Direct Marketing Commission praises 'exceptional' compliance levels

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The index provides the report and analysis of complaints the DMC received between September and December 2008.

Of the 107 complaints received in this period, 94 were investigated and resolved informally without the need for any formal action.

The industry practice most frequently subject to complaint came under the heading 'customer account issues' and included issues of payment such as unclear invoices or additional charges.

In total 21% of complaints received by the DMC concerned financial accounts or statements.

The second most common area of complaint (9%) fell under the heading of 'unwanted emails', marketing emails sent to consumers that were either unsolicited or that did not give an option to unsubscribe or opt out.

An identical number of complaints were received relating to issues of 'poor response'.

Only four complaints were related to silent calls, all of which were resolved informally.

The vast majority of all complaints (66%) were directed against companies in the home shopping industry. The next most commonly complained about sector was that of direct marketing itself with 15% of complaints related specifically to direct marketing suppliers.

Most of the complaints received related to business to consumer direct marketing. The six business to business complaints concerned instances of door to door marketing, unclean data, incorrect information and poor sales service and were confined to list companies and companies in the directory publishing sector.

Matti Alderson, chairman of the DMC, said: "The results of our quarterly complaints index reveal something that those of us in the business of self-regulation have realised for some time: the vast majority of the DM industry enjoys an extremely high level of compliance.

"In our experience, despite the negative press that the industry sometimes receives, the great majority of companies don't want to mislead or cheat the public. Most are keen to provide a high quality of service and recognise the commercial benefits of being compliant."