Telemarketers see devastating effect with national 'do-not-call' list

AP ^ | June 28, 2003 | Hilary Roxe

[sarcasm]

BOSTON (AP) To many consumers, calls from telemarketers are unwanted intrusions. But for the industry, those calls are their lifeblood and many of them were predicting that a new national do-not-call list would have a devastating effect on business.

Keith A. Fotta, president and CEO of Norwood, Mass.-based Gryphon Networks, which developed a technology to help telemarketing companies avoid calling homes that have registered, said the Federal Trade Commission's new rules which impose penalties on companies that call people on the list could be ''absolutely devastating.''

[GailA]

We do the same thing, our message on our answering machine is "IF you are a telemarketeer please REMOVE us from your list." In about 30 days our calls went from 4 & 5 a day to about 4 or 5 a month, then down to about 1 or 2 a month. We get a 'spat' of 1 or 2 new callers every month or two but those only last about a week.

[jejones]

The only depressing part is that those boiler room operations that solicit money for firemen and police departments but actually only give them a miniscule percentage of the take will probably fall under the "charitable" exception to the do-not-call list.

[Cachelot]

''They're the hard-to-employ people. These are folks who are physically disabled, single mothers, college students that need flexible schedules, the elderly.''

So that makes them entitled to clog my phone like electronic bloody leeches? I don't think so.

However, he said, the list will force his company to find other ways of contacting consumers including door-to-door marketing

Oh yes, just try. The dogs need something lively to chew on from time to time ;).

[tdadams]

Oh yes, just try.

No kidding. I got the impression that was some sort of veiled threat. If you think you're going to come on my property and knock on my door to try to sell me crap I don't care about, just try it and see if you can make it to my door before I make it to my Mossberg.

[eno_]

Me thinks its just a matter of time before the telemarketers find a way to access cell phone numbers.

That will never happen. Any wireless carrier that allowed telemarketers to call in to their network would lose half their customers by the next week. That's why it hasn't happened yet.

[jejones]

I recall hearing something about concerns that polls are becoming less reliable because more and more people are refusing to take part in them. This list can only make pollsters samples that much less representative. (Not that this particularly bothers me...)

[demkicker]

Does that mean that telemarketers have to get a daily list of who they cannot call anymore? Your state must be a nightmare for telemarketers.

[backhoe]

I'm still waiting on the email, but I'm patient...

I don't know what's worse about these people- the always-inconvienient times they call, the fact that they don't respond promptly when you answer ( usually a dead giveaway to an automated call ), the fact that half can't speak English, or that they call you by your name repeatedly.

I love how one call will try to sell you yet another credit card and then the next will "help you get out of credit-card debt..."

I guess the worst time was a couple of years ago here when Georgia "deregulated" ( yeah, right! Another scam... ) natural gas, and we'd get 10 calls a day trying to get us to switch providers. Yet not one- not a single caller- could tell us what the new service was going to cost. But they had plenty of resort offers, or cruises to peddle as incentives.

[bert]

Ask them about the safety of the rides from air borne diseases. The enclosed humid air might be a source for disease like SARS or Legioners.

[tdadams]

I think it's also a matter of a different business model.

Landline phone companies tacitly encouraged telemarketing because their business customers pay according to call volume. If the phone company supplies telemarketers with a list of phone numbers, their revenue goes up.

On the flip side of the coin, wireless companies make a profit by maximizing what they charge for bandwidth while limiting the actual usage of that bandwidth. So, the more call volume they handle, the more their profit shrinks.

At least that's my layman's analysis of the situation. I'm not a telecom analyst, I just play one on Free Republic.

[Jhoffa_]

However, he said, the list will force his company to find other ways of contacting consumers including door-to-door marketing.

(click, CLACK!)

.....

BLAM!

(Disclaimer: This sound effect was borrowed from a FReeper who's name I forgot)

[MrsEmmaPeel]

I always give the clerks a phony telephone number.

Oh great. So its your calls I've been getting?

[Rebelbase]

" haven't received the e-mail message confirming the registration."

Same here.

[vavavah]

''Approximately 30 percent of our industry literally evaporates overnight,'' said Tim Searcy, spokesman for the trade group. ''They're the hard-to-employ people. These are folks who are physically disabled, single mothers, college students that need flexible schedules, the elderly.''

Oh well,what did these people do before Computer generated calling,dirt cheap T1's(out bound 800#'s) and boiler rooms? Guess they will have to go back to doing it again.
I worked for a local telecom in Broward/Dade servicing these "boiler rooms" and most are run by crooks and scammers.One company would even stoop so low as to have the Rep/caller fake disabilitie in the deflection of there voice,it was sick.....

[A Vast RightWing Conspirator]

I registered for the do not call list by phone. Now I'm thinking I ought to get online to register our cell phones.

This is my concern too. I believe cell phones are off limits to TMs now. However, I did hear W yesterday talking about our ability to place our home phones AND cell phones on the no-call list. Is granting TM access to cell phones part of the package or W just mis-spoke?

[vavavah]

Alex G Bell revisited:

"Watson come hear quick,I have a time share for you in Siberia"

[vavavah]

I dont believe the phone company provides them with anything other than the local loop ...its all random and soft ware generarted....

[demkicker]

I believe cell phones are off limits to TMs now. However, I did hear W yesterday talking about our ability to place our home phones AND cell phones on the no-call list. Is granting TM access to cell phones part of the package or W just mis-spoke?

I didn't hear him, so I'm not sure. I think I'll hold off, for now, and not register our cell phone #'s yet. Like someone said earlier, the fewer people who have the number, the better. If I start getting telemarketing calls, I'll do it in a heartbeat and after I'm through with Sprint, they will gladly let me out of my contract.

[varon]

The American Teleservices Association said about 2 million of the 6.5 million people working at telemarketing call centers across the nation will lose their jobs... ''Approximately

Good riddance, scum! Just don't go on the dole or get a government job.

Now, if we could also eliminate about 2 million government jobs, we'd be on a roll ;-)