Transcript, pretty much verbatim, of recent telemarketing call:
PHONE (around dinnertime): Ring-ring! Ring-ring!
ZUT (resignedly): Hello?
TELEMARKETER-TYPE (in a chipper voice): Hi! Is Mrs. Zut in?
ZUT (suspiciously): May I ask who’s calling?
TT (helpfully): This is Tim, and I have some information about her student loans.
ZUT (quick-wittedly): Is this a telemarketing call?
TT (patiently): No it’s not. I’d simply like to send her some information on how she can save money by consolidating her loans.
ZUT (cannily): Are you offering this service?
TT (happily): Why, yes we are.
ZUT (smugly): Then that makes this a telemarketing call, doesn’t it?
TT (taken aback): Well, if you use that definition, then I guess it is.
ZUT (unrelentingly): In that case, can you please put this number on your do-not-call list?
TT (emotionlessly): Yes sir. Goodbye.
Now, dangit, if someone’s calling me with the intention of selling me something, whether that’s now or after they’ve “sent me some information”, then I’d think that that’s a telemarketing call. So what’s the legal defenition of a telemarketing call? And can telemarketers, like the one above, legally deny that they’re making a telemarketing call?
(Incidentally, this is NOT the first time I’ve asked "Is this a telemarketing call and gotten the “no, we just want to send some information” response.)
You can likely get the person reprimanded if you call back. I worked telemarketing (Sorry, but money is money) for a few months, and we were told to be completely honest with customers, and to take everything they shoveled at us with humility and apologies… Apparently telemarketing companies can get fined over the tiniest little offense. Calling someone who has requested to be put on your do not call list, calling someone who belongs to one of those groups that automatically put them on a nation-wide ‘do not call’ list, offending the person you’re calling, etc…
There is no nationwide do not call list in the USA, although there is a strong push for federal legislation to create one. I do not know the status of such federal legislation, even if a bill has been drafted or not.
Many USA states are in the process of creating individual state do not call lists. Again, I have no specifics off the top of my head.
There is a federal law with respect to telemarketing and informing a telemarketeer to place your name on their own do not call list. If you keep careful records, they call again, and you document their failures to abide by the law, you can take them to small claims court. If you have documented their violations accurately, you can win some substantial settlement amounts.
Again, no cites off the top of my head but a search of the SDMB and/or Google will find the resources you need.
Perhaps they weren’t nation-wide then, but I know near the end of my employment there, we were told that there was a group that people could sign up with that got them removed from calling lists, and that if we called them and they informed us of that, we had to apologize, tell 'em our lists hadn’t been updated again, and tell them that we were putting them on our in-house ‘do not call’ list. It was distinctly different than the person simply telling their phone provider to take them off the lists, but for the life of me, I can’t remember the name of the organisations… There were 2 of them that we were told about… The boss and our supervisors all sounded quite afraid of these organisations as well…
I once worked for one of those horrible, bottom-feeding boiler-room operations. We always denied that we were telemarketers, because we were “setting appointments” for a representative that was going to be in your neighborhood (specifically, old Italian and Polish neighborhoods in the city. We were pushing security casement windows and hunting for seniors). I actually was called by a market researcher a few days ago, and she told me, “this is not a sales call and will not lead to a sales call,” so I guess the legitimate operations know about this angle.
We can say we’re not, but we’re lying. Don’t bother with that “Do-Not-Call-List” stuff. We get most of our names and numbers right out of the phone book. It’s easier to say “Not interested”. When the people I call are pricks, I don’t scratch their names out. Be polite, we’re just trying to make a buck.
Here’s what I want to know. How can you get a telemarketer who won’t admit they are a telemarketer and who doesn’t want to talk to you, but wants to talk to someone else in your household and happens to call at times they are never home to stop calling?
Here’s what’s going on. Every weekday for the past week or two, someone calls between the hours of 10 and 2 and asks for Mr. Tamex. (Well, really, they ask for a “Mr. Temax” or something like that.) I say, “He’s not in right now” and they say, ever-so-casually, “OK, I’ll try back later.” Apparently, they don’t want to try their pitch on me. After a few days, I was able to talk fast enough to ask if they wanted to leave a message. “No,” they said, “this is just a business call” and then they hang up. (:rolleyes: Wouldn’t a real “business call” want him to call back so that “business” would be taken care of? Of course, a real “business call” would probably be calling him at work.) OK, I know that, along with “courtesy call”, is just code for “telemarketer”, but I’m sure that if I asked to be put on the do-not-call list at that point, they would deny it. After all, they aren’t really calling me, are they?
