Pink Dog

Got an automated sales call from 0161 814 9565 (DS Financial Services)?

Man talking on a phone. CC0 Public Domain

Well I did. Which is interesting for three reasons.

First, automated sales phone calls are meant to be made only when the caller has prior permission from the recipient to make an automated call.

Second, because when I rang the firm and was told I was speaking to Jonathan Edwards of DS Financial Services, he told me that they are a “government-backed firm”.

And third, as he said my phone number had been given to DS Financial Services by the government with permission to use it in this way.

Hmm, yes. Or rather no.

You also received such a questionable call where they make claims of such questionable accuracy? Remember you can report it for investigation by the Information Commissioner.

There’s a very simple and quick online form you can fill in here – and it’s well worth doing so, because the Information Commission rarely leaps into effective action after one complaint about such a firm, but does take action when it gets many. So do what I did, send in a complaint and help get something done.

12 responses to “Got an automated sales call from 0161 814 9565 (DS Financial Services)?”

  1. this happens to me almost daily. Moreover, I get emails offering services about things that have happened to me. For instance, I had never received an email about damages claims until I was attacked on the roadside and the police intervened. Who told them? Are databases being sold or hacked?

    • @Neville Farmer Possibly; but unless you have more direct evidence, you may just be making the same sort of association that led many parents to believe that their children developed autism as a result of MMR. There are many cases of assault; and many scammers and direct-mail marketers offering compensation for damages. It may very well be coincidence.

  2. Neville, I have had calls like that without your misfortune, even had one about a car accident where I apparently caused a lot of damage to other car, even though i dont drive, is prob just a cooincidence/ you attach causality because of your experience, which is quite normal behaviour

  3. it was curious, however, Chris, that it started wiithin a few days of the court case and hadn’t happened before but you may be right. The problem was I also only started getting miss-sold PPI claim offers after I wrote to my bank about it and I find such “coincidences” suspicious.

  4. if it was court case i expect there are people hired to search them down, i feel sorry for people that are at home during the day, as if I ever am , then i get these irritating phone calls

  5. Neville: The other way of looking at it is that if they blind call lots of people, they’re bound to end up calling some people just after an apparently related events has just happened. For those people the timing feels spooky but it only happens because also of the large number of people who were called and for whom the timing wasn’t significant.

  6. it may be so, Mark and Chris, though I do wonder who is passing around our data. How, for instance, does a re-seller that Orange say they don’t endorse, know when my Orange contract is up for renewal and what plan I’m on? It’s happened three times and each time they said they were from Orange, which Orange denies. Similarly, why did two companies call to replace my Sky box warranty just before Sky did?

  7. Be happy that automated sales calls to you are rare enough for you to blog about, Mark. Like Neville and Chris, I get them all the blooming time!

  8. I how where you’re coming from. There’s this company that keeps making automated calls. Yesterday, I got over 7 recorded messages and with the last call, as soon as I got connected to a live rep, I REPEATEDLY asked the caller to stop and take me off their list. But tonight somebody called again and when I
    asked to speak to a supervisor, he hung up. 
    I looked them up on-line and pulled up several complaints at http://www.callercenter.com against the company associated with the phone number. This is getting ridiculous!

  9. I’ve just received the latest of a number of calls from these people.  This time he said it was in response to my online application for financial assistance.  When I said I couldn’t remember that application and asked for more information about it he got difficult and eventually put the phone down.  I phoned back to complain, thinking I would speak to some-one different but it was the same person and he was quite abusive.  The phone number was the same as above except that the last digit was 1, not 4.

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