Did the rules just change? Just today I got three computer calls to my cel phone selling stuff. I cannot recall ever getting a call like that.
What’s up with that?
Imho, that national list thing doesn’t work.
If anything, you’re giving advertisers a free listing of your info.
The do not call list works very well. Companies that violate that face fines of $16000 per violation, per call. States also have their versions of the DNC registry, and companies that violate that list face fines that can be stiffer than the ones levied by the Federal Trade Commission. Telemarketers also face penalties if they attempt to access DNC information for any other use than to remove numbers from their own lists.
What I’d do is register your cell phone on both the federal and your state DNC lists. However, companies you’ve already done business with are exempt from the DNC, so if these calls fall under that exemption, the best you can do is opt-out of sales calls.
The last call told my house had been selected to receive free digital equipment and that the government will require all houses to have digital equipment by July, 2009 I ought to act now.
Not only a recorded sales call, but an old one too.
My brother was receiving lots of those, so he called the cell company. I’m not sure what, exactly, they did, but he’s not receiving them. I didn’t know the cell company had any power in this field, but it worked for him.
Your credit card is a great place to look. Unlike in Europe which has “opt-iin” policies, where you must sign up, in the USA we have “opt-out” where you must tell them NOT to call.
Furthermore there are two kinds of opt out, one which is totals the second which only opts you out of third party. For example if you have a BoA Visa a third party would be “Sprint.” But BoA’s credit assistance plan is affiliated with BoA so it’s not a third party as BoA has an interest in it.
Also even if you “opt-out” when you do business with a company you give them the opportunity to phone you back and sell you things. Unless you opt out again.
If companies call you must tell them you do not wish to receive further solicitation calls and they are to take you off of their call lists. This can take up to 90 days to do.
Often times we buy things with credit cards, or don’t read the fine print and we wind up agreeing to “allowing sales calls”
Was it a “press one to be transferred/leave a message” call?
It sounds to me like you got hit with the latest telemarketing scheme. Those robo-calls were made very illegal this September, and the telemarketing industry is trying to figure out a way to get around it. This is one of the things they’re doing - broadcasting ancient messages that have absolutely no hope of selling anything (act by July, 2009?) so that if anyone reports them or sues them they can plausibly say “Hey, it had to be an error in the system. We’re still trying to adjust to the new laws and maybe a call or two went off unintentionally. Seriously, would we do that on purpose? It said you had to act by July, 2009 - what could we possibly get from that?”
Basically, testing the waters. Have you ever, ever, ever put your cell number down as a “business phone” anywhere? That would explain the end-around escaping the DNC.
I don’t understand the point of registering a cellphone number with the DNC list. Isn’t it illegal to make telemarketing calls to phones where the recipient gets charged, such as cellphones, in any case? Isn’t this a bit like putting a sign on your lawn saying “Do not burgle this house”?
The waters started to muddy when people stopped using landlines and went exclusively to cell phones. When cell numbers started going into “Home Phone” spaces on various data collection forms, all bets went off.
Combine that with the fact that there is no difference between a cellphone and a land line phone number.
That, and I’m convinced that some companies just don’t care what the laws say. I wonder if any of them have a line built into their budgets for “FCC fines”.