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

self | self

[palmer]

The "do not call" registry is the phone equivalent of a "No soliciting" sign on the front door. A man (or woman) should have the right to keep his home free of telemarketers invading their privacy.

Incorrect analogy. The TM call is like my headlights shining through your window from a public road. Don't like it? Build a fence. You have signed up for a service which allows anyone to call you so you either need to get a different service or a screening device.

[DefCon]

"...Of course they don’t say the same about unwanted commercials on their private television..."
- - -
If, while I was sitting quietly in my home having dinner, my TV suddenly came-on all by itself and started running commercials, that I would be equally miffed.

[palmer]

If you continued to call me against my will, I can get a protective order against you personaly. I see these lists as nothing more than protective orders against intruders into my personal life.

Indeed protective orders are a valid response to harassment. But you have signed up for a service which allows anyone to call you. You have allowed those calls, therefore they are not harassment.

[BJungNan]

Give me your phone number and I will show you why telemarketers are bad.

Idea for fighting back at telemarketers:
1. When they call, first listen.
2. Then, engage them in a conversations but speak in very soft tones that causes them to turn up the volume on their head set.
3. Then in mid sentence, grab your hand held boat air horn and let 'em have it. Blast that horn long and loud into the mouth piece.

[Afronaut]

Owning your Telephone and leasing the number and saying you will regulate who calls is like owning your TV and regulating the Commercials.

Your Phone Number is leased you do not own it. If you have a problem with your phone don't have one. Telemarketing is a multi billion dollar industry. There are many ways to avoid the calls, Caller ID is one. If you are still bothered by calls at dinner, it's you own fault for letting it happen.

[palmer]

Why is my telephone any different from any of my other property. Do telemarketers have a right to trespass on my property just because the address is published.

The spectrum above your house is being "trespassed" by my headlights when I drive by. The air is being "trespassed" by my sound waves when I call from the sidewalk. Those media can indeed be regulated to some extent (e.g. the FCC can prevent unwanted radio waves from reaching your house). But you have signed up for a service which allows ANY electrons to enter your house over a wire. If you don't like that service, then get a different one, for example, a cell phone.

[NittanyLion]

Before everyone gets all worked up, allow me to introduce palmer. He spread his stupidity all over another thread two days ago. palmer believes it's wrong to call the police when an intruder breaks into your home, because it's your job to deal with that person - not a proper function of government.

He's an anarchist, folks. My advice is to just ignore him and he'll go away.

[palmer]

So how is a telemarketer any different from anyone else?

Because it is not harassment if you have allowed them to call you. Your service agreement with the phone company allows calls from anyone.

[palmer]

The do not call list is the phone version of the "No Soliciting" sign.

No, it is a government-mandated entitlement: wired phone service with commercial call screening. The market already provides services like that, but you want it free from the government.

[hemogoblin]

They WILL go door to door.

Then you just put up a "no solicitors" sign, the old-fashioned version of the do-not-call list ...

I have been known to say, "can you hang on a second?" to telemarketers, then just put the phone down and go about my business. Takes em about five minutes to give up. Poor miserable souls ...

[palmer]

The first line of defense for your home is you. If that doesn't work you call the government.

[palmer]

Lots of cheap fiber strung across the oceans, whereas the local copper lines are expensive to maintain.

[Naspino]

Because it is not harassment if you have allowed them to call you. Your service agreement with the phone company allows calls from anyone.

My service agreement is not to "allow" anyone to call me. It is for phone service of inbound and outbound calls. Its not the phone companies job to restrict who can call me. Its mine and I signed up with the No Call List to fulfill my responsibility.

[Voltage]

Could I add my mother in law to the list? If she calls during dinner could I get the Federal Marshall's to arrest her?

And how about stronger drugs...I can't handle the stress of ordinary life. Can't the Govt help me? I can't take care of myself!

[palmer]

My service agreement is not to "allow" anyone to call me.

Can you show me that in your service contract?

[Dave S]

There is also no easy way to block foreign telemarketing. Using voice over IP (the affordable way to do it anyway) you will now be getting your telemarketing totally unregulated and with a bad Bombay accent. Oh sure, you'll see a big drop off next week and people will talk about how wonderful it is now that the telemarketers are gone, but bive them a few months to get setup and retooled overseas and what do you know the phones gonna start ringing at dinner again.

I dont think that foreign telemarketing is really a concern. The foreign telemarketers are not going to call the US to sell products or services that are not being sold by US companies. The legislation makes it a illegal for these companies to contact people on the no call list regardless of where the calls are made from. If the legislation doesnt do this now, it certainly will within days of when the first calls are made from overseas. Perhaps in twenty years when companies in China and India begin marketing directly to people in the US this will be a problem but not now. No clients, no calls.

[Dave S]

The Missouri No Call list is still operating so I guess the Court didnt agree with your thinking.

You must own a call center. Sorry but switch over to charitable work or political polling and you will do fine.

[MizSterious]

Does your "service agreement" with the city allow "visits" from anyone, even unwanted visitors, too? I don't think so. I think trespass laws come into play with the phone as well as your living room. Will they next insist they have the right to force us to listen to their spiels? (I wouldn't put it past them.)

What most people (not all, I've seen some mention it) are missing is that the ban in no way infringes on telemarketers' free speech rights. They can speak all they want. There is no right that forces us to listen.

Another thing: if the telemarketers keep it up, they just might find their sales plummeting. Sometimes when people get mad, really, really mad, they vote with their checkbooks.

Just a warning to any of you in the telemarketing business.

[MizSterious]

You are forgetting that, service agreement or no service agreement, there are laws against "harassing calls" from individuals. Telemarketers should be no different. If we ask them not to call, they should immediately cease and desist. If they continue to call, it's no better than the phone pranker.

(And worse, it won't get them any sales. Unfortunately, they're not smart enough to think of this.)

[Hank Kerchief]

This has nothing to do with government regulating business. It has to do with preserving the sanctity of private homes. It is said that a man's home is his castle. It should stay that way. The private home is not a proper place for businesspeople to make their solicitations.

The government has no business protecting anything people willingly choose to make vulnerable. If you parade around your house naked and leave the blinds up, you have no right to expect the government to insure no one sees you and invades the "sanctity" of your private home with their eyes.

A telephone is a kind of window on the world. There are things people can do themselves to prevent telephone solicitation. They are not necessarily convenient, but neither is having to pull down your own blinds. Maybe you want the government to do that for you too.

You install a telephone you are porviding an entrance to your home that is available to anyone with a phone. Anybody can call your phone. That's the nature of a telephone and you knew that when you installed it, and it is one of the reasons you installed it. But, like all other useful things in this world, it can be used in ways you might not like. Like the actual door to your house, anyone can come to the it, unless you take measures to prevent that. So, with your phone anyone can come to you via that, but, just as you can always shut your door, you can always hang up.

Why does everyone think they must have the government eliminate every possible inconvenience and discomfort from their lives for them. And why do they think they have the right to force other people to pay for it. That's the real intrusion.

This is just another surrender of personal responsiblity to the government and another intrusion of government on business and individuals forced to pay for other's convenience. Like all the other oppresive measures, they exist because some people like them, and really don't give a damn about freedom, or liberty, or being responsible for their own lives.

Hank