Wow. The CRTC is finally laying down the law when it comes the the National Do Not Call List (DNCL). On Friday they announced that Xentel DM Inc. was ordered to pay an “administrative monetary penalty of $500,000” for violating the rules. Today, Bell Canada and the CRTC have “reached a settlement with Bell Canada over the company’s unauthorized telemarketing practices”. The fine: a whopping $1.3 million.
In a release by the CRTC they state that between “January and October of this year, calls were made to consumers who had registered their numbers on the National Do Not Call List (DNCL) or who were or should have been on Bell Canada’s internal do not call list. These telemarketing practices are contrary to the National DNCL Rules. The CRTC’s investigation found that the calls originated from independent telemarketers hired by Bell Canada to promote and sell its television, telephone, wireless and Internet services”.
George Cope, President and CEO of BCE and Bell Canada has always had a goal “to be recognized by customers as Canada’s leading communications company”… a $1.3 million fine is no joke and this impact to the Bell brand is certainly not needed. So in response Bell has issued a statement and confirmed that none of the violations were from a Bell-operated call centre and they have “terminated its relationships with two telemarketers and suspended several others due to non-compliance with the Unsolicited Telecommunications Rules.”
The CRTC was also concerned about Bell’s use of automated calling devices so to make nice they have decided to donate $266,000 to Montréal’s Concordia Institute for Information Systems Engineering (CIISE).
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