FCC enforcing Do Not Call List

[Paddy]

FCC announces first fines for Do Not Call violations and ironically enough, the offender is...AT&T.  

Kinda boggles the mind...

Hmmm...I've had a (very) few calls from telemarketer types and have cut them off with "we're on the Do Not Call List and don't call again please", before I've even given them the chance to identify themselves. They hang up pretty darn fast when you do that. Maybe I should find out who they are? Nah...got better things to do. But for those of you who have the time, the FCC seems to be listening.

[LR827]

I never bothered to get on the DNC list, but I've been telling the telemolesters to please take me off their "call" list.  They have always said, "Okay."  Seems to be getting a little better.

[Kruser]

I was on the FLA  DNC list before the National. AT$T drove me  and some small business crazy. 5 or 6  calls a week they didn't  care what you said. I filled out the form for Fla and turned them in . After calling  you ,the next day they would come by your business during working hours and would not take NO! for and  answer .I hope they throw the book at  them.

[RHPConsult]

I haven't read the legislation, but I think I recalll that there's an "out" for these pests: if you have had some previous business realtionship . . . obviously to be broadly construed . . . then they may call even if you're on the list.

An alternative is to say . . . when no one immeidately answers your "Hello" because you been dialed by a machine . . . "I do not answer calls dialed from a boiler room, anyone's boiler room."

I've found that cancels the calls  p-r-o-n-t-o!  Or in a reasonable facsimile thereof.
 
Real boiler rooms don't countenance debate

[krissel]

Since the DNC went into effect I've only had three messages left on my machine by strangers. Two were from my health insurance company urging me to get a flu shot and one was a political ad.  I still get the occassional hangup when the machine answers before I can get there but it has been much quieter this past month.

 

[gapstr]

Dave Barry wrote about telemarketers recently. You can read the whole column here.

excerpt:

QUOTE

...In August, I wrote a column about the National Do Not Call Registry , which allows you to go to an Internet site (www.donotcall.gov) and register your phone number. The plan is that most telemarketers would then be prohibited from calling you.

...in my August column, I printed the toll-free telephone number of one of these groups, the American Teleservices Association.... It turned out that a lot of you were eager to call up the telemarketing industry. Thousands and thousands of you called the ATA.... I would have called the ATA myself to express my feelings, but the ATA finally had to disconnect its phone number.

Really.

...I don't know what the legal status of the Do Not Call registry will be when you read this column. But it appears that the telemarketers plan to continue their efforts to save the planet by fighting for the right to call people who do not want to be called.

I realize that this makes many of you angry. I realize that many of you would like to, once again, let the telemarketers know how you feel. And I am, frankly, tempted to reveal to you here that the American Teleservices Association (www.ataconnect.org/) seems to have a phone line working (at least for now) at 317-816-9336.

But would it be right to reveal this? I mean, yes, you could call the ATA again. But the ATA surely doesn't WANT you to call again. It's inconvenient! And to insist on calling somebody who doesnt want to be called, even if you have the legal right to call, well, that's just plain rude....

 

A. G.