Companies that star in hit BBC Three reality TV series The Call Centre slapped with £225,000 fine for nuisance PPI calls

By TARA EVANS

PUBLISHED: 12:30, 18 June 2013 | UPDATED: 12:54, 18 June 2013

 
 
 

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Two companies that appear in BBC Three TV series The Call Centre have been fined £225,000 for nuisance payment protection insurance calls.

The Information Commissioner’s Office issued penalties to Nationwide Energy Service and We Claim You Gain – both firms that feature in the light-hearted fly-on-the wall documentary following the personal and professional lives of eccentric boss Nev Wilshire and his team.

The fines were issued by the ICO in response to 2,700 complaints between May 2011 and the end of last year.

Fine: Television programme, 'The Call Centre', shows boss Nev Wilshire in his Swansea based office. Two of his firms have been fined a total of £225,000 for nuisance PPI calls.

The ICO said that ‘neither company carried out adequate checks to see whether people they were calling had registered with the Telephone Preference Service, which is a legal requirement'.

The Swansea based companies are part of Save Britain Money Ltd and a spokesman said that neither accepts that a fine ‘is the appropriate course of action'.

More...

• PPI mis-selling victim left in the dark after Barclaycard slashed compensation by £19k but refuses to explain why
• 'We wasted a lot of money and no one will take responsibility': PPI mis-selling victim exasperated as no one will pay up
• Nuisance calls nightmare: Blocking service 'fails to stop' phone pests

A spokesman added that the companies are issuing a formal appeal and that they ‘remain committed to the best interests’ of customers at this time.

Problems: Nev Wilshire with admin assistant Kayleigh Davies from BBC Three fly-on-the wall-documentary 'The Call Centre'. The ICO said that the fine was issued after 2,700 complaints were received.

A spokesman from the BBC said: 'The Call Centre is a highly successful BBC Three observational documentary. The BBC purely documents this workplace and the lives of those involved in it. 

'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.'

Simon Entwisle, director of operations at the ICO, 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.’

Boss: Nev Wilshire, chief executive of Swansea's third biggest call centre. A spokesman said the firms would be seeking an appeal on the fine.

Earlier this year consumer group Which? launched a campaign to end nuisance calls and texts – it has received almost 62,000 votes of support from consumers so far.

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 Information Commissioner’s Office 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.

‘The ICO and other regulators must be given more power to properly police how our personal data is used, so we can call time on nuisance calls and texts.’

The ICO has issued fines totalling more than £750,000 to companies who have breached Privacy and Electronic Communications regulations. It is carrying out ten more investigations.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/money/news/article-2343790/Call-centres-BBC-Three-programme-hit-225-000-fine-nuisance-PPI-calls.html#ixzz2Waz6WTRz
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The Disturbing Trend of Christian Self-Deprecation

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Hey Facebook fan! If this post inspires you or makes you think please like it and share it with your friends.Keep the Faith!

