Why Is Telemarketing Different Than Any Other Group or Individuals Telling a Business What to Do?

self | self

[FreePaul]

I agree with you. We should insist that the law is toughened up to restrict calls from all of those listed in your last paragraph also.

[Salo]

It's this simple: if you do not want *them* to use the phone *you* pay for, you sign up for the do-not-call-list. The government doesn't make you sign up for the do not call list: you do it yourself. They get a smaller pool of people to wade through who are actually interested in telephone solicitation, and your phone is not tied up with their sales pitches. Let these lowlife phone spammers go door-to-door selling their wares.

[headsonpikes]

"noxious fumes"

That's a great metaphor! That's exactly what those telemarketing calls are like - noxious fumes!

[Dave S]

What happens when all the telemarketing jobs get exported to Ireland or India and our laws don't extend to them? And the calls continue cause we can't stop them

I expect then, we consumers will demand that our local phone service put us on a do-no-connect international calls list. How many of us typically get international calls. Ive maybe had five in the past ten years. If most people put their households on a do not accept international calls list, then internationally based call centers wont be economically viable either.

[Gorzaloon]

What's the difference between regulating out a obnoxiouis telephone call but not noxiouis fumes from the plant next door?

Because I do not own the air, nor the plant next door, but I DO own my phone and the privacy of my home. I am the final authority on what come into my home. Were the plant next door to place a hose in my mailslot and pump the stuff into my home, it would be readily resolved.

It's not a very good analogy, because there are serious enough fines and cumbersome regulations that many of these polluting companies have been shut down, and the survivors face such onerous regulations now that they can barely do business. In my state, for example, almost all foundries have been shut down because they were bad neighbors.

Good neighbors do not harass me at suppertime with offers of time shares, and other products that nobody would buy if marketed any other way then by hoping to catch someone drunk or in a weak moment.

[joesbucks]

Oh, but they have 800 capability. Just ask GE who has exported thier collection efforts to India. Sorry, that don't work. And typically the internation call block is for outbound, not inbound.

[mrs tiggywinkle]

We signed up for the national registry of the *do not call* list. And we've decided to turn off the phone ringer for a couple hours in the evening. The telemarketers rarely leave messages, and we have peace and quiet.

What **really** makes my blood boil is telemarketer calls on my CELL PHONE!!! I've rec'd 4 in a month. Grrrr.

[garbanzo]

I find it amazing that we would rally all day about government intrusion and regulation on companies, yet we have rallied to stop a few phone calls a week or day.

The question is whether or not the intrusion is legitimate. No one says companies should be completely free from regulation or public oversight. For example, companies can't send you goods or perform services without your consent and then bill you for them. It's perfectly okay for government to forbid companies from contacting people who have declared their desire to not be contacted.

[joesbucks]

But how about their odors waft through you dining room. A wealthy burb in the community I live in has been griping about the local Busch plant for years.

[Dave S]

I find it amazing that we would rally all day about government intrusion and regulation on companies, yet we have rallied to stop a few phone calls a week or day.

This is NOT government intrusion. It is individuals deciding what is right for their household. It would be government intrusion if the government was to decide that we shouldnt be forced to endure the endless calls and put everyone on such a list or banned telemarketing altogether. The government was forced to make the list available because of the DEMAND of the people for relief.

[HighWheeler]

"What are we to do with all the folks who try to eek out a living working in a humid cramped call center."

They can come over and mow my lawn, wash my truck and my dog, paint the house, ........ oh...wait, those jobs involve a level of intelligence.... never mind.

[meyer]

But how about their odors waft through you dining room. A wealthy burb in the community I live in has been griping about the local Busch plant for years.

Roundup.

[norraad]

It's also a good op. to hone your acting skills, I like to use a character like Roman Moroni from the movie Johnny Dangerously;

"You fargin' icehole, you have violated my fargin' rights. Dis somanumbatching country was founded so the liberties of common patriotic citizens, like me, could not be taken away by a bunch of fargin iceholes like yourselves"

They rarely stay for the second act.....wait, there's more.....

[joesbucks]

I've seen software with phone numbers on it. Cell phone numbers were exempt, except for when you've purchased something and gave the cell phone number as your primary contact point. The list was then sold to an affiliated company and bingo, you've got cell phone telemarketing calls.

[joesbucks]

I like it.

[Catspaw]

There was a boiler room telemarketing operation selling vacation time shares in my office building for three months. When they were evicted for non-payment of rent--they packed up and moved over the Thanksgiving weekend--they left mounds of garbage, including rotting food (about 30-40 large garbage bags full), a carpet full of ground out cigarettes, urine, feces and vomit, crack pipes, an unpaid $9,000 phone bill (mistakenly sent to my office)--and, just for fun, they stopped up a sink in one of the bathrooms and turned the water on full force, flooding that floor's hallways and flooding into a furniture store on the floor below, causing thousands of dollars of damage to their goods.

Tell me again how nice telemarketers are again.

[joesbucks]

If you are the business owner, it's government intrusion saying what you can and can't do.

[Dave S]

Oh, but they have 800 capability. Just ask GE who has exported thier collection efforts to India. Sorry, that don't work. And typically the internation call block is for outbound, not inbound.

Are you telling me that there is no switch at our shores? Satellite based systems have to have a downlink station. Undersea cable has to come ashore somewhere. Even the old HF links have to have a communications center.

You mention 800 capability. What is to stop the local phone service from blocking all 800 numbers if that is the choice of the customer? If there are a 800 numbers that you do receive calls from, you can put them in as exceptions.

[abner]

When I want to buy something, I seek it out. I will NOT buy from a telemarketer.

I have 6 lines coming in here at work, and two at home. A couple of calls a day can turn into about an hour a day on the phone of people that aren't making me a penny. Usually, the telemarketer will call 4 or 5 of the lines in a row. Really frustrating.

It isn't a small nuisance, it is a big nuisance.
It is a real bummer when I run to get to the phone at the expense of something I am in the middle of, and it gets ruined also. Then it is a telemarketer!!

If the government wants to make an opt-in list to rid me of the scourge of telemarketers, then it is my choice to join the list or not.
I don't have a problem with that.