Garacesh Posted June 5, 2015 Posted June 5, 2015 Only applicable in the US at the moment, but depending on EU law (I don't know if there's anything that would block this kind of thing) I expect they may try it elsewhere, too. US PayPal users face marketing robot cold calls - BBC News The updated PayPal user agreement states: "You consent to receive autodialed or pre-recorded calls and text messages from PayPal at any telephone number that you have provided us or that we have otherwise obtained." It goes on to say that it "may share your phone numbers with our affiliates," who the user must also agree to receiving so-called robocalls from. The eBay-owned company told the BBC that it "would honour any customers' requests to decline marketing outreach". But no such opt-out is included in the terms and conditions. Instead customers are invited to either accept or decline. It does say that a spokesperson said there was a way to opt out, but presumably that only opts out of the "Our affiliates may contact you" bit and not the "We will share your phone number" bit.
abillybob Posted June 5, 2015 Posted June 5, 2015 Well if they bring it over here I for one won't be using their services again. Can't believe PayPal would allow this to happen, they're always trying to market how much of a trustworthy company they are and now they're working with cold callers hmmm. My girlfriends dad has a strange setup at home, when you call their number it asks you for your name, when you state it BT automated thingy calls up her dad and asks whether or not you want to accept this call. He can then choose to put you on a trusted list or decline you or ask for permission every time. It's quite good really to avoid cold callers.
Garacesh Posted June 5, 2015 Author Posted June 5, 2015 My girlfriends dad has a strange setup at home, when you call their number it asks you for your name, when you state it BT automated thingy calls up her dad and asks whether or not you want to accept this call. He can then choose to put you on a trusted list or decline you or ask for permission every time. It's quite good really to avoid cold callers. Oooh, can you ask for the name of that 'thingy'? Or is it a service he pays BT for? I'd say 49/50 calls to our landline (and I'm really not exaggerating) are automated diallers. Solar panels, cavity wall insulation, accident compensation, PPI, you name it, we get it. 2-3 messages left on our answering machine every day.
abillybob Posted June 5, 2015 Posted June 5, 2015 Oooh, can you ask for the name of that 'thingy'? Or is it a service he pays BT for? I'd say 49/50 calls to our landline (and I'm really not exaggerating) are automated diallers. Solar panels, cavity wall insulation, accident compensation, PPI, you name it, we get it. 2-3 messages left on our answering machine every day. Yup. No problem, I've sent the message and asked. There has never been talk of having to pay money for it so I don't think he has too, he did just sell one of his businesses for 768 Million though so he doesn't tend to talk much about things that cost. Ugh... I'm in the wrong job.
abillybob Posted June 5, 2015 Posted June 5, 2015 It's called BT Guardian. Apparently you need to buy a certain BT phone to get it called the BT8500. It's about £50 http://www.amazon.co.uk/BT8500-Advanced-Blocker-Cordless-Handset/dp/B00LZTHUEO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1433490496&sr=8-1&keywords=BT+8500 1
Andrew_C Posted June 5, 2015 Posted June 5, 2015 Try the Telephone Preference Service first. Free, and applies to VM and mobile lines too. It doesn't get rid of all the calls, but we get <1/week.
Garacesh Posted June 5, 2015 Author Posted June 5, 2015 Already done. They're automated and presumably from abroad, so TPS don't mean squat
Andrew_C Posted June 9, 2015 Posted June 9, 2015 Just seen this item on the bbeb. Only 2% of people actually register complaints with OFCOM. Sick of nuisance calls and texts? Report them - BBC News
Garacesh Posted June 9, 2015 Author Posted June 9, 2015 Can't report them. Never get a company name and the number is always withheld.
X-13 Posted June 9, 2015 Posted June 9, 2015 Can't report them. Never get a company name and the number is always withheld. Can't you just block withheld numbers? I know that ours used to refuse them, but we had to take it off because hospital appointment phonecalls usually use them...
dry Posted June 9, 2015 Posted June 9, 2015 It's called BT Guardian. Apparently you need to buy a certain BT phone to get it called the BT8500. It's about £50 http://www.amazon.co.uk/BT8500-Advanced-Blocker-Cordless-Handset/dp/B00LZTHUEO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1433490496&sr=8-1&keywords=BT+8500 I remember something similar on Dragons Den quite a few years ago.... trueCall
Garacesh Posted June 9, 2015 Author Posted June 9, 2015 (edited) hospital appointment phonecalls usually use them... This is precisely the reason that we can't doctors (without going into too much detail, one of my housemates will be dealing with doctors and hospitals a lot rather soon), hospitals, emergency services, etc all use withheld. Edit: That truecall looks pretty handy, though! Edited June 9, 2015 by Garacesh
unixman_again Posted June 9, 2015 Posted June 9, 2015 Good luck with spamming my mobile - I don't have one and the number registered on my PayPal account is the mobile number that I used to have over a decade ago
LosOjos Posted June 9, 2015 Posted June 9, 2015 Sorry to go slightly off topic, but it's things like this that make me think wearable tech is doomed. How long do we think something like Google Glass will be mainstream before you're constantly being bombarded with AR advertising?
