Giant ‘nuisance’ telephone lands at Manchester Piccadilly

A giant telephone will be put in the middle of Manchester Piccadilly station this week to invite people to vent their frustration with nuisance calls and texts, as part of Which?’s Calling Time campaign.

The six foot, four inch flashing telephone will be at Manchester Piccadilly train station on Friday 3rd and Saturday 4th July between 7am and 7pm. People will be able to press a big ‘STOP’ button, which will light up the phone, to air their frustrations about unwanted calls and texts and show their support for the Which? Calling Time campaign, which currently has more than 200,000 supporters.

Recent Which? analysis of data from the Information Commissioner’s Office shows there have been around 61,500 official complaints about nuisance calls and texts since December. With just 2% of people who receive unwanted calls reporting them to the regulator, it means millions more are still being received.

Our campaign is urging the Government, regulators and businesses to renew their efforts to help cut down on the number of nuisance calls and texts.

At the event, people will be able to sign up to the campaign and we’ll also be giving people the chance to report unwanted calls with our new online complaints tool to help identify offenders.

Which? executive director, Richard Lloyd said:

“People are sick of being bombarded with nuisance calls that invade their privacy and waste their time so we’re giving people in Manchester a chance to vent their frustrations and support our campaign.

“The Government knows what’s required to tackle nuisance calls so we need to see more sustained action, with senior executives held to account, to help put an end to this everyday menace.”

You can sign up to our campaign and report unwanted calls or texts at www.which.co.uk/callingtime

PHOTO OPPORTUNITY:

Please contact the Which? press office on 020 7770 7805 if you would like to interview a Which? spokesperson about our campaign, or if you want to send a photographer/camera to attend this event.

Notes to editors:

  1.  Which?’s Calling Time campaign is lobbying for:

– the Government to make directors accountable for their company’s nuisance calls;

– businesses to show their number when they call;

– regulators to give people more power by putting them in control of how their personal data is used.

2.  The ICO had 61,500 official complaints reported from Dec 2014 to April 2015.

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