Christianity is a corporate community that includes thousands of different sects, factions, organizations and denominations—it includes millions of individuals and their nuanced theologies. The problem with the “Christian” label is that Christians often completely disagree with many of the characteristics attributed to them, and many Christians are ashamed to be associated with “Christianity” because of the negative stigmas tied to the label—representing things that overshadow Christ.
This is why self-deprecation is so attractive, because it defends Christianity without completely agreeing with it. Wikipediadefines self-deprecation as: the act of belittling or undervaluing oneself. It can be used in humor and tension release. It’s used as a tool to disassociate ourselves from the things we’re ashamed of: Westboro Baptist, televangelists, huckster street preachers, end times lunatics, politicizing preachers, bigoted fundamentalists, homophobia, anti-science and anti-environmentalist agendas and a whole lot more.
Christians use self-deprecation as a defense mechanism, a form of social disparagement used to defend our faith—from ourselves. Unfortunately, Christianity has become the favorite punching bag for Christians, an easy target to place blame for all our shortcomings. And it’s becoming mainstream, a common practice among believers.
Related: Healing Toxic Faith…Did Jesus Die to Save Us from God? by Derek Flood
We laugh and make fun of our dark and embarrassing characteristics as if to say to the secular world, “Hey, we can relate to you, and we realize that these things are bad.” We want society to understand that we agree with them on many levels, and yes, we also think certain things are wrong, horrible and evil—we use self-deprecation as a pseudo form of evangelism.
Self-deprecation is also a way for Christians to proclaim self-awareness, to identify ourselves with how we think we’re perceived. We joke about everything that’s unique and weird about Westernized Christian culture: acoustic guitars, bad church coffee, youth group activities, first-time visitor gifts, bulletins, organs, choirs, megachurches, short-term mission trips, CCM, offertories, Christmas pageants and old-fashioned hymns.
But self-deprecation can easily transform into self-righteousness. We shame the Christian things we don’t like or have become too familiar with, and look down on those who disagree with us or fall into these molds. It causes us to join cliques based on our frustrations instead of unifying believers through contentment. Elitism and haughtiness quickly follow.
Self-deprecation is often based on stereotypes, assumptions and half-truths, so while we make fun of Seminary students who constantly pluck away on their acoustic guitars—there’s also very real worth in worshipping God (even using an acoustic guitar). Thus, we avoid experiencing Christian clichés—even if they can be positive and healthy for us.
We also deceive ourselves by using self-deprecation as an artificial form of forgiveness and holiness, believing that making fun of our imperfections and evils is the same thing as eradicating—or  taking responsibility—for them. So while it’s easy for us to joke and dismiss televangelists and radical preachers who spew hate-filled messages, we rarely take practical steps to stop them.
Also by Stephen: The 6 BEST Things About American Christianity
For many, self-deprecation is a way of avoiding the responsibility of encountering our fears, disappointments and regrets related to our faith. We critique and criticize our corporate Christian identity because it makes us feel better—as if we’re admitting our guilt. But self-deprecation is not the same thing as forgiveness.
And while we think self-deprecation causes us to be more relatable and empathetic to non-Christians, it’s ultimately communicating a sense of disappointment, disillusionment and discontentment—it thrives on negativity and kills our sense of hope.
The reality is that there are many things wrong with “Christianity,” but instead of focusing on the bad, let’s attempt to reclaim the hope that Jesus represents—redeeming our world by personifying the sacrifice, service, grace, hope, joy and love of Christ.
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Stephen Mattson has written for Relevant, Sojourners, and The Burnside Writer’s Collective. He graduated from the Moody Bible Institute and is currently on staff at Northwestern College in St. Paul, MN. Follow him on Twitter @mikta.
Photo Credit: Samuel Perry / Shutterstock.com

Are we living in the Past, the Present or the Future? Part 1: Living in the Past.

I often wonder what is the attraction of TV Programmes like ITV’s Downton Abbey  and  Alibi’s Murdoch Mysteries . ? Is it Nostalgia  for an earlier, seemingly more innocent age ?, perhaps with all the upheaval that we both see around us and read about that directly or indirectly affects our day to day lives, is living in or thinking  about the past some sort of safety net?

I had a blast from the past while listening to Absolute 80's,I enjoy listening to some great and not so great songs from my younger days ! but I wouldn’t choose to travel back in time, like some Welsh version of Dr Who and try to live in those days.   I grew up in a small village in the South Wales Valleys called Melin Court, and spend time not only there but in other villages like Resolven and Clyne. Overall when I wear my rose tinted glasses I enjoyed my time growing up there, but if I could ask my teenage self the same question what would the answer be?

I enjoy music, and did Cse Music in School, (I also played Chess on one of the School Chess Teams) I had the opportunity to visit the world famous Cavern Club in Liverpool , it’s one of the places the Beatles played, it was packed and overall I enjoyed my time there, there was a live band playing cover versions of songs by The Beatles and The Who. The atmosphere was electric, but one thing struck me, here’s a young band not playing their own songs but playing the songs of a previous generation!

My time at The Cavern Club lead me to think about why we sometimes try to live in the past, we let the circumstances of  our past, the influence of others,  past hurts, past disappointments,  feelings of hurt and sometimes bitterness govern our lives. We let the things that happened 5, 10, 15 or even 20 plus years influence how we live today, perhaps the hurt of a breakdown of a relationship that has happened in the past we don’t allow ourselves due to the fear of rejection or the fear of a failure to move on to a better relationship. Sometimes we try to eat the fruit of past blessings, happiness, success which like all fruit that was picked and not eaten, has become rotten, instead of picking and eating the new fruit for today.

The Prophet Isaiah wrote in Isaiah 43:18-19b, NivUk

“18 Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past.    19 See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?”

It’s easy to try to live in the past, but God calls us to move on and move forward to both bigger and better things.

The Apostle Paul wrote in Philippians 2:13-14NivUk

“ 13 Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining towards what is ahead,    14 I press on towards the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenwards in Christ Jesus.”

So let us turn away from our past, because it’s a new beginning, a new start and a new season for us all.

 

Yours in His Grace

Blair Humphreys

Southport, Merseyside

*”I have no regrets about what happened in my younger days”