Posted on 09/27/2003 7:05:03 AM PDT by joesbucks
I've read over the course of the past few months the numerous threads regarding the use of telemarketing and the intrusion it has on our homes.
I had a long discussion with my wife who hates the intrusion. I ask her why did they call her? She had no idea. Well, despite the black eye telemarketers get, it's probably the most effective way to get business. Even Mrs. Me admitted that if they called about something that she had an interest in, she probably would buy. BINGO.
But let's look at if from another perspective. You will see numerous threads about how regulation is driving business from our shores to others. How we've taken manufacturing and moved it to low cost countries. Not because of productivity, but because of emission regulations or community groups that complain about the noise, smell or traffic caused by the facility. Even right to know and safety concerns. Changes necessary would be costly and not enforeced across the border or across the pond so companies locate there.
We seen threads about government regulation taking over our lives. Yet when it comes to a minor inconvience, we run to the government for help from the big bad telemarketers.
What's the difference between regulating out a obnoxiouis telephone call but not noxiouis fumes from the plant next door?
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.
What are we to do with all the folks who try to eek out a living working in a humid cramped call center. Many are the folks we drove from the welfare rolls with welfare reform (a good thing). Many are college students trying to earn their way through college. Others are seniors trying to supplement a fixed income. Or the physically disabled who find work in a sitting position reading a script, possibly from the company you work for or possibly even own. Some are just the slugs of life and a call center is the only way they've managed to find some sort of paycheck. What do you suggest they do for a living that's not immoral, illegal or indecent?
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 other thing to remember is that there are several ways that you will still get calls. They WILL NOT GO AWAY. Doing business with a company? They can call. Done business with them in the past 18 months? They can call. Signed up for one of those free give aways recently? You can now legitimately get a call. Charities. Exempt. Local lib dem candidate? Exempt. Pollsters. Exempt. Probably a thousand other loop holes? Exempt too!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
He's an anarchist, folks. My advice is to just ignore him and he'll go away.
Because it is not harassment if you have allowed them to call you. Your service agreement with the phone company allows calls from anyone.
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.
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.
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!
Can you show me that in your service contract?
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.
You must own a call center. Sorry but switch over to charitable work or political polling and you will do fine.
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
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