I received a complaint regarding a marketing phone call made by a life assurance company Acorn Life Ltd. The complainant stated that her preference was recorded on the National Directory Database (NDD) Opt-Out Register not to receive marketing phone calls. On receipt of this complaint, we checked the complainant's phone number against the NDD Opt-Out register which showed the phone number had been opted out of marketing when the call was made.
In response to our investigation, Acorn Life Ltd stated that a member of its telesales team had made the marketing phone call to the complainant. It stated that its procedure was to clash a prospective number against the NDD Opt-Out Register to ensure that it was not listed. It could not confirm that this procedure was followed in this instance as the staff member who made the call had left the company in the meantime.
Acorn Life Ltd stated that it wished to apologise to the complainant and by way of amicably resolving this complaint it suggested a donation of €500 to a charity of the complainant's choice. The complainant accepted this offer. In addition, a formal warning was issued to Acorn Life Ltd to the effect that if we received any further complaints regarding its marketing operations prosecution action may be taken against it in the event that offences were found to be committed.
This case highlights the need for those involved in marketing activity to follow correct procedures to ensure that marketing calls are not made to those wishing not to receive them. The simple step of properly clashing the complainant's phone number against the NDD Opt-Out Register would have ensured that the number was not called in this instance and a breach would have been avoided.