[KineticKitty]

I know... people whom want or expect personal privacy and simply want to be left alone are now cry babies?

I understand hanging up... I do that quite well... but when some of us see nothing on the caller ID we don't have the choice to let it go to an answering machine, My husbands calls from Iraq (as sporadic as they are) don't register sometimes. And my attitude isn't the greatest when I get a hold of a telemarketer, which I can sometimes guess it is them by the 5 hang-up anonymous phone calls I receive a few days before I am graced with a real live telemarketer. (You know the kind - where your hung up on or hear silence because they switch to another call because your not getting to your phone fast enough.) But I guess the only time that is important to them, is their own.

I've heard "this is like junk mail" argument before... I don't mind junk mail because I check my mail WHEN I WANT TO, and it is at their expense (shipping cost, paper, envelopes, etc). The phone? I pay for the monthly service, and I am busy 1/2 the time they interrupt me.

[billbears]

I know... people whom want or expect personal privacy and simply want to be left alone are now cry babies?

If they depend on the government for that, yes. Beyond a shadow of a doubt. If they choose to purchase one of the many products available offered by a company instead of whining to the government, then no

[auntdot]

Thank you Kitty.

For business reasons I must answer the phone 24/7 every other week.

I have caller ID but that does not solve the problem since many of the people I need to speak to also flash as 'unavailable'. Have tried other options, like call blocking, but that filtered out too many appropriate messages.

Don't mind answering the calls I need to but do not need to hear from someone trying to sell me something I do not want (have never purchased anything from a telemarketer, and would not. No need to encourage the vermin.)

What does work is getting your number unpublished and unlisted. Yes, it costs a few bucks a month, but for some reason almost no telemarkers ring us up anymore.

For those that do, I encourage them to waste their bloody time talking to me. Finally they get the idea they are being put on, and hang up.

Don't buy the two million jobs lost number. Those that opt out of the system are probably those who would not buy from a telemarker, like me.

If I were trying to hawk my goods through telemarketers, would I want to spend lots of money having them call people who had as much interest in the product as getting a nasty case of the shingles?

Heck no.

It seems to me those who do not opt out are a much more select market.

Unless, of course, the telemarketers believe they are basically con men, and every one is a potential mark.

Have not opted out yet; the unlisted, unpublished system seems to be working well and I am waiting to see how the courts view the issue. If the law is upheld, I will be on the list. And go after any telemarketer who violates the law.

[jimt]

I pay for the monthly service, and I am busy 1/2 the time they interrupt me.

Which is why this law putting telescum "on the ropes" is entirely justified. They are STEALING your service, as well as interrupting your privacy, without ever getting off their rear ends.