Posted on 09/24/2003 1:08:49 PM PDT by scab4faa
I work as a Realtor and Sales Manager for a firm operating in one of the most popular vacation/retirement home destinations in the US -- the Asheville/WNC area. There are lots of people from all over the US that are interested in buying property here, and they constitute an important part of our business.
We don't do cold calls. However, if client John Doe mentions to us that his brother Joe Doe in Podunk, Iowa would like to buy a place here in the mountains, then we do want to contact Joe. This type of scenario actually happens quite a bit in our business, and it is an important part of what we've got to do to generate customers. Under the FTC rules, if they are allowed to stand, we would either have to pay the $7,735 per year to get nationwide DNC registry look-up, or else risk the $11,000 fine, or else simply not make initial contact by phone with people like John. Maybe if we are lucky we could find a mailing address and mail something to him (at $0.37 per contact, or more likely more than that as we would need to enclose some promotional literature), and maybe if we are really lucky John would send back a postage-paid return postcard (more expense) giving us permission to talk to him by telephone. Or, we could just give up on making any efforts to prospect out of our own immediate area, ceding a large chunk of our potential market to the few really big firms who can afford to pay the $7,735 per year.
That $7,735 per year may not sound like very much to you, but for our firm (which is actually mid-sized, we are about the 5th or 6th largest in our market), that figure represents somewhere between 1/4 and 1/3 of our total annual marketing budget. For smaller firms, that could be as much as half, 3/4, or even ALL of their annual marketing budget. Hyperbole? These are real numbers, and they have a real impact on real businesses and real careers. Your claim that "anyone marketing to the entire US can afford ~$7K" is simply not true, unless you are comfortable with the notion that only the select few corporate giants with the right political connections should have the opportunity to market nationwide, and the rest of we small fry should be shut out. Where's the "consumer protection" in that?
See my other reply. The Realtors in the firm that I manage don't do cold calls, but we do cultivate personal contacts and rely on word-of-mouth referrals. If we are told of somebody that one of our contacts knows that might be interested in buying or selling, then we would want to call them, introduce ourselves to them, and explore with them if there is any possibility of our being of help to them. If you essentially outlaw even that type of calling, then what you are leaving businesses like mine with is no alternative but to bombard your mailboxes with junk mail and blanket the airwaves, newspapers, and signboards with advertising. And that will assure that instead of a highly competitive marketplace, you will drive out all except one or two corporate giants, and the cost of selling a home will increase substantially. Again, where is the "consumer protection" in all of this?
Even if it is something that you are in the market for, and the call is a follow-up from one of your friends passing your name and number along to someone in the business of meeting your need? In that case, do you also put your friends on your list? Or do you still even have any friends?
So, complain to someone who cares. I don't. As far as I'm concerned, the world would be better off without telemarketing, anyway.
This is a relic from long ago.
When directory assistance was free, an unlisted number cost extra because the phone company could claim it would generate more (futile) calls to directory assistance.
Now, it's a revenue generator: calls to directory assistance result in a charge on my phone bill.
If that's the case in your state, you should complain to the public utilities commission. The fee is probably still codified in some regulation enacted decades ago.
I fail to see what is unreasonable about such an expectation.
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