Telemarketers on the ropes

CINCINNATI BUSINESS COURIER ^ | 8/11/2003 | Lance Williams

[xrp]

Popular do-not-call list bringing industry to its knees

Aug. 11 — In the past three months, the hallways at Groesbeck-based Tel-A-Sell Marketing Inc. have become a lot less crowded. CEO Edd O’Connor has been forced to trim his telemarketing staff from 72 to 18.

“I WAS RUNNING a full house earlier this year,” said O’Connor, who also serves as president of the American Teleservices Association’s Great Lakes Chapter, which covers Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky and Michigan.

One of the big reason for the cuts: the chilling effects of the National Do Not Call Registry and other similar efforts in statehouses across the country.

A month into the sign-ups for the federal Do Not Call list, nearly 30 million phone numbers across the United States have been registered for the list. That number could double by the time the list takes effect on Oct. 1.

The ATA, which is challenging the list in court, said the national list could eventually cause more than 2 million lost telemarketing jobs. The ATA estimated that telemarketers are responsible for $660 billion in sales. The combined effects of do-not-call lists and the movement of jobs overseas have left the industry ailing.

“It’s going to cause significant business problems for this industry,” said O’Connor, who said he expects a pickup in business in early fall. “We’ve got to step back and regroup.”

[xrp]

Well, I hope that all the freaking babies who bitched and moaned for government to save them from the threats posed to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness by telemarketers are happy. Up to 2,000,000 more Americans could be put out of work.

A simple annoyance that can be remedied by hanging up, using caller ID or an answering machine is going to result on a bunch more people drawing unemployment checks.

Once again...the big government/nanny state loving Americans find another way to screw their fellow citizens.

Next up to bat are the babies who want legislation against email spam.

[Chad Fairbanks]

Hmmm... this sucks. Now who will I toy with on the phone? Oh well, I guess it's back to picking names from the phone book at random. Damned Feds.

[Phaedrus]

The ATA, which is challenging the list in court, said the national list could eventually cause more than 2 million lost telemarketing jobs.

I flat don't believe this -- the number is overstated by 1,999,990 or so.

[RLK]

Telemarketers are an unwanted intrusion into my life with which I strongly disagree. For one thing, they have a habit of calling when I am on the toilet, then switching to another number by the time I get to the phone. They should be outlawed.

[Freedom_Is_Not_Free]

HOORAY!!! Anything they need to sell me, tell me or show me can be done by mailer. I HATE telemarketing. Hate it!

[sinkspur]

Next up to bat are the babies who want legislation against email spam.

Baby here. When I opt out of an e-mail campaign, the originator should honor that, and also refrain from sharing my e-mail address with anyone else.

These people are getting what they deserve. If I want to be sold to, over the phone, I should be able to opt in to regular phone calls from my favorite merchants.

[Joe Bfstplk]

I pay for phone service for my convenience, not theirs.

[rogue yam]

There's no analysis here so it's impossible to know how they came up with the figure of 2 million jobs. But I wonder it that figure takes into account the economic activity the listed consumers undertake with the money they would have spent on products and services bought from the now laid-off solicitors. Those 2 million jobs can only have existed if the now-listed (and therefore no-longer-called) consumers were spending money on telemarketed products. These consumers are not now going to just burn that money. How many jobs in some other sector will be created to offset the telemarketing jobs lost?

[cyborg]

put a telephone in your bathroom :-)

[Paleo Conservative]

Baby here. When I opt out of an e-mail campaign, the originator should honor that, and also refrain from sharing my e-mail address with anyone else.

Amen to that. I have an email account that gets 50-100 spams a day.

[xrp]

By the way, good luck getting the other 199 countries in the world to abide by American legislation banning spam.

[xrp]

Have you considered setting up rules to filter your email or software that will assist you in doing this? I have and it reduces the amount of spam that gets through to a couple per day.

[Incorrigible]

put a telephone in your bathroom :-)

And one of these and you can FReep along while you're at it!

[Catphish]

Up to 2,000,000 more Americans could be put out of work.

Telemarketing leeches the time of millions more Americans, which has a value far in excess of the total sales of all telemarketing. If anything telemarketing is a drag on the economy. These 2,000,000 people should find jobs doing productive work instead.

[RLK]

put a telephone in your bathroom :-)

------------------------

I wasn't put on this earth to please other people. Anyone with whom I have no prior arranged business, or who does not know me, has no business calling me. It's my choice to have intrusional calls blocked.

[StolarStorm]

Most of these jobs were going to be offshored to India eventually.

[cyborg]

I'd never leave my bathroom... looks like something Al Bundy or Tim the Toolman would love

[gatex]

"A simple annoyance that can be remedied by hanging up, using caller ID ..."

Telemarketers use the "out of area" trick so the caller ID doesn't work.

Also, the ones calling for the Fraternal Order of Police are now admitting (only reluctantly) that they keep 80 percent of the money and give 20 percent to the police.

[dalereed]

"I HATE telemarketing"

I hate all salesman!

The over 40 years I was in business I refused to deal with them.

That goes for all advertising also. I can't think of anything I have ever bought because of an advertisment.

[Paleo Conservative]

Have you considered setting up rules to filter your email or software that will assist you in doing this? I have and it reduces the amount of spam that gets through to a couple per day.

But that only works on a computer with an email client. If you use Hotmail.com or other web based email clients, the filtering is rather limited. I often have to use half a dozen different computers during the day. I wish Hotmail would filter this garbage out. The only filtering they have is blocking email addresses. Most of the email addresses on spam are bogus anyway and never reused. I could tell Hotmail.com to block up to 200 email address, but the identical viagra ad will appear in my inbox from another email address. Considering the volume of email that goes through some email servers one would think ISPs would have better ways of blocking spam based on pattern recognition.