has been fined £225,000 for harassing families with nuisance calls.

The BBC has portrayed the company’s millionaire boss ‘Big Nev’ Wilshire as a lovable rogue, a consumer champion and even a hero.

However, the sinister reality is that his staff, who are sometimes seen dancing their way through calls, wearing fancy dress and taking part in bizarre motivational games, are causing real distress.

The BBC series ‘The Call Centre‘ has heavily promoted Mr Wilshire and his business, which is based in Swansea and operates under the name Save Britain Money Ltd.

Staff use various brand names, including ‘We Claim You Gain’, when cold calling homes to find people who might be able to make a claim for mis-sold payment protection insurance(PPI).

They also promote government energy saving home improvement schemes, such as loft insulation, under a brand called Nationwide Energy Services.

The idea is that any leads are then sold on to third party specialist firms for cash, so generating big profits for the company which has a turnover of more than £25million a year.

The calls cause real annoyance to millions, while there is evidence that some elderly people feel bullied and harassed.

Mr Wilshire’s companies went further and pestered people who had registered with an official watchdog to block marketing calls.

We Claim You Gain (WCYG) has been fined £100,000, which is the first time a company has been given a penalty for nuisance calls related to PPI.

The fine for Nationwide Energy Services(NES), whose name has been heard many times on the BBC programme, was a higher £125,000.

The fines were handed down by the Information Commissioners Office(ICO) as part of a wider crackdown by a number of watchdogs on cold call rogues.

ICO director of operations, Simon Entwisle, said: ‘The public have told us that they are fed up with the constant bombardment of nuisance calls.

‘While the activities of Nev and his call centre employees have provided entertainment for many, they hide a bigger problem within the cold calling industry.

‘People have the legal right not to receive marketing calls and these companies have paid the price for failing to respect people’s wishes.’

The ICO is calling on the Government to give it greater powers to crack down on the rogues responsible for calls and texts to landlines and mobile phones.

‘We’d like to see it made easier for us to issue penalties to companies who are breaking the rules,’ said Mr Entwisle.

Millions have become so-fed up with nuisance marketing calls for these and other services that they have registered with the Telephone Preference Service(TPS), which should block them.

However, Mr Wilshire and his staff failed to check targets before making calls. Some 2,700 complaints were made, which is likely to be only a fraction of the people who were wrongly called.
The BBC Three series presents life inside the calls centre as something of a comic soap opera

The BBC Three series presents life inside the calls centre as something of a comic soap opera. The difficulties of staff, whether it is the inability to get a date, psychological problems or the struggle to make it through a call without being abused are presented as entertainment.

At the same time ‘Big Nev’ is portrayed as an eccentric father figure who sweeps up waifs and strays, giving them a chance of a career.

He has been turned into a TV celebrity and given star billing on The One Show and BBC Breakfast. Publicity material describes him as ‘a very hands on boss who makes it his business to know the ins and outs of the call centre workers’ professional and private lives.’ It adds: ‘Nev is a big fan of John Wayne, who was one of the good guys as he puts it.’

At the same time, Mr Wilshire, aged 53, has taken full advantage of the free publicity. The firm’s website boasts: ‘Nev may have once being Swansea’s best kept secret but the man with a glide in his stride and a song to sing is now a familiar face to TV viewers around the UK.’

The company claims its work helps struggling consumers save money. Its 700 staff telephone 15,000 people a week and another 500 in the field call another 10,000 homes.

The firm had a record turnover of £25 million last year, while it was named the second best place to work in the UK on The Sunday Times list.

The free publicity offered by the BBC will help the firm, which has been named the 26th fastest growing company in the UK on The Sunday Times Virgin Fast Track 100, to win new customers.

Which? executive director Richard Lloyd said: ‘Thousands of people have told us they are sick and tired of being bombarded with nuisance calls and texts, so it’s good to see the ICO doing more to punish companies who are breaking the rules.

‘Given the scale of this problem, it’s time for the Government and telecoms providers to step in too, with new laws and new technology to tackle this scourge on people’s everyday lives.’

Mr Wilshire was unusually publicity shy yesterday. The firm said: ‘Neither NES nor WCUG accept that issuing monetary penalty notices is the appropriate course of action. Both have made the necessary representations to the ICO and will be issuing a formal appeal shortly.

