Janus Posted October 7, 2011 Share Posted October 7, 2011 I first became aware of this with Yorkshire water, and recently with British Gas. Is it a good thing for the customer or only a good thing for the utility companies? Does it prevent someone phoning up and altering something on your account? Or, does it render the customer more at risk? Are there positive and negative aspects, and what if the customer refuses to provide a D.O.B ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alternageek Posted October 7, 2011 Share Posted October 7, 2011 I first became aware of this with Yorkshire water, and recently with British Gas. Is it a good thing for the customer or only a good thing for the utility companies? Does it prevent someone phoning up and altering something on your account? Or, does it render the customer more at risk? Are there positive and negative aspects, and what if the customer refuses to provide a D.O.B ? Its a proof of identity. If you refuse to give it, they rep will move on to other questions to confirm who you are (generally confirmation of last payment made or something similar) Most places have what they call 5 forms of ID: Acct number Acct holder name, First line of address Post Code (though some places count the full address as one piece of id) DOB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alien52 Posted October 7, 2011 Share Posted October 7, 2011 First step towards the French and Germans taking over the world.(EON and EDF) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Janus Posted October 7, 2011 Author Share Posted October 7, 2011 Its a proof of identity. If you refuse to give it, they rep will move on to other questions to confirm who you are (generally confirmation of last payment made or something similar) Most places have what they call 5 forms of ID: Acct number Acct holder name, First line of address Post Code (though some places count the full address as one piece of id) DOB In my experience with the utility companies, no that has not been the case. What I detest (and refuse to cooperate with) is where someone phones me up from one of these companies, then asks for my security information... You phoned me, either assume that the person you just phoned is the person you just phoned, or don't phone me. I am not going to gve my security information out to someone who I don't know. In fact, I should be asking you for security information, not the other way round. 100% with you on that. When this happened to me I did ask. I got as far as their name. When I asked them for a D.O.B & address I had to end the call due to their unwillingness to provide such. (not that I had anything to compare their details to) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alternageek Posted October 7, 2011 Share Posted October 7, 2011 In my experience with the utility companies, no that has not been the case. 100% with you on that. When this happened to me I did ask. I got as far as their name. When I asked them for a D.O.B & address I had to end the call due to their unwillingness to provide such. (not that I had anything to compare their details to) a) Then its failure on the providers part.. There should be enough information on the account get at least 10 pieces of Data confirmed without having much or any of your information with you. So if you decide not to give your DOB, they can look elsewhere. b) A place worth their salt, will provide you with a contact number for the customer to call back to confirm thats whose speaking to them. Where I used to work, if the customer didnt respond back after the offer of calling back to confirm thats who they were speaking to, a letter would be issued giving a vague description of what was required from the outbound call... If the customer did call back, we always offered to re-ring back and go forward from there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zanteblue Posted October 7, 2011 Share Posted October 7, 2011 I had a call from BT the other day ,asking for my phone number ,among other things as a security check . :huh: I said as my provider ,they should be well aware of my phone number. :hihi: The other amusing time was when i owed E-Bay £18 ,and they set some solicitors on me , who called me asking for me to confirm my address and postcode ,to which i replied , i needed to conduct my own security checks on them and asked the call centre robot to confirm THEIR address and postcode. Funnily enough ,they declined ,so did i . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alternageek Posted October 7, 2011 Share Posted October 7, 2011 I had a call from BT the other day ,asking for my phone number ,among other things as a security check . :huh: I said as my provider ,they should be well aware of my phone number. :hihi: Yeah, just the fact they dialed the number and were able to contact you, is one point of DPA.. Thats poor training on their side of things. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest sibon Posted October 7, 2011 Share Posted October 7, 2011 What I detest (and refuse to cooperate with) is where someone phones me up from one of these companies, then asks for my security information... You phoned me, either assume that the person you just phoned is the person you just phoned, or don't phone me. I am not going to gve my security information out to someone who I don't know. In fact, I should be asking you for security information, not the other way round. I always do. I refuse to talk to them until they tell me letters two and six from my password and my mother's maiden name. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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