Dear Mr. Burgess,
If congress did indeed give a rat's ass about how the public views it, you people would secure the border and prosecute employers for hiring illegals. Nah, fighting annoying phone calls is much more important. What a PantLoadTM
Posted on 02/06/2008 5:49:08 PM PST by SmithL
WASHINGTON, (AP) -- Politicians have finally found an issue they all can agree on: Telemarketers calling at dinnertime are a scourge that must be repulsed.
Congress on Wednesday sent to President Bush two bills that would make permanent a program to protect consumers from unwanted phone calls from telemarketers. Its hallmark is the national "do not call" list.
"This initiative has proven to be one of the most popular laws in history," said Rep. G.K. Butterfield, D-N.C. Extending the program was necessary "to avoid the wrath of millions of angry constituents."
The Do Not Call Registry, initiated in 2003, has been widely acclaimed for allowing Americans to eat their suppers in peace. Some 150 million people have listed their phones on the registry, which prohibits calls from telemarketers.
"I remember times we just used to take our phones off the hook," said Rep. Mike Doyle, D-Pa., a leader on the issue, recalling pre-registry days.
"Consumers without exception hate the annoyance of intrusive telemarketer calls at dinnertime," said Chris Murray, senior counsel for Consumers Union. "When nearly every American household has taken the time to register, that says something really strong."
Rep. Michael Burgess, R-Texas, put it in political terms: "With a 10 percent approval rating it is incumbent upon us to continue to pass legislation that is indeed popular."
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
“Your wish is granted”
Cool! Signed up. If I get a ton of crap in my mailbox next week cause it’s a scam I’m going to hunt you down and bury you in junk mail.
Many of those are from scam charities which contact your local police/fire to get to use their name and then only pass on a couple percent of the donation and keep the rest. If you want to give money to your police or fire departments, give money to them directly instead of to a "charity" calling to sell tickets/jam/some other crap.
http://www.yourhomenow.com/sit.html
Dear Mr. Burgess,
If congress did indeed give a rat's ass about how the public views it, you people would secure the border and prosecute employers for hiring illegals. Nah, fighting annoying phone calls is much more important. What a PantLoadTM
I am on the do not call list, but in recent months I have been getting robo-calls where you have to press a number to connect. I am reluctant to press a number as I do not want to seem to be calling them. I do not have caller ID so how can I stop these unwanted solicitations?
Thanks
I got a Fraternal Order of Police call recently. The first thing out of his mouth was to remind me to buckle up and never drink and drive.
The first thing out of my mouth was not repeatable here.
What is worse? A company asking for business? Or some government stooge or politician hectoring me?
These laws are an abomination. Too cheap to get caller ID? Just get politicians to criminalize people doing an honest job!
My wife answered the phone a while back and it was a sales pitch.
She told the guy we are on the No Call List and he said “go to hell” click.
AS an alternative, I am designing a mail box that opens on both ends. At the back end, under the opening, is a 30 gal trash can. 
Well, I've thought about it!
The cheapest thing you can do is to get an inexpensive answering machine and record the tones at the very beginning your outgoing message as found at:
http://www.yourhomenow.com/sound/sit-tone.wav
Their robo-dialers will detect that your phone number is "out of service" and will delete your number from their database. Since these types of creeps share data, you number MAY be less and less likely to be dialed.
OOPS - then I'd better get my mail box design made - see my post #28
What you do to people that annoy you and bother you with junk you don’t want....
If you know their name and address you sign them up for all sorts of junk.
Open any magazine and you will find tons of postpaid first month free stuff.
Everything from magazine subscriptions to the plate a month club. Most are send no money now, cancel at anytime garbage.
20-30 of those will keep them busy for the next couple years trying to cancel and sending stuff back.
Once they have them on file they refuse to cancel and they just keep billing and turn them in to collection agencies.
Be sure to check in the smut mag’s to sign them up to the gay/bi/lesbo registry.
Haha
Two things.
1. I press the number - when they come on, if you ask what the name of the company is - they often hang up. If not, note the time, day and number...inform them "I am on the DO NOt Call list - you are calling illegally - do not call again."
Usually, you will get hung up on before you finish.
They will probably call back in a few weeks- this time tell them. "I am now going to report you and put in for my $500 fine from your company."
Again, they will hang up quickly and you are unlikely to ever hear from them again.
Most of the time, there will be no number showing - but if there is a number, you can find out who they are by going to the web site:
http://www.whocalled.us/
You can them report them to your state attorney generals office -
Thanks, very helpful advise. That is what I will do.
I seem to be getting a lot of these calls lately, robo calls, which we never got before.
Thanks again.
Yes, politicians are completely exempt from “do not call” legislation, of course. It makes my job as a loan officer much harder, but the pols could care less.
Of course they did, which makes the whole thing so hypocritical.
The first time I get a call from some granny asking me to vote for McCain, she is going to hear a blue streak from me like she has never heard and I have never spoken before.
And I'm going to demand to be placed on their Do Not Call list (whether they have one or not).
Political campaigns, charities, and pollsters are exempt.
We get lots of calls that come up on our caller ID as “out of area” with no number listed. I cannot even use my call blocker to block the last call received. It appears that there is no record of the incoming number and my telephone service is unable to help me. Any suggestions?
I've gotten calls from "spoof numbers - numbers that show up on caller ID, but that don't exist. Congress obviously needs to ban that as part of this bill.
Then why are they still calling?
*** Good question. Why wasn’t the do not call list permanent? ***
Heer's the thing, you know all those fliers in size 2 font you get with your Credit Card or Bank Statements that everyone throws away without reading. They say they can sell your info or use it themselves to bug you to no end -- unless you opt out. Usually per a 29 step formula (kidding, slightly).
And here's real funny one, I recently got a little flier with a Bank of America credit card statement. They were going to raise my annual interest rate by 4.5% -- unless I 'voluntarily' choose (how nice of them) to reject their (cough) 'nice offer' to take more of my money, and in writing.
Needless to say my letter went out the next day declining their offer to take more of my money.
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