There’s an anti-telemarketing bill currently in the Colorado senate… if your name is on a list, telemarketers can’t call you. Sounds simple right? It is… except for this one little part that really rattles my cage for some reason:
Fines for calling someone: $2000, unless the person is over 60 and then it’s $10000. WTF! Some old dude sittin at home collecting my Social Security payments… And his time and privacy is worth 5 times as much as mine! Fuck you.
Charitable organizations and political organizations are EXEMPT?!! These mother fuckers are the worst offenders!
So… kiss my ass Colorado State legislature. How hard is it to abolish something completely?! There shouldn’t even be a list of names. As if someone in their right mind would actually not want to be on it?
Somehow it doesn’t surprise me that the politicians who wrote this law exempted themselves from it. Doesn’t seem right to me.
For me, the worst offenders haven’t been charitable organizations, although I have had a few calls from them lately. I can tell because on the caller ID it says “Volunteers of America.” The worst offenders have been:
[ul]
[li]a goddamn telephone service provider – yes, I am content with my current long-distance provider, and if I want to change, I’ll call you, not the other way around[/li][li]the goddamn AT&T Broadband wanting me to upgrade my cable service – I’ll consider it if you guarantee that the quality of service will be better than the current crappy signal you provide[/li][li]a goddamn credit card company – I already have one card, and I believe having more than one credit card is an invitation for trouble[/li][/ul]
After I got Caller ID, I simply stopped answering when it said “Unavailable” or “Private”. None of my family members have unlisted numbers, yet, so the system has worked well so far.
Hear, hear.
As for the differences fines, I can only think of two explanations, both of which may be incorrect. First, the elderly have apparently been more victimized by telemarketers than any other age demographic, hence the stiffer fine. Second, this is just a transparent attempt by the politicians to curry favor with the elderly voting demographic.
I basically agree with you except for the above. People who call eldery often do so to use their memory loss to their advantage. When they call a 35 year old they want to sell them something but when they target an 80 year old they want to abuse them.
I’ll tell you this, my grandmother is 88 and her senility has made her very succeptible. At least once a month she comes to me saying she has to pay a bill for this or a bill for that and I have to explain to her “You already paid this in 1995” or “This isn’t a bill, they just want to sell you something, you don’t owe them anything.” So I understand why they would have different fines. And I had to take over her finances because she’s already emptied out her checking account once.
You know when you call my house and play those recorded messages that say “Please hold for an important message…”? Those piss me off to no end. If it’s so fucking important, dickweed, why the hell can’t you be waiting to talk to me?? If I’m going to make the effort of answering the phone, your ass had better start talking the minute I answer. Don’t waste my fucking time if you want to sell me something. The only good thing about the recordings is that I can hang up on you faster.
Fuck you.
Love,
Hob
P.S. When you put my answering machine on hold, then spend 20-30 seconds saying “Hello? Hello?” before you figure it out, I giggle my happy ass off. Serves you right, bitch.
The absolute hands down worst in our state (Michigan) is the fireman’s union. They hire the sleaziest, cheesiest fundraising firm in existence to make the calls for them, and then they lie, cheat, cajole, shame, guilt, and argue you into listening to them and donating. Unbelievable.
I like firemen! This was true even before 9/11! But I will never give one red cent to this organization until they stop using this firm and then personally drive to my house, drop to both knees, and apologize for the behavior of one certain telemarketer/fundraiser named Lee who called me in 1999.
Now I’m fuming. What a memory. Anyway, I merely got mad at him; I cannot imagine some nice little old lady or addled gramps being able to elude his shifty money-grubbing tactics. I don’t care that they make the fine higher for seniors.
This would make sense if the fine was paid to the VICTIM. Not the fucking STATE. Why the fuck should Colorado get paid 2K every time a person like me gets called about his long distance? I should get that money.
I agree that all telemarketing should be illegal, but at least this is a start. I have no problem with the elderly fine being higher–we do need to be more careful with them.
I’m just disappointed in these idiots. If I didn’t hate politicians so much I might become one myself.
You misunderstand the comment about Social Security. Obviously you don’t know how it works. I am currently paying payments into the program. That money is supporting the people who are currently drawing their SS checks, because they didn’t pay enough money into the system to support them today. In the future, somebody else will pay for SS while I draw checks. So I am paying their payments. Get it?
Also, the current law does allow the fines to be paid to the victim through some kind of restitution program. However, in order for that to apply, you have to be contacted by the company first so you can tell them never to call you again, then when they call you again they are breaking the law. I think they have to do it twice before you can collect.
