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Do-Not-Call List, Two Years Later
Posted by
ScuttleMonkey
on Wed Sep 28, 2005 02:48 PM
from the but-telemarketers-are-so-much-fun dept.
from the but-telemarketers-are-so-much-fun dept.
Carl Bialik writes "The Wall Street Journal is reporting that two years after the National Do Not Call Registry took effect, regulators say the system is working, but only six federal fines have been issued. More than half of registered consumers say they're still getting unwanted calls, according to a recent phone survey. Now, a fresh fight is brewing over which calls are restricted and which ones aren't. Twenty-five states maintain their own do-not-call lists, and many of them impose tougher restrictions on the kinds of calls that telemarketers can make."
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Do-Not-Call List, Two Years Later
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Ironic... (Score:5, Funny)
(http://www.vigilantminds.com/ | Last Journal: Friday July 29 2005, @03:34PM)
I mean isn't that bound to skew the results?
Consumer: Hello?
Survey Operator: We're conducting a survey on unwanted phone calls
Consumer: OK...
Survey Operator: Have you received any unwanted calls lately?
Consumer: Yes... Quite recently actually!
Re:Ironic... (Score:5, Insightful)
(http://www.vigilantminds.com/ | Last Journal: Friday July 29 2005, @03:34PM)
Do-Not-Survey list? (Score:5, Funny)
From TFA:Regulators say the system is working, but a recent random survey (by telephone) by the Customer Care Alliance, a Virginia-based consortium of three customer-relations consultants, found that 51% of registered consumers say they're still getting calls they think the list is supposed to block.
So they conducted the survey by CALLING the people on the do-not-call list...Worked for me (Score:5, Insightful)
(http://slashdot.org/ | Last Journal: Thursday November 01, @12:01PM)
But then, my calls had dropped pretty low even before the do-not-call list went into effect. I had learned the magic phrase, "Could you take me off the call list?", which I diligently said to every telemarketer. By law, they have to take you off, so that had already almost completely solved the problem. The national do-not-call list eliminated the last bits.
Re:Worked for me (Score:5, Informative)
I worked as a telemarketer for a year. I heard people yell at me every day and it didn't change anything. Those people would get calls over and over and over. It was the ones who were calm and said the magic phrase didn't call again.
A little polite respect gets you much farther than spewing vitriol across the telephone line.
Re:Worked for me (Score:5, Insightful)
(http://ptth.net/squish/ | Last Journal: Monday October 01, @11:26AM)
Re:Worked for me (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Worked for me (Score:5, Insightful)
You were modded down as flame-bait and troll for saying this, but I'm behind you on this one.
Yes, saying "put me on your do not call list" is a simple thing to do, but doing so three times in one evening when you are trying to enjoy a DVD or play a computer game is very tiresome. Before Minnesota's do-not-call registry was set up, that's what it was like.
I'm generally a nice guy, but I delight in being rude to telemarketers. I deliberately waste their time. I belittle them. I pummel them with questions about why they want to be parasites and how can they sleep at night knowing that they make their livings spreading human misery.
Why? Because I want every telemarketer to utterly hate his or her job. I want them to go home crying and wonder if the paycheck is worth the stress and heartache, so some of them will quit and companies who rely on telemarketing have to spend more money to hire new people. This makes telemarketing cost more for the same return, which makes it a less attractive means of generating business.
If everybody who disliked being called by soliciters was as mean, rude, and disruptive as me, the entire industry would dry up within a couple years.
Re:Worked for me (Score:5, Interesting)
(http://www.underachievement.org/ | Last Journal: Sunday January 21 2007, @10:58PM)
In addition it's fun to play the Hold game. When they ask for somebody or something, I'll ask them to wait for me to find them and then put them on hold (my phone even played music) and go back to whatever it was I'm doing. The record holder (pun intended) is 1 hour and 25 minutes. I guess he liked the classic 80's songs playing...
I try to waste as much of the company's money as possible by wasting their time and resources. At the same time I feel bad taking out my annoyance on the employees because it's very possible that they are at the only job available to them at the moment. Being a telemarketer doesn't require much in the way of skills, but it is better than other skill-less opportunities like fast food.
Re:Worked for me (Score:5, Insightful)
That's what you are. Trash.
Utterly wasteful human garbage. You obviously leech off of other peoples' misery
and try to prevent them from making a living in any way, shape, or form instead of
just being polite and resolving your issue with them.
My "issue with them" is that they choose to call me. They are welcome to make a living any way they like, but they are not welcome to call me, and will suffer my wrath when they do. Don't like it? Then don't call.
It might be aggravating, but there are much better ways to go about it then trying to make
someone feel awful about themselves.
I can think of at least three, but none of them are as much fun. They feel awful about themselves after talking to me? Good! They are being awful people, and therefore I'm merely aligning their self-image with reality! Perhaps I will provoke some of them to change their lives in a positive direction.
Seriously. Prostitutes deserve more dignity than telemarketers. At least a whore is providing a service which is actually desired by her customers.
well, not that simple (Score:5, Informative)
(http://www.imaginary...programmer/index.php)
That solution "tell them to put me on the do-not-call list" simply keeps the burden on the consumer, not the telemarketer. Also, how do you do it to recorded calls?
BTW, before the national registry, there was a law requiring all telemarketing firms to send out written copies of their do-not-call policies to consumers upon request. Any individual violations of the request to send written copies of the DNC policy was something you could sue for in small claims court. Most telemarketers had never heard of this rule, and most were never trained about it.
