Resources / Telesales
Public cases from telesales where what customers were told, or weren't, ended in fines, bans or headlines.
$185M in fines · about 5,300 employees fired
Regulators found employees had opened more than two million bank and card accounts customers may not have authorised, to meet aggressive sales goals. The incentive scheme was not monitored closely.
Listen for on your calls
Products added without a clear yes from the customer, and agents pushing extra products to hit a number.
About £38bn repaid, the UK's largest consumer redress
Payment protection insurance was added to loans, cards and mortgages, often without checking whether the customer needed it or could ever claim. Banks spent most of a decade paying it back.
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Add-on cover offered without checking the customer's need or eligibility.
₹1 crore IRDAI penalty
IRDAI found the insurer had paid web aggregators for telemarketing and pre-sales work, a possible conflict of interest, and issued advisories over policies sold after withdrawal and claims rejected without evidence.
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Who is actually selling on your behalf, and what they say on those calls.
₹5 crore IRDAI penalty
IRDAI found products promoted as "Top" or "Best" without objective criteria, delayed premium remittances, and about 98,000 telemarketing policies not mapped to an authorised verifier.
Listen for on your calls
Superlatives and comparisons agents can't back up, and sales calls missing verification.
Consumer complaints, court orders and lasting reputational damage
Customers described high-pressure selling to low-income families and some said they were signed up for loans without their knowledge. Former staff described sales targets that encouraged it. Byju's denied wrongdoing.
Listen for on your calls
Fear-based pitches, unclear loan terms, and agreement that isn't clearly given.
Summaries are our own reading of the linked reports. Amounts and outcomes are as reported at the time; some companies settled without admitting wrongdoing. These cases are listed to show what is at stake on customer calls, not to suggest any particular tool would have prevented them.
