Last year I pitted Popular Science Magazine. I had a 1-yr subscription that I let lapse because it no longer interested me. During a 3-4 month period I got more than a dozen calls asking me to re-up. I repeatedly told them I wasn’t interested and ask that I be removed from their calling lists. Each time I got a promise to do just that. Each time they called back, I would remind them of the last person I talked with and their promise of removing me from their list. Surprise! Surprise! Surprise! It seems that they’ve never heard of such a person!
Well, after much yelling and gnashing of teeth, I finally got them to stop calling.
Until yesterday.
I politely told them to take me off their lists. Again. She promised to do so.
Until tonight. Another call. I questioned the sanity and intelligence of the company to the caller and demanded that I be removed from their lists. AGAIN!
The man’s response?
“So, you’re not interested in renewing your subsrciption?”
GAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!
I went to their website. Again. I filled in a form. AGAIN. I told them I will never so much as read their magazine again even if it was free.
They claim that they will respond within two business days.
We shall see.
Unfortunately, I am still within the 18-month window not covered by the Do Not Call ruling.
Nah. Something would happen, like me dropping a Kennedy half-dollar, and I’d come back only to find that hyper-intelligent iguanas will rule the world.
The same thing keeps happening to me with Columbia House. I had one of their CD memberships for a while, but I cancelled it since I wasn’t ordering anything anymore and they were sending me more and more junk mail all the time.
They keep calling me. They just won’t stop. Last time I got a guy with a thick Indian accent.
“Why don’t you want 12 CDs?”
“Because you have absolutely nothing that interests me anymore and I’m tired of your junk mail.”
“But the CDs are free!” :rolleyes:
No they aren’t. Granted it works out to about $4 a CD, but why pay $4 for something I will never listen to?
At least 80% or so of your incoming phone calls aren’t coming from 1) MCI and 2) Collegiate Fund. I don’t even know what the latter is, except it and MCI have both been calling me almost daily for the past 6 months. I haven’t answered the phone yet–mostly because they only call when I’m at work.
I had a similar problem with the home warranty people that my realtor used. They would send letters and call me every once in a while. The last guy was actually rude when I politely declined.
I finally had enough after that. I sent a certified letter telling them that if they continued to call me I would consider it to be harassment and take appropriate legal action. I stressed that I was sending the letter certified so that I would have proof it was recieved in a court of law.
I have not heard from them since and that was two months ago.
Somewhere a little over ten years ago, my mother bought tickets several times to the local philharmonic orchestra. then, about seven years ago, she moved several states away from the orchestra. They continue to send her information and call her once a year, despite having been informed repeatedly that she now lives in a different state and will not be buying any tickets or attending any performances.
You could always answer the phone in foreign languages. Your friends would find you delightfully idiosyncratic, and you would have the added bonus of confusing the hell out of the people at Popular Science.
According to the FCC’s FAQ sheet on the TCPA: "An established business relationship exists if you have made an inquiry, application, purchase, or transaction regarding products or services offered by the person or entity involved. Generally, you may put an end to that relationship by telling the person or entity not to place any more solicitation calls to your home Additionally, the established business relationship is only in effect for 18 months after your last business transaction. After that, calls placed to you by that person or organization are considered telephone solicitations and will be subject to the do-not-call rules.
Sounds to me like you CAN end it. Mention the TCPA and the FCC with firm voice.
You ain’t inventing shit if you read PopSci. That magazine is responsible for more bad science and engineering than you can shake a pocket protector at.
