Finally! Barclaycard Apologises

It took them long enough, but I eventually got an apology from Barclaycard for their illegal marketing activities and invasion of privacy.
The original offending letter is dated 26th July 2007, and arrived in the mail the following Monday. I complained to Barclaycard enquiries on 30th July 2007, i.e. 14 weeks ago.
This is the letter of apology I received today from Chris Sweeney, Managing Executive of Absa Card. His letter refers to a complaint of 22 October: clearly someone at ABSA has misled him to avoid being fired, since my complaint was not made 4 weeks ago, but 14 weeks ago. Even my complaint to the DMA was lodged in mid September.
I guess I should be thankful for an apology at all, even though no apology is made for buying my data from Experian/P-Cubed/Effective Intelligence, or for failing to check this data against the DMA "Do Not Call" list.

Part I: BarclayCard Breaks the Law | Part II: BarclayCard Bungles Again | Part III: BarclayCard and P:Cubed - more ducking and diving | Part IV: Finally! BarclayCard Apologises

BarclayCard and P:Cubed - more ducking and diving

A sure sign of trouble is when everyone blames everyone else, but no-one is prepared to take responsibility. I don't think its deliberate deception necessarily; see Napoleon's quote above.
I wrote to Raoul Miller at P:Cubed and asked:

I am led to believe that your company supplied my name and address and/or sent out a letter on their behalf to me in July 2007, promoting BarclayCard. Is this the case?

I also mentioned the ECT Act.
Raoul Miller replied as follows:

Dear Donn,
Many thanks for your note below.
To ensure absolute clarity: P:Cubed is a Direct Marketing Services Business. We do not own consumer identification data but instead enrich consumer behavioural and contact data, available to our clients under various access licenses and perform an analytical, data processing, modelling and advisory services function; better described at www.p-cubed.co.za
We are not in a position to comment or provide opinion on the ECT Act but would suggest the following website for details as to the objectives and application of such act.
To specifically answer your questions below and to provide transparency of the process:

• Your identity details would have been sourced by ABSA (who operate the Barclaycard brand) from a registered marketing list provider who would be a member of the Direct Marketing Association (DMA)
• Your address details would have been then obtained and enriched from one of the two national credit bureaus
• Regarding the ‘Do not Contact’ list, commonly referred to as Opt-out list in the Direct Marketing Industry:

Opt-out services are in place to provide consumer protection from the receipt of unsolicited direct marketing offers – the next draft of the Consumer Data Protection Bill (DTI) will in fact provide for a national Optout register which will in all likelihood be branded by the Direct Marketing Association (DMA).
Given that the Consumer Data Protection Bill has not yet been promulgated into law (it is still in the process of being drafted); there is no one central database against which a consumer can register their identification details to ensure that they do not form part of a direct marketing campaign.
Once legislation is in place and the central Opt-out infrastructure has been built, this additional level of consumer protection will be in place.
There are a number of Opt-out databases being maintained nationally with no one primary database at this point in time.
To try and ensure the most comprehensive service and coverage, P:Cubed host our own service as well as acquire copies of the relevant databases on a regular basis to add to its growing pool of Opt-out data. Please feel free to visit www.optout.co.za to register.
The currency of these databases is though limited to the regularity of update (as opposed to registration by consumers on such list) and the access to which any one organisation (including P:Cubed) is given to such databases – there is no current legislation in this regard and timing of consumer registration and data acquisition by any party impacts the ability to completely cover all registrations effectively.
I do hope this assists; please drop me a line if you require further information.

So much for clarity. I added the bold bits because they are particularly unclear and sound like Pentagon-speak. I tried contacting him on 082-379-9994 but just got voice mail.
I have had to read this several times to figure out what he actually said. Does this mean that my name is not on his opt-out list which is why I should register? Does it mean that because they are not compelled by law to use the DMA's list that therefore they do not? Is he trying to say that the bank, being a member of the DMA, should have screened their data before passing it on to them to "enrich" it from the Experian database?
BarclayCard has on different occasions said that they got my details from both ETL Solutions and/or Effective Intelligence. Both have assured me that this is not the case and they are fully aware of my "do not contact" status, and have been for some time.
Now we come to the "two national credit bureaus". I assume he means Experian and TransUnion ITC. I have contacted both of them some time ago (2004), when I was writing my Privacy blog, and asked them to make a note that I do not wish their data to be used for marketing purposes. They both refused or ignored my request.
According to Brian Mdluli of the DMA, the ECT Act doesn't apply to snail mail because it isn't electronic communication, which is a nice loophole. When I phoned him on 083-401-5900 (They changed premises last month and are still waiting for land lines) he said the DMA had taken up the matter with ABSA and that remedial action would be taken. I suggested that BarclayCard should be forced to send a letter of apology to all the people it sent the original letter to, but he said I was being unreasonable. Maybe they could reduce it to the people on the DNC list who were sent the letter and who should not have been. BarclayCard promised to send me a letter of apology in early August. I guess snail mail is to blame, but it hasn't arrived after 4 weeks.