Civil suits are highly overrated. Just because someone has the right to sue over it doesn’t mean they should have to sue over it to get their restitution. It is too expensive for most people to sue anybody.
I thought it was that the politians are drooling idiots and couldn’t stop themselves from spending money that wasn’t theirs. (Like other people’s retirment cash.)
Whatever the cause of the problem, I want nothing more than to see an end to social security. Then my employeer can pay me 7.5% more and I can invest that all into proven retirement plans and I can retire a multi-millionare.
Try to understand Reality before uttering anything, okay?
I do understand how SS works. I also understand that, in time, you also shall be drawing yours. That is, if your brain can manage to keep your appearance of life plausible enough long enough. Those who draw SS now, draw their entitlement. Those who draw SS in the future, draw the SS to which they are entitled.
Why are the people on this message board always such total pieces of shit, huh? Does posting 1000s of asshole remarks on an anonymous message board give you some kind of right to be a total jerk? I would suggest that you take some time to actually experience the real world before you lecture me on it.
I fully understand reality dickweed. I will admit I’m not an expert on Social Security but I understood it to be as I described. Still, I don’t really give a crap whether you are right or not. You still have no right to be a total crapwad about it. You could at least explain your point of view before gettin all high and mighty on my ass.
Then, exactly, why did you post your stupid comment about Social Security?
Oh, that’s right. Only you have the right to be a total crapwas about it. Which is good because only you have been.
BTW, punk, I’ve done a lot of experiencing the real world.
Since I wasn’t a total jerk, nor have I posted thousands of asshole remarks, you jackass, please explain why you brought that up. Perchance you think your paltry contribution, such as it is, counts for something. You delude yourself.
fuck, monty, give it up. quit being such an arsehole! you’re quibbling about whether he used the word ‘my’ or ‘their’???
do you have a life??? why are you wasting your time on something so idiotically trivial? you seem to be under the idiotic misapprehension that you are obliged to insult the first person who disagrees with you, simply because this is the pit. and that your high post count lends your comments so much more weight.
and no, fines should be equal across all age groups. how about the mentally ill? they could have trouble dealing with telemarketers? how about people with broken legs who cannot get to their phone easily? or the antisocial? or people who lost a loved one in a vicious telemarketing disaster? should there be higher fines for contacting all these people?
Yep, Monty, you are the asshole of the day! You jumped his shit and called him a jackass, to which he replied fairly civilly to you. Then you jumped his shit again. It was only after that that he got angry.
No, really, go back and read it for yourself…take off the blinders…See? You are an asshole! Simple really.
Were you locked in the closet as a kid or something? Or do you lash out anytime someone disagrees with you for no real reason? Is that ‘Reality’ to you, that only you can talk about? Curious minds want to know…
Why do we need a law to protect us from telemarketers in the first place? Are we so helpless and weak that we can’t muster up the strength to say, “No thank you” and hang up? Can we not screen calls or purchase such devices like the Telezapper to delete the phone number from the telemarketers databanks? Why do we have to assume the gov’t has to step in and save us?
ivylass, having an unlisted phone number used to do the trick. I have a caller ID and an answering machine, but I always go to see who’s calling, in case it’s someone I want to talk to. Now I’m also required to own a Telezapper? Being helpless or weak is not the issue. When I am in my home, I have a right to my privacy. Why should I be held accountable for the expense of avoiding harrassment? There are laws against door-to-door peddling and solicitation, why should the same consideration not be given to my phone line as to my front door?
As far as ‘the government step[ping] in’, I do think it should be handled at the local or state level, as in the case in the OP (but without the exemptions).
I understand it’s frustrating, but I would rather take control over who calls my house (getting a Telezapper, signing up for a do not call list, or if I’m bored, messing with the telemarketer’s pointed little head) rather than wait for Big Brother to swoop in and save me.
If you have an answering machine, can you let your friends and family know you will be screening calls and not to hang up if you don’t answer right away? That way you don’t have to deal with the TM’s.
After all, as annoying as TM’s are, they are a legitimate business and they do have a right to operate. Yes, they are the scum on top of hot dog water, but I would rather have the choice of dealing or not dealing with them rather than rely on the gov’t telling them they can’t. Who knows, one day, I just might be in the market for overpriced lightbulbs that support the mentally disabled.
There must be SOME profitability in it for the TM’s, otherwise they would have given up calling people a long time ago. Anyone have the statistics on that? How many people do change their long distance plans because of a TM? Or take a poll? (yep, I’ve done that) Or renewed your newspaper subscription?