Re:Worked for me (Score:4, Funny)
Of course, I like to find the good in every situation, which in this case was answering the phone with greetings like "Thanks for calling the Psychic Hotline, but I know this is a wrong number." or "Genital Piercings R Us, would you like to hear about our special on clitoral spikes?" or "$City chapter of the Cult of Satan...". You get the picture.
Re:Worked for me (Score:4, Informative)
I also worked as a telemarketer for a year.
I was completely amazed at how people are so uninformed about the whole thing. I realise we were bothering them, but that doesn't change the law or how incredibly simple it is to get us to stop calling back.
I called on behalf of Qwest (the phone/Internet company). Qwest is kinda serious about the Do-Not-Call list. They don't call ANYBODY who isn't already a Qwest customer. Even if they're not on the Do-Not-Call list. And Qwest is, of course, allowed to call its own customers unless they've asked them specifically to be taken off the list (because they have an Existing Business Relationship).
So this kinda got annoying after a while:
me: 'Hi, i'm calling on behalf of Qwest, is so-and-so there?'
guy: 'LISTEN HERE WE'RE ON THE DO NOT CALL LIST I'M GOING TO REPORT YOU' click
It's just like... OK... that's cool that you're on the DNC list, but we're still legally allowed to call you. So since you have no idea what you're talking about and just hung up on us, we're just going to call you again. I hope acting like an ass hole was worth it.
People not understanding the DNC law was the biggest annoyance we got. You'd be amazed. Almost nobody understands what the hell it does. I just can't fathom why you would sign up for something without having any idea what the fuck you're signing up for.
Another thing that was annoying is the people who just hang up on you. And then they threaten you the next time you call, as if them hanging up last time was some kind of legal contract that you were supposed to adhere to. If you just hang up on a telemarketer, they're going to call you back. No doubt about it. They will do it. You never told them not to call back, for all they know maybe you just dropped the phone. Or maybe your 5-year-old answered. They don't know.
Messing with telemarketers does not get them to stop calling you. No matter how many times you call them a fag or ask them what they're wearing or hang up on them or ask them how they'd like it if you called them during dinner, they're still going to call back. JUST TELL THEM TO TAKE YOU OFF THEIR FUCKING LIST.
All you have to do is say 'put me on your do-not-call list'. That's it. THEY'LL NEVER BOTHER YOU AGAIN. If they do, you can call the FCC and get them fined $11'000 or whatever (and you get up to $500 out of it).
Re:Worked for me (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Worked for me (Score:4, Interesting)
(http://www.mangaschool.com/ | Last Journal: Tuesday January 03 2006, @07:51AM)
Apparently you've never dealt with Qwest...
Re:Worked for me (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Worked for me (Score:5, Funny)
I just don't understand ... (Score:4, Insightful)
Once and for all, somebody needs to drive this into their heads: it is MY phone, and you may not use it (i.e. call me) without my consent. P.S. refusing to pay $3.50 a month to NOT be listed in the phone book does not mean I consent to have you morons call me.
-paul
Re:I just don't understand ... (Score:4, Insightful)
I suppose they are worried (justly) about people convincing grandma to sign up so she doesn't get so many "buy this shit now" calls
This is exactly what they are worried about. They don't care about you, me, or Joe Geek who would never buy their crap anyway. They care about concerned friends and relatives signing up the vulnerable people who they bleed dry as their staple source of income. Telemarketing is just a polite term for scamming.
I IS working, in unexpected ways (Score:5, Interesting)
(http://www.tanningbeds4less.com/ | Last Journal: Sunday November 05 2006, @07:23AM)
This is because many companies that do telephone marketing are doing something else instead (spam maybe?). So while the system isn't perfect, and can be improved, it has to be considered a success for the most part.
Do-Not-Call works for me. (Score:3, Informative)
(http://www.futurepower.net/)
The Oregon state government was charging [state.or.us] for Do-Not-Call. Now the state system has been terminated.
The question is (Score:3, Interesting)
What they let in: (Score:5, Insightful)
Then there is the fact that to report someone, you have to jump through hoops, and have a lot of information from the telemarketer, most people probably don't report illegal calls if they get them.
Lastly, I think we need a "Do-Not-Fax" list, as it drives me crazy that people will send vacation offers (that are probably scams) to the office I work at sometimes (which is technically a residential number), and not only does it waste time, it wastes ink and paper. Essentially, we have to pay to get spammed.
No Calls in KY (Score:3, Informative)
I cant believe that number (Score:3, Interesting)
(http://www.the-sopra...y/s3_tony_logoff.wav)
I don't get it - I was totally harrassed by at least 4-5 calls per night before this list came along.
Not only has it blocked almost 95% of the bullshit, it kicked in almost instantaneously. The execptions for charities are annoying/minor. Some utiliies and banks I do business occasionally bug me with the claim that I opted-in somehow - or that its just a "courtesy call
But IMHO - The list rocks!
The irritating loopholes (Score:3, Interesting)
And, so, when the law was passed, they had loopholes for
The only thing that seems to work is to hang up on the charities and to tell the businesses that you'll be closing your account with them if you get any more calls.
Have some fun with 'em (Score:3, Funny)
Sometimes, I just lay the phone down and say nothing or cut a big fart or hold the phone down and get my cat to meow. I've used airhorns, the alarm clocks on Dark Side of the Moon, police whistles and tape recordings of me talking about something.
Have some fun with 'em.
Now the question is... (Score:3, Insightful)
Look up your state's Attorney General (Score:3, Interesting)
That do not call list has been pretty good over all. It's really cut down to number of calls we used to get. Of the few we get, nearly all of them say "we're not trying to sell you anything" during their taped messages.... SUUUUUUURE.