being spammed by absa
In relation to my posts “absa vs fnb” and “the absa saga continues“….
It seems as if Absa is really trying their utmost best to irritate people. I have received two spam emails from Absa today, one from Absa Platinum and one from “Absa Investment Advantage”, this after I have tried to contact Absa in order to request them to remove my name from their marketing lists.
To date, I have sent 3 requests to Absa (see below), without even the common decency of a reply from either Dick Gardner (from Customer Care) or George Willenburg (branch manager at the Heerengracht Branch). It seems that the only way to actually receive a response from Absa is to log a complaint on hellopeter.com.
What really worries me is that my private and personal data has been shared with third parties such as “Okeeffe & Swarts”, ContactNow and eList.
In terms of the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act (sec 51), the sharing of my electronic data is illegal. I pointed this out to Gardner and Willenburg – without a reply.
I am really looking forward to the implementation of the new Consumer Protection Bill, since it is envisaged that an Exclusion Register will be kept where a consumer will be able to list their desire not to be contacted by a certain company. I predict that Absa will be having huge problems in implementing this since it is obvious that the left hand does not realise what the right hand is doing – evident in the fact that Absa is bandying their customers’ personal information around to so many third party providers.
Email correspondence:
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hide details 12:05 (41 minutes ago) |
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Dear George, Dick & Ian,
As luck would have it – on top of the Absa Platinum email today, I received yet another unsolicited email from Absa for the product “Investment Advantage”.
I will forward this to you too in due course.
Would somebody now please get back to me to get my name removed from all mass-marketing lists of Absa?
Sincerely,
[.h]
2008/5/27 [.h]- Hide quoted text -
Dear George/Dick/Ian,
Should I be surprised that
(1) I have not had the courtesy of a reply from any of you in relation to my previous TWO emails (the first sent more than a month ago)
and
(2) I have today yet again received marketing communication from Absa (have forwarded the communication to you).
I am speechless.
Sincerely,
[.h]
2008/5/16 [.h]
Dear Sirs,
As bitterly disappointed George was in losing a client, as bitterly disappointed I am for not receiving a single reply to my email below.
It seems the only way to get a response from Absa is to basically post a complaint on hellopeter?
I now look forward to any response to my email hereinbelow.
Sincerely,
[.h]
2008/4/25 [.h]:
Dear George,
Thank you for all your efforts.
What still perplexes me is that I, yet again, received a call from a “consultant at Absa”, trying to sell me insurance today? The call was received at 11:59 on my number XXX. The person who called me was Tyrone Oliver, calling from “Absa Finances Division” in “Johannesburg”. After questioning him, I found out that his employer was “Okeeffe & Swarts”, whoever that may be. Subsequent to asking him questions he claimed I was “breaking up” and hung up on me.
Now, yet again, I fully appreciate that you are not in control of everything which Absa does, but I am deeply worried in my personal information being bandied about to sales agents and externel service providors, with whom I’ve had no relationship.
Can you perhaps direct me as to who I should address my issues to in this regard? I would like to formally give notice to Absa, in terms of section 51 of the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act, that I no longer wish to be contacted by Absa or any of Absa’s third party providers to sell me goods or services.
Section 51 of the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act states as follows:
”
1) A data controller must have the express written permission of the data subject for the collection, collation, processing or disclosure of any personal information on that data subject unless he or she is permitted or required to do so by law.
2) A data controller may not electronically request, collect, collate, process or store personal information on a data subject which is not necessary for the lawful purpose for which the personal information is required.
3) The data controller must disclose in writing to the data subject the specific purpose for which any personal information is being requested, collected, collated, processed or stored.
4) The data controller may not use the personal information for any other purpose than the disclosed purpose without the express written permission of the data subject, unless he or she is permitted or required to do so by law.
5) The data controller must, for as long as the personal information is used and for a period of at (cast one year thereafter, keep a record of the personal information and the specific purpose for which the personal information was collected.
6) A data controller may not disclose any of the personal information held by it to a third party, unless required or permitted by law or specifically authorised to do so in writing by the data subject.
7) The data controller must, for as long as the personal information is used and for a period of at least one year thereafter, keep a record of any third party to whom the personal information was disclosed and of the date on which and the purpose for which it was disclosed.
The data controller must delete or destroy all personal information which has become obsolete.
9) A party controlling personal information may use that personal information to compile profiles for statistical purposes and may freely trade with such profiles and statistical data, as long as the profiles or statistical data cannot be linked to any specific data subject by a third party.
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I would also like to draw your attention to subsections 6 and 8 (highlighted for your ease of reference).
Lastly I would like to be informed to whom by data has been distributed and would like to receive confirmation that my personal data has now in fact been removed from all potential sales list.
I look forward to your (and/or Dick Gardner’s) formal response hereto (as well as to the outcome in due course of your investigation as referred to in your email of the 21st instant).
Thanking you in anticipation.
Kind regards,
[.h]
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May 28th, 2008 at 9:34 am
Hey, it’s worth checking out http://www.getclosure.co.za for two reasons:
1. They are kick-ass at dealing with complaints and getting a response
2. They have condensed the Consumer Protection Bill into 4 pages as opposed to 90. Well worth a read.
Part 1 – http://www.getclosure.co.za/view.php?sid=485
Part 2 – http://www.getclosure.co.za/view.php?sid=488
Blog – http://getclosureblog.co.za/
August 27th, 2008 at 7:57 pm
[...] customer”, “absa service” or “absa fnb”, they all land here, here and here. A full 30 of them per day. That’s 30 generation x-ers which the marketing geeks have to win [...]
April 13th, 2009 at 8:11 pm
ABSA wouldn’t spam you. You just need to change your preferences by either going to your branch and speaking to someone there or via internet banking.
April 14th, 2009 at 8:15 am
Fortunately I am no longer an Absa client and that means that I don’t have internet banking access anymore. Nor can anyone at the branch get my name off their lists (I tried that to no avail). I can’t wait for the new Consumer Protection Act to come into effect, after which I will lay a formal complaint against Absa for spamming me AFTER I have asked them to remove me from their database… Actually received another marketing email from Absa two weeks ago (the original post is now nearly a year old).