Not 5 minutes ago I got a telemarketing call from some company in Ky on my cell phone. The message was in Spanish and said something about hit #1 to ‘claim my prize’. I hung up, but am really angry as I am on the ‘Do Not Call List’. I posted a complaint on their website to report it. Is there anything else I should do? (I don’t want to commit a violation on the SDMB, but the AC of the number was (859) and the first three numbers were “212”.
Post interupted to say that the stupid idiots just called me a Second time, this time from a phone number one digit off from the first time. I’m going to report that number too… :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad:
A timely article in today’s San Francisco Chronicle about the DNC registry. Article also includes a link to something called Kill The Calls.
Not very good odds - Since June 2003, there have apparently been 2.8 million consumer complaints, and they’ve prosecuted only 29 cases for telmarketing violations.
Yes, the odds just aren’t in our favor when it comes to these calls.
And, as I’m sure you know, if you have had a prior relationship with a company, they can call you without violating the law. I worked for about a month as a telemarketer (I apologize, truly I do, but I was broke) and learned a little about it.
I worked for a company called Sitel in Longview, TX. One half of the building was an inbound call center, contracted to AOL. That half did the customer service technical question stuff. Our half was outbound, and we had several contracts. I worked on the JC Penney Insurance contract. So, even though all of the people I called had no idea who Sitel was (and had conducted no business with us) they did have JC Penney cards, and we called them all day long. About a quarter of the people told me they were on the DNC list, so I responded with whatever prompt there was in our script for that. When they asked to be removed from the list, I made that entry into the computer. The thing is, it would remove them from the Penney’s Insurance call list, but that’s it. If Penney’s had a pharmacy discount card (which they did), your number would still be in that database. This was a few years ago, so I’m not sure if they’ve closed that loophole or not.
No-answers, hangups, “not interesteds” and ANYTHING other than “Take me off your list” resulted in your number going back into the system for a recycle. There were days that the list recycled several times, owing to us calling all our leads. I actually talked to the same woman twice in a row, who was pretty upset, due to a mid-day recycle. But, she didn’t demand to be taken off the list, so after the 2nd call, she was put in to recycle again. We could insert a date/time to call back, but I don’t think it really mattered all that much. I was just happy I didn’t get the beep and see her information pop up a third time. I’m sure whoever the next person was to call really got an earful.
The happy ending is that I quit and went back to college. The money and benefits were pretty good, but I couldn’t handle being the enemy.
I filed an FCC complaint against a company that offers free satellite tv hookups. They called every week for about 2 months. After the 3rd time I asked to speak with a supervisor and got apologies because “it takes time to remove info from our system”. After the 5th time they would usually just hang up when I asked to speak to a supervisor. After about 8 calls they stopped for a few weeks and then I got two more. I was never contacted by the FCC nor have I had any sort of satellite service.
Some of the worst violators are the PBA (Police Benevolant Association) which is NOT a not-for-profit organization. If you contribute money to them you cannot legally deduct it from your taxes. Spread the word.
Do **NOT **give money to this scummy organization. It is a fraud.
They are so scummy that they have called (even though I am on the DNC list), asked them if the contribution was tax deductible and they lied and said, yes.
My error, it’s Patrolman’s Benevolant Association.
Or any other police, fireman’s or emergency worker’s association that is trying to make you feel guilty so that they can scam money in order to throw drunken parties.
I don’t get as many calls as I used to and the ones I do get are usually my bank (somebody contracted by my bank) trying to get me to sign up for insurance or some other deal. I always tell them to take me off the list. I haven’t received any more of these in a while. A few months ago I started receiving daily calls at around 8:30 - 9am. I tried to answer a few times but no one ever said anything. I did a reverse number search and traced the number to a telemarketing firm. I reported it to the DNC list. I also took to answering the phone and saying “this number is on the Do Not Call list, I know you’re a telemarketer, I have reported your number. If you would really like to continue calling me I wouldn’t mind the extra money.” I got a couple more calls then they stopped.
If contacted by phone by any agency which implies or states that it’s a charity, ask to be sent some literature THROUGH THE U.S. MAIL. Mention that you prefer to do your giving through the mail, because of the mail fraud penalty. We were contacted by the PBA several times, until I finally answered the phone and told the caller this. My husband had been answering and saying “No thank you” previously.
You’re right, they are not going to chance the federal crime of mail fraud. However, this strategy flies in the face of the thread I started about how to get rid of junk mail.
Charity and political calls are exempt from using the do not call list, so I’ve been told. Real smart of the politicians to exempt their own fundraising calls.
As Musicat notes, bona fide charities, and political calls (for whatever reason: fundraising, “get out the vote,” “support me in the primary,” etc.) are exempt.
But I think everyone should be aware of an other exemption and how it’s gamed. Public opinion surveys are, understandably, exempt, since they are supposed to be random samples of a target population.
However, many a telemarketer has found a way to use that. Say his task is to promote name recognition of Bodoni Chocolate Bars (Lynn and her family having gone into the business). The first few questions are innocent “Do you eat chocolate bars?” “What brand of chocolate bar do you most commonly eat?” questions. But then the questions start getting specific about “Have you ever tried a Bodoni Chocolate Bar?” “What might induce you to try out/switch to another brand, such as Bodoni Chocolate Bars?” Whatever gets the brand name in the call as many times as possible while keeping the callee on the line. And because it’s done in the format of an opinion survey, it falls into that exemption.
Isn’t that a painfully slow way to advertise though? One pair of ears at a time? Unless they finally try to convert from a poll into a sale (which would place them back under the DNC law), I would think the money spent on a call center would be more productively spent on traditional broadcast and print advertising.
FTR, they called Again this morning and after I reported them yesterday. I spoke to Verizon Wireless & asked if I could get that phone number blocked. They said no, but that they’d let me change my phone number. (Gee, thanks a Lot…)