Suing Telemarketers Made Simple 351
Lord of the Distinctive Rings writes "Telemarketer calls victim in wee hours. Victim is lawyer. Victim sues telemarketer. Hilarity ensues, as recounted in narrative replete with links and information on how you too can sue up the wazoo." Well, one's certainly not ever going to get rich or anything going after telemarketers on a one-off basis, but every bit helps, I think.
Re:I can't wait... (Score:4, Informative)
This is cool (Score:5, Informative)
Rus
Re:Andy Rooney sez... (Score:5, Informative)
I don't know how the system works where you live, but here a lot of "Reply Paid" stuff is barcoded and they could (theoretically) find out who you are by scanning that barcode.
Re:Andy Rooney sez... (Score:5, Informative)
Actually, the *people* (as opposed to the companies) who make the telemarketing calls often *love* when people do this. It gets their talk time up; it shows their superiors that they're can keep someone on the phone for a long time, presumably talking about their product. I'd even bet the telemarketing companies (assuming they're hired by whoever is selling the product) like it too. The only party who doesn't like this is the company paying for telemarketing, but the telemarketers themselves often love it.
Useful resources for suing telemarketers. (Score:5, Informative)
Suing Telemarketers without those sneaky lawyers taking your money! [smallclaim.info]
Suing Telemarketers by Ben Livingston - they say he's crazy, but I say he's a hero! [tabletnewspaper.com]
Remove.org - you can add yourself to the global do not contact list to opt out of all advertisements! [google.com]
SueTelemarketers.com - because they take away minutes of my free time when I'm trying to eat food, I invest hours of my free time trying to track down and sue telemarketers one by one. [suetelemarketers.com]
That's all. Good night, and good luck!
Re:Andy Rooney sez... (Score:5, Informative)
More specifically, my information says that when you don't hear anyone on the other line what has happened is that the system they use which automatically calls people based on the average call time of their employees, has misestimated when to call (or all the employees are unavailable), so there's a silent pause. If the pause is long enough, the computer simply hangs up. Consequently, anyone who calls me from an unlisted number and gives me silence for three seconds or so I hang up on. If it's someone important, they'll call right back.
Re:Just kill your local land line. (Score:3, Informative)
I have only recived one telemarketing call on my cell phone over the last 2 years i've had it. and that was AT&T Broadband (who i use for cable modem, and cable TV) who has the number listed as contact for my current service. They were trying to sell me an upgrade to digital cable. I said, "This is a cell phone, it is illegal to call cell phones, I am going to report this to the PUC".
"Oh, sorry" *CLICK*
Havn't had a problem since
Re:Andy Rooney sez... (Score:2, Informative)
With other prepaid mail, senders usually prepay base on the number of responses they expect to get back. When the balence reaches zero, the mail gets withheld until they pay for the remaining. Unfortunately for the recpient, the notices of reply mail being withheld sometimes take several months to arrive and be processed.
Re:claim you're "recording" them (Score:3, Informative)
The dead air calls are caused by automated dialers. A telemarketer will typically have more lines than sales people. Say you have 20 lines and 10 reps, the lines would all be dialed..some get busy signals, so are not in service, and some get answered. The first 10 people that pick up instantly get transferred to a rep. You information pops up on their screen before you finish saying 'hello?'. A delay before they pick up can be a result of their not getting the information fast enough or starting the speech too late, though typically only a 2-3 second lag. The dead air you get is a result of 10 other people getting to the phone before you. Once all the telemarketers are busy, then the system is supposed to hang up, but they typically means your phone rings once more, and even if you pick up, the system may already be hanging up. The problem, however, is that the identification requirements are not met. Persons or entities placing a call are supposed to identify themselves (by full name) and provide and address or phone number. Once the call is placed, the solicitation has begun, whether you ever hear a single word or not. Unfortunately, telemarketers hide their Caller ID info, though this should end in 2004 when FTC regulations come into effect.
I have had several suits and settlements regarding telemarketing myself and am about to file several more. Exercise your rights.
Unfortunately, like in this case, it is easier for the person to break the law and just pay off a few people clued in while raking in money from the ignorant.
