News - Cold Calling Victim Who Fought Back

Cold Calling victim who fought back

Complaints about unsolicited calls and texts from sales and marketing companies have reached an all-time high, but one man took it upon himself to fight back.

A man from Middlesex, successfully claimed back the cost of his time from a firm which called him when he had specifically asked them not to.

The man from Middlesex felt like he was being hounded by calls and texts from companies telling him they could help him claim compensation after an accident or claim back money spent on missold payment protection insurance (PPI).

He hasn’t had an accident; he’s never taken out PPI and he’s registered with the Telephone Preference Service (TPS), which should stop unwanted sales calls. So he decided to take action.

A lot of reports about the case were grossly misleading. They made it sound as though he actually sued and won, when in fact the company he was suing paid up before the case began. There is an important distinction.

Now to some people, that’s a win and to others, a ‘wins a win’. However, a word of warning to all you lawyer wannabes out there. Many cases like the one in Middlesex have been lost because by and large there are few, if any, legal grounds to sue a company over an unsolicited phone call. Irritating they may be, drive you mad even, but that's not enough to substantiate a legal case.

Mr Herman was lucky. Had the company fought the case and won, it would have cost him his time and court fees and the company could have tried to counter sue him for any costs they incurred. Taking legal action and failing in the small claims court is not, as some people think, free.

AAC, the company which had called Richard on behalf of PPI Claimline, paid him £195 for his time and electricity, as well as his £25 court costs.

John Mitchison from The Telephone Preference Service said “General third party opt-ins do not override the TPS. The company should have been screening against the TPS. It’s a legal requirement”.