Complaints Prompt UK ISP TalkTalk to Suspend Doorstep Sellers in Newcastle

Budget focused broadband ISP TalkTalk has “suspended all door-to-door sales activity” in the Newcastle area after residents complained about cold calling occurring in parts of the city designated as a No Cold Calling Zone (NCCZ), which should be fairly self-explanatory to everybody, if not so much the sellers themselves, apparently.

Almost nobody likes door-to-door sales, at least we’ve yet to meet anybody who genuinely does because it can be very difficult to identify legitimate sales people from fraudsters. But for those who may be unaware, Newcastle is one of many UK places that has this lovely NCCZ system, which covers almost 84,410 households across 15 of the city’s wards.

In these areas, cold callers are terminated with extreme prejudice door-to-door sales are banned (albeit not strictly illegal) and discouraged by plenty of clear signage, including on streets, as well as stickers on house doors and windows etc. “It can be a criminal offence for unwanted traders to come into the zone … We will investigate why traders are operating within a NCCZ if they should not be,” said Newcastle City Council.

However, none of this appeared to discourage TalkTalk’s doorstep sellers from trying their best to sell the provider’s broadband packages to local consumers in the Kenton area (Chronicle Live), which perhaps isn’t all that surprising given the financial problems the ISP is currently having to tackle (here and here).

Kenton councillor Stephen Lambert said he had received “numerous complaints” about TalkTalk (“the most persistent“) and other companies knocking on doors. But the ISP complained that its agents had not been provided with detailed enough information so that they could be “100% sure” about where the measures were in place (there are maps, but not a detailed list of addresses and postcodes like in other NCCZs).

The provider itself said it had received only one complaint and that was from outside the city, although locals will generally complain through the council / NCCZ scheme.

TalkTalk’s Statement to the Council

“[We have] suspended all door-to-door sales activity in the Newcastle area in order to prevent any such breach from happening again. Any third-party agents acting on behalf of TalkTalk are given thorough training and instruction not to enter NCCZs.

As soon as we were made aware of complaints, all agents involved were taken through a formal disciplinary process and dealt with appropriately. In addition, agents across the UK were reminded of the importance of adhering to NCCZ guidance. Unfortunately, following these measures we were made aware of a further complaint in relation to a NCCZ, and therefore decided to suspend all activity in the Newcastle area.”

The council has welcomed TalkTalk’s move to suspend doorstep selling across the whole of the city, which is probably for the best as the local authority are now looking to extend the NCCZ to all corners of their area. We should point out that TalkTalk are by no means the only ISP to run into trouble with doorstep selling, with agents working for BT / EE also being accused of some dodgy tactics in the recent past (here).