‘While this process is on-going it would be inappropriate for both companies to comment further. We remain committed to the best interests of our customers at all time.’

The BBC defended the series saying: ‘The Call Centre, like all BBC programmes, went through robust editorial processes and compliance and we are confident that the programme is a balanced and fair representation of life in that place of work.’

[Teddy Bear]

Given the ethics displayed by the owner of the call center, and the likes of the BBC enabling him to further his businesses as a result of their reality TV promotion, a woman is dead.

One can only wonder whether the woman would have allowed his company to do work for her if he didn't have BBC backing for any and all of his businesses. I'm positive he wouldn't have been shy about letting it be known in his advertising.

Granny poisoned by gas leak 'might as well have been killed by intruder': Judge condemns firm that botched job

• Grandmother Joyce Moore, 83, died of carbon monoxide poisoning
• Her son had been cold-called by firm offering to carry out the work for free
• They blocked Mrs Moore's boiler flue and did not tell her it was unsafe
• Judge slammed HIS Energy run by star of The Call Centre Neville Wilshire
• Firm was fined £500,000 for safety breaches and branded 'second-rate’

By James Tozer for the Daily Mail

A grandmother who died of carbon monoxide poisoning after a botched insulation job might as well have been ‘murdered by an intruder’, a judge said.

Joyce Moore’s son had been cold-called by a firm offering to carry out the work for free.

But employees installing the insulation blocked the 83-year-old’s boiler flue and did not tell her or son Bob, 61, that it was unsafe.

As he turned the heating on that night, the house filled with poisonous gas.

On Friday a judge slammed HIS Energy – run by multimillionaire Neville Wilshire, star of fly-on-the-wall BBC series The Call Centre – as ‘second-rate’.

Fining the firm £500,000 for health and safety breaches, he added that accountant Mr Moore was ‘as much a victim of this as if his mother had been murdered by an intruder’.

But it was unclear yesterday how much of the fine would be paid as the business went into liquidation within weeks of the prosecution being launched.

Last night, Mr Moore said he felt Mr Wilshire was responsible for his mother’s death.

Months after the widow died, another of the entrepreneur’s firms was fined £225,000, for ringing homes that had opted out of cold-calls.

Mrs Moore, a retired pub landlady who had recently visited her grandchildren in Australia, lived with her son at his £250,000 detached home in Middleton, Greater Manchester.

In September 2012, he was cold-called by an agent for Mr Wilshire’s Nationwide Energy Services Ltd. Mr Moore agreed to an offer of free home insulation in a Government-backed scheme to cut carbon emissions.

Within weeks, three workmen from HIS Energy came round to insulate the loft and pump insulation beads into the wall cavities. But some of the beads blocked the boiler chimney, a well-known risk from the process, Minshull Street Crown Court in Manchester heard.

The jury was told the supervisor called his head office, but the manager responsible for safety had gone home, and a colleague decided it could wait until the next day. The workers failed to notify a gas engineer or tell Mr Moore the boiler was unsafe, saying they would return in the morning to finish the job.

Mr Moore told the Daily Mail: ‘As the last one was walking back to their van, he said, “I wouldn’t put your central heating on tonight”. I asked “Why not?”, and he just said, “It doesn’t really matter, it’s in the garage and it’s well-ventilated”.’

When Mr Moore put the heating on that evening, his mother was upstairs. He said: ‘Next thing I notice, I’m starting to get a bit groggy. I opened the back door then went upstairs … my mum was dead.’

Mr Moore rang 999. He and two paramedics suffered carbon monoxide poisoning. The trial was told HIS Energy, which did not offer a defence, failed to mention carbon monoxide in its risk assessment policy for workmen or supply warning labels to mark appliances as unsafe.

Recorder Charles Garside, QC, said the firm had used ‘smoke and mirrors’ to hide how it was organised, adding: ‘No fine I can impose will compensate for his mother’s death … or undo the harm that was done. All his effort to keep her in comfort in old age was destroyed by this incident.’

HIS Energy was put into liquidation three weeks after the prosecution was instigated, so the fine is likely to be paid by its insurers.