My mother is in hospital and has been on life support. Naturally she is
unable to communicate. As a matter of prudence I called her credit card
company, Barclaycard, and her bank, Barclays, to let each of them know that
her accounts could not be operated normally during the next few weeks.
The reactions were stunningly different
Barclaycard said at once that it would put a note on her file and understand
if payments were not made
Barclays told me that "The Data Protection Act prevents us from making any
notes on a customer's file" And went on to tell me about fraud that could be
committed if they did so.
That was in India, of course. When I insisted on being transferred to a
call centre in the UK the person there simply reiterated the statement and
refused point blank to refer the call upwards. She did, in the end,
acknowledge that the statement about the DPA was not valid and that they
were stating "Bank Policy".
So why do people get trained to hide behind the Data Protection Act?
And why can they not "pin" a simple note to a file, EVEN if they then
disregard it? "Policy" so often means that Customer Service goes out of the
window.
However, I am emotionally involved with this. Perhaps someone who is not
emotionally involved would analyse the DP implications of the different
stances of Barclaycard and of Barclays?
Tim Trent - Consultant
Direct: +44(0)1344 392644 Mobile:+44(0)7710 126618
Personal blog: <http://timtrent.blogspot.com/>
http://timtrent.blogspot.com/
See also <http://complianceandprivacy.com/> http://complianceandprivacy.com
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