How to report ‘unusually high call volumes’ messages, according to Martin Lewis
Martin Lewis has launched a campaign against "sorry for unusually high call volumes" recorded messages from banks and utility companies, as the consumer champion accuses firms of lying to customers.
Lewis wants to test if some firms constantly play a "sorry, we're experiencing unusually high call volumes" message to put people off staying on the line. For this, his team has set up a way for consumers to report the situation as he believes in some cases it may be a breach of the consumer duty.
“It is my suspicion, and I can only say it is a suspicion at the moment, that this has simply become a default message. In which case it is a lie,” Lewis told BBC’s Today programme.
He added that if banks and broadband, mobile, credit card, energy, water and sewerage firms are always playing this message to consumers, then in fact there is no high volume of calls. “Therefore, firms are lying to consumers.”
Read more: The cheapest supermarket for fuel prices, revealed
“For financial firms it is probably a breach of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) consumer duty rules,” Lewis said.
The campaign to gather evidence amassed over 3,500 hundred reports from disgruntled customers that were faced with the pre-recorded message. For now, Lewis is only looking at banks and utility firms but he did mention that he has heard reports of similar issues with HMRC.
New. Please report "sorry we are experiencing unusually high call volumes" messages. I want to test if some firms have this for EVERY call. If you call a bank, broadband, mobile, credit card, energy, water, sewerage firm, pls take 30s to report it via https://t.co/uE7a5jWx9C
In…— Martin Lewis (@MartinSLewis) February 5, 2024
“It drives people nuts and if firms are lying, they need to stop it,” he said.
The consumer champion admitted that “like many, I find the 'unusually high call volumes' message extremely frustrating, especially when they play it, and then 10 seconds later you're connected.
Read more: The BBC licence fee is going up. Here's how you can defer the cost
“Before I try and go all ‘consumer-Rambo’ on this campaign, I wanted to check the data and see whether this is a real problem or just my skewed perception (though social media responses I've had on it certainly mean if it is a skewed perception it is shared by many).”
Under FCA rules, financial institutions are required to act in good faith towards customers and enable and support them. Consumer understanding and support are among the key pillars of the watchdog rules.
Some have criticised the campaign, prompting Martin Lewis to use X to explain that the move is not against call centre workers but the executives running these firms.
I'll ignore the insult. This is not anti-call centre workers at all, the opposite, its at exec level bullshit.
If a firm permanently says "we're experiencing unusually high call volumes" then they aren't unusual, that's a lie, they are usual call volumes.
Public service firms… https://t.co/Vpkiqn7M7t— Martin Lewis (@MartinSLewis) February 6, 2024
You can report "unusually high call volumes" messages on the MoneySavingExpert website.
Watch: Martin Lewis lists three vital checks everyone must make in 2024
Download the Yahoo Finance app, available for Apple and Android.