"Plainly, it ought not to be cheaper to violate the Act and be sued than to comply with the statutory requirements." Bueno v. MATTNER, 633 F. Supp. 1446, 1467 (1986) quoting Beliz v. W.H. McLeod & Sons Packing Co., 765 F.2d 1317, 1332 (5th Cir. 1985)
Re:Just kill your local land line. (Score:2, Informative)
Oh my.
In Finland, when calling to 112 (our version of 911) the call is routed to closest center based on the link station your phone is using. Naturally if you cannot then speak anything to the phone, they may not take the step to find you based on cellphone location data (there are sadly too many misdials from pocketed phones with no keypad lock on), but if you can speak out a plea for help, they have system in place to get the (rough) location of the mobile phone and police/ambulance will be searching for you. If you can speak out an address or general idea where you are and what kinda emergency you have, the closest police/firestation/ambulance station gets alerted no matter where it is. Considering that you are not tied to a landline when placing the call, this is obiviously superior to placing the call from a landline which may or may not be next to you when you have the emergency.
Of course Finland is a lot smaller place than USA, but one would imagine that such basic things would be in order in any civilized country.
Ah, but there is little money to be made with such system. There is little to no corporate lobbying to get the system fixed, and nothing proceeds in the US without corporate interests paying the lawmakers off first... your great system at work...
Oh and 'lousy reception'.. dunno bout USA, but in Finland you have to be pretty far in the woods, many kilometers from nearest road or house, and next to a blocking hill or something to end up in a place where one of the two national major carriers doesn't have GSM signal up. Only places where GSM may not be suitable as only communications tool is outer islands on the coast (there ya can end up outside reception range or get randomly switched between finnish and estonian/swedish carriers depending on which cell is closer) and some rather remote wilderness in northern finland, where nobody lives anyway. And even there the old analog NMT system works (or it at least used to work - I think they are about to discontinue it as nobody is using it anymore...)
Also don't know about US systems, but using GSM you can always make an emergency call if there is any kind of network signal up. Even without a SIM card, and even using otherwise blocked phone. Emergency number Always Works - assuming of course that you have power in the phone and any kind of network is in the area.
Formatting. (Score:4, Informative)
Apparently, over the years, MS has made Word more and more generic and LESS suited to legal use than it was in the past. Meanwhile, Corel realized that they have a good hold on the niche market of law firms, and began specifically catering to law firms.
As a result, WP evolved into a vastly superior application for law firms. It's a niche market for Corel, but a VERY solid niche.
"OUT OF AREA" Explained (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Just kill your local land line. (Score:3, Informative)
The problem of thinking you know the law and getting it completely worng is worse than not knowing the law exists at all.
Re:Keep em on the phone. (Score:5, Informative)
The dialer is dialing a certain number of calls based upon how quickly the agents are coming available. If you keep an agent on the phone for longer than a few seconds, the dialer recognizes this and drops them from the number of agents that will be available.
After all, they are trying to sell you something. The dialer has to be able to compensate for long calls, because I doubt any agent can sell you something in the time it takes someone else to hang up.
And just so you know I am not talking out of my ass, I used to be an admin on a dialer, so I do have some experience with this.
Re:Devil's Advocate (Score:1, Informative)
Too bad for the telemarketing scum.
Re:claim you're "recording" them (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Andy Rooney sez... (Score:3, Informative)
The barcode you refer to (a long one just above the delivery address or in the bottom right-hand corner, right?) is simply their mailing address in barcode format. It's to speed up the delivery process somewhat.
Re:I can't wait... (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Keep em on the phone. (Score:3, Informative)
Some other small companies just rip pages out of a phone book, distribute photocopies of the pages to their staff, and their "DO NOT CALL" list consists of a black line through that name and number on the phone book page.
Only larger companies which contract out to several clients use automated dialers... Our local newspaper's contracter has four large ADs with twenty lines each, and then in the back, they have a room for manual dialers who handle rural accounts.
Of course, here in Canada, use of AD's is not as common as in the US. You can't just pick one up at the corner store. I'm not sure if it's regulated, but the larger telemarketing companies are VERY careful to follow the rules (Do Not Call lists are updated daily, no calling before 9am or after 9pm, no calling on Sundays, etc.)
It's a sad business tho - most of the employees quit after a month or two - they can't take the constant rejection. It takes a very special breed of person to stay in telemarketing over the long term. Hopefully that breed will become extinct soon :)
911 is free. (Score:2, Informative)