X-13 Posted June 9, 2015 Posted June 9, 2015 Sorry to go slightly off topic, but it's things like this that make me think wearable tech is doomed. How long do we think something like Google Glass will be mainstream before you're constantly being bombarded with AR advertising? http://www.adweek.com/adfreak/vibrating-train-windows-will-soon-transmit-ads-directly-your-skull-150936 Click bait aside... its worrying that someone would think this is a good thing to do.
sted Posted June 9, 2015 Posted June 9, 2015 Sorry to go slightly off topic, but it's things like this that make me think wearable tech is doomed. How long do we think something like Google Glass will be mainstream before you're constantly being bombarded with AR advertising? or the cameras on them will be used to "fill in" streetviews of everywhere
Garacesh Posted June 9, 2015 Author Posted June 9, 2015 Vibrating Train Windows Will Soon Transmit Ads Directly Into Your Skull | Adweek Click bait aside... its worrying that someone would think this is a good thing to do. Yeah, I read about those a while ago. Doesn't phase me, I don't rest my head on train windows anyway. Makes my inner ears vibrate and sort of.. tickle. It's a horrible, unusual feeling.
LosOjos Posted June 9, 2015 Posted June 9, 2015 Vibrating Train Windows Will Soon Transmit Ads Directly Into Your Skull | Adweek Click bait aside... its worrying that someone would think this is a good thing to do. This is the problem, as soon as someone sufficiently technically minded sees quick bucks to be made from advertising, their chosen tech gets exploited. I hate to say it, but Android's open nature makes it particularly vulnerable to this - I hope they have the foresight to put measures in place to make it easy to filter out carp from GG, otherwise it'll become nothing more than a distracting ad train
Arthur Posted June 30, 2015 Posted June 30, 2015 An Update to our User Agreement We value our relationship with our customers and work hard to communicate clearly. Recently, however, we did not live up to our own standards. In sending our customers a notice about upcoming changes to our User Agreement we used language that did not clearly communicate how we intend to contact them. Unfortunately, this language caused confusion and concern with some of our customers. To clear up any confusion, we will be modifying the terms of Section 1.10 of our User Agreement. The new language is intended to make it clear that PayPal primarily uses autodialed or prerecorded calls and texts to: Help detect, investigate and protect our customers from fraud Provide notices to our customers regarding their accounts or account activity Collect a debt owed to us In addition the new Sections (1.10(a) and 1.10(b)) will make it clear that: We will not use autodialed or prerecorded calls or texts to contact our customers for marketing purposes without prior express written consent Customers can continue to enjoy our products and services without needing to consent to receive autodialed or prerecorded calls or texts We respect our customers’ communications preferences and recognize that their consent is required for certain autodialed and prerecorded calls and texts. Customers may revoke consent to receive these communications by contacting PayPal customer support and informing us of their preferences. In addition to this blog post, we will be sending our customers an email notice of this change. We have also been working proactively with regulators to clarify that our focus is on our customers, on consumer protection and on doing the right thing. We appreciate the feedback our customers have provided to us on this issue and apologize for any confusion we may have caused. Louise Pentland, Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Company Secretary, PayPal 1
Garacesh Posted July 1, 2015 Author Posted July 1, 2015 We will not use autodialed or prerecorded calls or texts to contact our customers for marketing purposes without prior express written consent Can't "accepting the Ts&Cs, of which you cannot use our service if you don't accept" be considered consent? Customers can continue to enjoy our products and services without needing to consent to receive autodialed or prerecorded calls or texts Ah okay, so you can opt-out. That's nice to know. We respect our customers’ communications preferences and recognize that their consent is required for certain autodialed and prerecorded calls and texts. Customers may revoke consent to receive these communications by contacting PayPal customer support and informing us of their preferences. But they're not going to give you an easy way of doing it in Settings, huh?
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now