Apparently, these poor, persistent telemarketers have not figured out that my husband is always at work in the middle of the day like most good Americans (except me :).) Do they expect to catch him on a sick day? (Bad news for them–he’s almost never sick.) It’s really very strange. It’s their money, though, and it doesn’t bother me much. How many times will it take until they give up? They never do ask when he will be home. If I say “He’s not interested,” will they take my word for it? After all, they’re “not telemarketers”.
Telemarketer: “Is Mr. Tamex there?”
You: “May I tell him who’s calling?”
Telemarketer: “This is Bob.”
You: “And what company are you calling from, Bob?”
Telemarketer: “American Marketing Partners. Is Mr. Tamex there?”
You: “This is Mr. Tamex. What can I help you with, Bob?”
Telemarketer: “You don’t sound like a Mr. Tamex.”
You: “Are you making fun of my voice? That doesn’t make me feel like buying anything, Bob.”
Telemarketer: “Of course not, sir. Anyway, I’d like to tell you about our great offer…”
You: “Thanks, Bob, but I’ll never be interested in that. Add me to your do-not-call list, please.”
If they don’t keep a do-not-call list, then they can be in deep touble. Federal law requires that they do so, and if you’re caught, the fines are considerable. (This isn’t a national registry – it’s only for each individual company – but if you are called by a telemarketer, you to tell them to put you on their list.)
And, sure, telemarketers lie. Not all of them, but enough. I’ve had people pretend they were charities (I knew enough to ask where their offices were located; after a pause, they mentioned in the public library. When I pointed out the library doesn’t rent out office space, they hung up)
Of course, you could always get called-ID. I haven’t spoken to a telemarketer for many months. Any time there is a “unidentified caller” or “no number available” means I won’t pick up.
There’s also something called “Privacy Manager”. You pick up the phone and you can take the call by pressing “1” (after the caller identifies him/herself with a short recorded message–similar to collect calls).
Amen. I’ve done the same, and not a SINGLE call without a caller-ID name has turned out to be a “real” call. In the last three years, the only times I’ve talked to telemarketers are when I happened to be in my bedroom where I don’t have a caller-ID box when the phone rings.
Of course, that only works as long as all legitimate callers aren’t blocking their numbers. Say, for example, your parents, who tend to get annoyed when their own flesh and blood won’t pick up the damn phone. I’ve tried explaining my dilemna, they don’t care.
Chuck, telemarketing outfits frequently close after an eight to twelve week period, opening under a different name. Sometimes, if they really feel like sneaking around, they’ll actually change addresses, too. So by the time they get into trouble for failing to keep a Do Not Call list, they’ve already moved on.
Here’s a story Dateline just did about telemarketers. Although the law says they have to obey your do not call request, you’ll find most telemarketing companies do not keep an up to date list -
Tamex, are you sure it’s not a collection agcy. calling for Mr. Tamex? I’ve lived with a few guys who are constantly being harassed by the collection people (actually, it’s usually me who answers and gets harassed) and it takes them about 100 calls to finally say “yes we are a collection agency” and stop giving me that “business matter” bullshit. But the first dozen or so times they call, they just ask for the guy and then say “I’ll call back.”
On a side note, a good trick my brother and I have been using to avoid the telemarketers is when we pick up the phone and say “hello” and there’s a second of dead air, we know it’s a machine dailer and we hang up. If it’s a real person that we know, they’ll call back. Never say that second “HELLO?” or else you get the spiel.
(oddly enough as I was finishing this post, a telemarketer called. “Hello, is this Mrs. ZoptherKK?” “uh, no.”)
Well, I can’t think of any reason a collection agency would be calling my husband. Wouldn’t they try calling at different times of the day to actually reach him, though? Seems like they would take quite a while to get any money with this attitude. I always thought they were more…well…harassing.
Actually, I suspect that it’s a credit card company–my husband got the card in college and therefore my name isn’t on the account–with some “great offer”. Since my name isn’t on the account, (and therefore I can’t legally say yes to their wonderful scheme) they don’t want to talk to me.
Yeah, I do that, too, sometimes, although I think that they usually call back later anyway. I told my dad about this trick, and he said that it doesn’t work for him–if it’s a real person, it’s one of my grandparents, and they get very upset if he hangs up on them! So, who knows, I may have hung up on my own grandparents–but I doubt it, since they don’t call me very often. YMMV with this trick.
Well, they haven’t called me today. Perhaps they’ve figured it out. Of course, I’m also tying up the phone line surfing the SDMB. That’s an excellent telemarketer-killer.