Your Telemarketing Call Center May Go Bankrupt if it Resorts to Slamming

Author: Remy | Date: 01/02/2008

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Article Tags: Your Telemarketing Call Center May Go Bankrupt if it Resorts to Slamming

On behalf of consumers affected by slamming practices of telecommunication services providers, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has been actively pursuing and cracking down on carriers which violated the anti-slamming policy of the Commission. And penalties have been meted out to violators – an estimated $14,070,000 in assorted penalties (ranging from settlements with carriers or forfeiture orders meted out) have been collected by the FCC from violators as of year 2000.
One call center software product you can try (if you want to prevent your organization from being accused of slamming) is the call center software Oracle Contact Center Anywhere product being offered through business solutions provider Promero.
To avoid being one of the ones penalized, your telemarketing call center ought to have drafted and is now implementing measures to guard against slamming. One penalty imposed by the FCC can literally bankrupt your organization for good, so if your organization intends to stay in business it better have a position against slamming and actively enforce any anti-slamming policies that have been produced to date.
Slamming is a practice of certain unethical carriers wherein the subscriber is transferred to another carrier without his being aware of it, and then made to pay certain charges as a result of being transferred. The purpose of the penalties is to prevent further cases of slamming from being initiated and for current violators to start changing their practices for the better. If your call center is even accidentally implicated in the slamming incident, it may be charged and then penalized anyway if your organization is not careful.
How big is a slamming penalty anyway? Well, on average, your organization may have to pay may reach more than $1 million. A record amount for a consent degree penalty paid was $3.5 million. Even big corporate players would say ouch if they had to pay even $1 million, let alone $3.5 million, because that is really a big penalty to pay, regardless of why you have to pay it. And for many smaller players, $1 million may be their entire war chest.
Another thing call center companies like yours may not be aware of is that state penalties are even higher than penalties at the federal level. In the end, you want your call center and your carrier companies to be safe from any anti-slamming legal procedures being undertaken by the US government if the organization is to survive for long in the call center and telecommunication carrier industries.
If you are not sure how to go about drafting anti-slamming policies and procedures for your call center and contact center agents to follow, you may need to ask around for a good lawyer to assist you. Anticipating problems is always important to prevent problems from developing later on. And try out the Oracle Contact Center Anywhere product from Promero too – it may be just what your company needs.

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