Part I: BarclayCard Breaks the Law | Part II: BarclayCard Bungles Again | Part III: BarclayCard and P:Cubed - more ducking and diving | Part IV: Finally! BarclayCard Apologises | Sick of junk mail in your postbox?

BarclayCard Bungles Again

BarclayCard must have been having a bad hair day. In response to my previous post about their illegal activities, they further bungled and got their information wrong AGAIN.
Their response is quite interesting, because it displays a complete lack of concern about the privacy of their customers, and effectively admits that they have broken the law in a number of ways. To quote, in part:

This organization has sourced consumer data from many sources over many years; some examples of sources:

• Historical Voters Rolls
• Deeds Office property ownership databases
• Company ownership databases from the registrar of companies
• Home Affairs

It is a violation of the Electoral Act to use the voters rolls for anything other than the conduct of elections and/or election campaigns. I was told this by an IEC official. So they are either lying or breaking the law.
The Deeds Office information was never intended for marketing purposes, and in any case my deeds processing hasn't been completed yet. If this practice is not illegal it is certainly unethical.
Since when does Home Affairs make the residential addresses of all South African citizens available for public scrutiny and use? How do they justify this in terms of the Right to Privacy enshrined in the constitution? The mind boggles. I wonder if any bribes were paid?
Then the bank changes feet: "The information provided regarding ETL was not correct. Your information was sourced from Effective Intelligence." Actually it wasn't. I spoke to David van der Merwe from Effective Intelligence on 084-875-4201. He confirmed that EI already has my name and my wife's names on their Do Not Contact database, and he stated that they did not supply the information to BarclayCard. He blamed "P-Cubed".
So not only does BarclayCard admit to supplying me with the wrong information, they do it AGAIN. The mind boggles once more. To what level of incompetence and confusion does this organisation stoop? Have they no idea about the ECT Act and what it means for their organisation? Finally they refer to www.optout.co.za, which is another marketing database maintained by "P-Cubed". I have written to them to find out if they were responsible for supplying my name, and where they obtained it from.

It turns out that "P-Cubed" is a database subsidiary of the Experian credit bureau. This becomes even more unethical, because credit bureaus are not supposed to be involved in direct marketing because of the obvious conflict of interest, and because it violates the Credit Bureau Association Code of Conduct, especially with regard to privacy of data.

Part I: BarclayCard Breaks the Law | Part II: BarclayCard Bungles Again | Part III: BarclayCard and P:Cubed - more ducking and diving | Part IV: Finally! BarclayCard Apologises | BlueBean sucks - Shaun Dewberry's blog

BarclayCard Breaks the Law

Banks love to give the impression they are ethical and beyond reproach. After all, we trust them with our money. But they are just as slimy as any other business when it comes to marketing.
In July I received a marketing letter promoting BarclayCard in the mail. I send an email to them asking how they obtained my details. Reference number EC: C07E5E2C. They responded and said it was ETL Solutions, a company I have contacted before. ETL denies this, saying they have not provided them with any details at all, and they had probably obtained the details from a rival company, Effective Intelligence. I have contacted them on 021-674-0372 twice, and have yet to receive a response. I was promised the first time that Marché Kilgour would return my call. I have since found out that their fax number is 021 671 5554 or 086-610-7583 and their other phone number is 021 670 7720.
To make matters worse, ETL has provided BarclayCard/ABSA with its "do not contact" list on a regular basis, which includes my details (added on 12-Sep-2006) and my wife's details (added 29-Nov-2004). These details are also supplied weekly to the Direct Marketing Association, which maintains a Do Not Contact List.
I requested a letter of apology from BarclayCard: it's in the mail, and has been for 2 months. I also asked them again for the source of my contact details. This second request has been ignored. So the picture that is emerging is not good:

• They obtained my contact details without my permission
• They failed to check it against the Do Not Contact list, thereby exposing themselves to prosecution in terms of the ECT Act
• They lied about the source of the details, don't know where it came from, again exposing themselves to ECT Act prosecution.
  
• They promised to send me a letter of apology, which has not arrived
• They ignored further correspondence.

This kind of gross incompetence makes me wonder what kind of service I would get from them if I actually had one of their credit cards. I think not.
Update: Effective Intelligence finally got back to me, and claimed that they already had me on their Do Not Contact list, and in any case they didn't supply the information to BarclayCard. They pointed a finger at "P-Cubed". See BarclayCard Bungles Again

Part I: BarclayCard Breaks the Law | Part II: BarclayCard Bungles Again | Part III: BarclayCard and P:Cubed - more ducking and diving | Part IV: Finally! BarclayCard Apologises