Customer ‘harassed’ by 225 calls from UPC

COMMUNICATIONS giants UPC and Vodafone received convictions for repeatedly sending unsolicited messages to customers.

Eircom and O2 were also found guilty of breaching data protection laws but escaped a criminal conviction and were given the benefit of the Probation Act.

All four pleaded guilty in what was a series of connected prosecutions taken by the Data Protection Commissioner (DPC) before Dublin District Court.

In one of the four summonses — totalling 12 offences — against UPC, the phone, internet and television provider attempted to ring a former customer 225 times in a 20-day period even though she had told them not to contact her.

Debra McKeown of Peak Letting and Property accused UPC of “harassment”.

Assistant commissioner at the DPC, Tony Delaney, said Ms McKeown had been subjected to a phone “campaign” after she had terminated her 56 accounts and told them by email on May 18, 2009, not to contact her.

Mr Delaney said that between that date and June 6, “UPC attempted to call her 225 times,” most of which were unanswered.

He said there were 12 actual connections and that each call related to her upgrading her account, which he described as “nonsense” as she had cancelled her accounts.

He said the company said much of the problem related to the fact that she had so many accounts that canceling one did not result in the canceling of others.

Mr Delaney said it was “one of the most serious cases” that had come before the DPC and involved “persistent and repetitive” calls.

Judge Brigid O’Reilly said she couldn’t see how some “half-wit” in UPC could not have sorted out this problem. She said it behoved a company with 2.3 million customers to have someone to do this job.

She convicted the company on all 12 charges, fined it €7,100 and ordered it to pay DPC’s legal costs.

Four of the five charges against Vodafone related to four unsolicited telephone calls to William Patterson, who not only had told the company he did not wish to be contacted but was also on the National Directory Database opt-out section.

Mr Delaney said Mr Patterson continued to receive calls even after the DPC notified Vodafone of a complaint. He said data protection commissioner Billy Hawkes had ordered an audit of Vodafone based on a number of such complaints.

Mr Delaney said that despite this audit, conducted in July 2009, the system in Vodafone had not got better. He said another complainant, Ciara O’Sullivan, who had previously received unsolicited calls in May and June 2009, received another in February 2010 and again in the last few days.

Judge O’Reilly convicted Vodafone and fined it €3,850 and ordered it to pay DPC’s legal costs.