Comments on: Mobile Spam, Scams and Halifax First Assist

By: stef

stef — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 12:31:08 +0000

@david clarke - This is great - tell me more! I guess one of those wasn’t Creative Writing?

On a related note, I know a lot of companies that would go out of their way to contact someone with an apology for causing a nuisance to them, rather than letting their employees come along and have a go at them online. Another PR own goal?

The flip side is David’s comment above is much more measured - thanks for that.

The fact is this company is winding people up with it’s poor use of the phone and they should stop. That should be valuable feedback for them. And how do you hit back at a company that’s annoying you? By writing a letter to them and being ignored, or by getting to number 2 on Google for a search on their company name?

And yes - it’s still not just me: http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1144663

By: david clarke

david clarke — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 20:53:37 +0000

your welcome now i put that way for all the thick socialites to understand. You see if i ut it eloquently then people wouldnt be able to understand so i have to speak like im thick fo reasons unbeknown to yourself, now with us working for halifax that actually means we have test to take which makes us qualified insurance advisors, like the ones that you get when you go face to face with at a bank, yeah we have the same qualifications as them and for some of us we have more qualifications than a person that sits on his internet putting knives in companies he knows nothing about. I mean myself i was in the navy for 6 years and have a degree in aircraft engineering 8 A grades and 3 B grades at GCSE level plus 4 A’s at A level standard so get to know some people before you slag them off

By: stef

stef — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 20:48:30 +0000

Great to see that they’re employing people with such an eloquent way with words.

I particularly like this bit of that last comment:

if u give us shit then we put u back in for callback after callback to piss u off so dont play with fire or ull get burnt.

By: david clarke

david clarke — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 20:42:56 +0000

u r all stupid. Halifax First Assist are not cold calling u so the TPS can do nothing bout it. When u took out a service with the Halifax u signed a contract and in the fine print is a box siying tick me if u dont wish to be contacted by us for offers of any services so if ur recieveing these phone calls then its ur own stupid fault for not reading the fine print. And as for the people on the phones yes there are more useless jobs in the world but none pay as well as this job does for myself. Now i try and be polite as much as possible but we can only stand so much, we are only doing our job and dont deserve any shit, normally if someone says they are not interested we just take it as that but if u give us shit then we put u back in for callback after callback to piss u off so dont play with fire or ull get burnt. We do do DPA checks on all our customers and can tell u any info u wanna know within reason so if u listen to people like this stef u r an idiot.

By: Brian

Brian — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 15:16:42 +0000

Hi Stef
Ive just googled First Assist after receiving a call from them this afternoon (06-11-08)claiming to be on behalf of Halifax and came across your informative site.The call was virtually identical to the one you described “Hi, could I talk to Mr ****” etc. They are using the number 08445-810316.Ive been looking for an excuse to leave Halifax and now thankfully Ive been given it on a plate.Thanks for the site and the information.

By: Steven

Steven — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 16:21:25 +0000

I have just had cheeky comments made by this company on a cold call to me, before they hung up the phone. i am absolutely outraged by the cheeck received. Of course, only a answer machine to leave a messgae.

By: David

David — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 10:05:31 +0000

I work for first assist, and we are a legimite company that only call halifax customers. And when I mean Halifax it can mean anything from insurance to having an account. When we finish a call we have outcomes to put you in if you ask to be removed from the system 9 times out of 10 you will be!

By: KEIR

KEIR — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 16:11:18 +0000

Oops looks like a bit of my post went wry.

Just had another call from FIRST ASSIST well they never said a name but number came up this time as 08445811013.

So a NEW NUMBER is being used.

I said WHOOOOOOO when they asked for me with sorry mate and they were off.

Looks like Ive managed to opt out.

Cheers for the assistance

By: KEIR

KEIR — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 16:06:35 +0000

I’m receiving 10-20 calls per day from First Assist at the moment. Just in from work early and missed 5 an in the space of the last twenty minutes missed another 2 before I googled and found this site. Calls recored for training are held on your file, trust me I got my recordings after fraud was done on my old BANK of Scotland account, and reported then to the FSA. DPA and FOI Act.

Its my belief that this is a scam as I contacted Halifax and confirmed that I opted out of any calls from there service providers, also on TPS.

The call centre was concerned of the number of calls received and are looking into it for me. I am poised to close my accounts with them is it turns out that they have passed on my details.

By: Happy as larry

Happy as larry — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 21:42:43 +0000

FirstAssist are a legitimate company, they have offices accross the South of England. James Kings comments and responses regarding silent calls is concerning. Ofcom regulates outbound telesales and FirstAssist has for years maintained a low ‘drop call’ rate well below standards set by ofcom. When called by FirstAssist they use an 0845 prefix and if you phone back an answerphone message informs the customer that the company called.

Vash’s comments regarding call recording is also accurate. Calls are used for training and are rarely - if ever used beyond the point of sale. If a customer has a complaint then it is usually resolved on the spot wherever possible. There is a good reason for this because finding specific calls is very time consuming and if a complaint is not resolved by the end of business on the working day when it is first raised then it becomes FSA reportable (something which is avoided at all costs).

Based upon this information and some of the comments I believe that there are fraudsters posing as FirstAssist. If a member of FirstAssist staff asks for personal details then it is reasonable to ask them to confirm some details back to you. Genuine FirstAssist staff will have this in front of them and will do so. If you are in any doubt then explain your reasoning and the staff member will have to remove the telephone number from the database (after all expressed wishes are recorded).

FirstAssist only contact individuals who have strong affiliations with a corporate client. Halifax being one of these. The Halifax customer may have inadvertently given consent (occasionally without having ‘opted out’) to be added to a marketing list. Because ‘consent’ has been obtained the telephone preference service will not prevent marketing telephone calls from FirstAssist.

I hope that this clears up some of the misconceptions.