Your World of Legal Intelligence
 United Kingdom | +44 (0) 20 7284 8080

Martin Lewis issues warning over 'frustrating' eight-word message affecting thousands

Document Cited in Related
Vincent
Published date24 April 2024
Publication titleMyLondon (England)
Now the Money Saving Expert website founder is asking people to help with research to show how true this theory is. People who receive the message are being asked to fill in a quick form to give details of their experience

The BBC Sounds podcast and Martin Lewis Money show host took to social media to say they had thousands of reports from people who had received the message. and he urged others to get in touch so it could be shown whether firms really were busy or were telling "a lie".

Writing on X, formerly Twitter, he said: "Please report "sorry we are experiencing unusually high call volumes" messages. We've had 20,000 reports in so far to test if some firms banks, broadband, mobile, energy, water etc have this for EVERY call." He asked anyone receiving the message to report it here. He said it takes 30 seconds adding: "We need to keep track over a few more weeks to nail down the patterns."

He continued: "The point of this is to see if they play the message consistently both through the day and over weeks. If they do then it is a LIE and may well breach consumer regulations, yet we need timed data to try and tie down who the most likely offenders are."

He explained further to those completing the message telling them: "Thank you for logging your experience. I thought you may like to know a little more why I wanted to do this. Like many, I find the 'unusually high call volumes' message extremely frustrating, especially when they play it, and then 10 seconds later you're connected.

"I believe some firms may be using it to put callers off and move people to their websites, which therefore reduces their cost base. If so, they are lying, and for some firms it therefore may well be a breach of the Financial Conduct Authority's 'Consumer Duty' rules.

"Before I try and go all ‘consumer-Rambo’ on this campaign, I wanted to check the data and see whether this is a real problem or just my skewed perception though social media responses I've had on it certainly mean if...

To continue reading

Request your trial

VLEX uses login cookies to provide you with a better browsing experience. If you click on 'Accept' or continue browsing this site we consider that you accept our cookie policy. ACCEPT