Barclaycard shenanigans.

[Drsolly <drsollyp () drsolly com>]

I got a phone call, someone wanted to talk to me about my Barclaycard.  
They said they were "calling on hehalf of Barclaycard", so I asked them
who they were. They said they're ICT Canada. We talked a bit, and they had
my name, address, phone number and I don't know what else. So I politely
explained that I don't discuss this sort of thing with people who call me
out of the blue.

"Oh, it's not a sales call," she said - I hadn't suggested that it was, at
that point. But she was keen to get on with her script.  "It's an
administrative call. Your account says you don't want sales calls, but
that means you're missing lots of great offers, and I'm calling to get you
to change that." So we chatted a bit more, and hung up.

Then I phoned Barclays, my bank. They often try to tell me that 
Barclaycard isn't anything to do with them, but I always explain that I'll 
believe that if they sue Barclaycard for using their brand name.

So I got Barclays to talk to Barclaycard about this - I reported it as 
possibly a fraud attempt.

Then I got a letter back from Barclays. Apparently, it wasn't a fraud, it 
was indeed Barclaycard, making a sales call to someone who had requested 
no sales calls, and pretending that it wasn't a sales call. The lady from 
Barclays invited me to send in a complaint.

Naturally, I refused, explaining to her that I wanted *her* to make the 
complaint, and to get someone from Barclaycard to call me back on this. 
Why should I have to do the work? I pay enough in bank charges.

Meanwhile, I've been reading in the Daily Telegraph that other people have 
been getting this.

So after a while, I got a call from a guy at Barclaycard. I got the 
impression that he totally held his hands up.

1) Giving out my personal data to a third party, which is certainly 
reprehensible and possibly illegal under the Data Protection Act.

2) Making a sales call to me after I'd specifically requested no sales 
calls. When I tell them that they can call me over administrative matters, 
I mean calls like "Someone just tried to bill your card", or "you just 
exceeded your limit".

3) Training users to respond to complete strangers talking to them about 
their credit card.


With bank morons like this, it's no wonder that phishers flourish. And 
how can we do much about spam, when even a previously respectable company 
like Barclaycard uses telespam despite me having requested they don't call 
me for sales.

So, I'm making a request of Barclaycard (I'll tell you how this goes). I 
want them to change their policy on sales calls - I want them to stop 
calling people who've requested no sales calls (which is what I'd have 
thought their policy already was, but obviously it isn't).

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