[curmudgeonII]

Another excellent decision by a Federal judge.

[Keith]

I would like to hire those scumbag telemarketing firms to start a non-stop phone call campaign to harrass Judge West. See how he feels then...

[CDHart]

As much as I hate telemarketing calls, I have to agree with this judge.

Carolyn

[theDentist]

Pity the telemarketer who calls MY home tonight.

[justlurking]

Previous thread.

(However, I don't consider this thread to be a duplicate. There is quite a bit more information in the article)

[Dan Evans]

HOW TO STOP TELEMARKETERS

The most valuable thing that telemarketers have is time. They have to pay people to make all those phone calls and the best thing you can do for them if you don't intend to buy anything is to hang up on them. They can then call the next person until they eventually find someone demented enough purchase their junk.

But suppose everyone who gets a call from these pests listens carefully, asks for details and generally wastes their time before hanging up. It immediately becomes about ten times more expensive for them to do business. Most of them would go out of business in a week.

So whenever I get a call or message I am always polite, I listen and keep them on the line as long as I can. Often I invite them to call back in half an hour (once I got about 6 callbacks one night from a telemarketer soliciting funds for an alumni association).

Sure, it's time consuming, but I figure I'm doing the world a favor.

[isthisnickcool]

I don't care about this because I'm going to be rich rich rich!~ I just received this:

FROM:OLADOKUN DANIELS #24 KOFO ABAYOMI STREET VICTORIA ISLAND LAGOS-NIGERIA

Dear Sir,

RE: BUSINESS PROPOSAL - STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL. I am OLADOKUN DANIELS,Chairman of the Contract Review Panel that was recently inaugurated by the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to review the activities of past military government with particular reference to contracts awarded by all ministries between.......

I'll post the rest of the message for a million dollars! Or maybe a six pack.

[Stefan Stackhouse]

The problems with the FTC's Do-Not-Call regulations are:

1) They are overbroad -- they do not just apply to "telemarketers" (who I would define as being companies making massive numbers of cold calls at random), but also to ANY business calling ANY residence for ANY reason.

2) To be in compliance, ANY business, no matter how small, that wishes to call ANY residential number ANYWHERE in the US must pay over SEVEN THOUSAND DOLLARS A YEAR for access to the Do-Not-Call registry, even if they only need to look up an occasional number now and then; free look-up access is provided only for five area codes, which is often not enough to cover an entire state, and sometimes not even an entire metro area.

The bottom line is that these regulations are NOT "anti-telemarketer" -- the telemarketing firms will consider $7K per year to be small change, and it will be a relatively simple programming change to incorporate the do-not-call registry into their already-computerized systems. What these regulations REALLY are is "ANTI-SMALL-BUSINESS" -- most of us who are in or run small, non-telemarketing businesses cannot possibly afford this $7K per year, nor can we afford an $11K penalty. Thus, if the FTC regulations were to stand, this would effectively limit just about ALL small businesses to calling ONLY residences within a five-zip-code area. I call that "restraint of trade" -- the exact opposite of what the FTC has been tasked to do.

I hate telemarketing calls as much as anyone else. But there's got to be a better way to do this.

[freeangel]

So, exactly what is his phone number?

[Lancey Howard]

I got rid of the pests years ago by getting call blocking through my phone company.
I now take the peace and quiet for granted, but I can easily recall the literally hundreds of times I said, "Hold on a sec", and then laid the phone down and walked away. I would sometimes forget to come back in five or ten minutes to hang up the phone and would sometimes miss (real) calls.

No more of that.
Forget the "national registry" and just call your phone company if you want to get rid of the pests.

[singsong]

Another rat remnant...
Judge West was appointed U.S. District Judge for the Western District of Oklahoma in 1979 by President Jimmy Carter.
http://www.okcu.edu/law/press/nrl03020.asp

[FixitGuy]

The telemarketing industry is STUPID to not go along with the Do Not Call Registry!

It culls out lousy prospects like ME.

Obviously if a telemarketer calls me, they are wasting their time.

Better to move on to some brain dead idiot who is so lonely they will talk to anybody.

I've seen these people in front of a congressional committee whining about how they got taken for the THIRD time, "cause they thought they had just got the "deal of the century".

Amazingly, I got called out of the shower three times in two weeks.

[FixitGuy]

Hard to beleive the number of folks on this thread who agree with this judge.

C'mon people, the ones who opt not to be bothered have that right!

This is one of the very few things the government has gotten right.

You folks who don't value your privacy deserve to be harrassed!