So much for the national "Do Not Call" list...

The BBQ Pit
21

[QUOTE=Frostillicus]
The problem with using Caller ID and just not picking up the phone when you see that it is a 1-800 number, is that the fuckwads will keep calling you back, sometimes every frickin’ day, until you finally snap and pick up the phone and tell them to go fuck themselves. (Hypothetically speaking, of course.)
[/QUOTE]

Dude. Chill. There is NO REASON to pick up the phone for an 800 number. None. Only your conditioning makes it necessary. I can be unusually sensitive to noise when I’m trying to concentrate on something, but the phone ringing (at home) doesn’t make me do much more than glance at the Caller ID.

22

I put myself on the Do Not Call list and my “unknown” phone calls have dwindled to almost none. I usually don’t answer anonymous calls or 800 numbers but it was still annoying having to get up and check the phone, not to mention those that would call starting at 8:30 in the morning. (I usually work late, so 8:30am was early for me). Even after being on the Do Not Call list I went through several days of two different telemarketers calling at 8:30 and 9am. I finally answered one and it was my bank trying to get me to sign up for some extra feature - I told them to stop calling me and they did. The other company I finally looked up online by the phone number and reported them to the Do Not Call registry and the calls stopped.

Since I became an Administrator of a message board I have to say I hate spammers much more than I ever hated telemarketers. I spend more time deleting silent spammers and banning the others. Spammers are lower and more disgusting than a festering pus-filled cyst of putrid mucoid vomitous smegma on the ass of a fetid, feces-wallowing corpulent worm.

23

lissener is trolling, but what else is new? There is no possible free speech issue if only the method is banned, as opposed to the content. The current Do-Not-Call law is bad because it takes content into account, giving purportedly non-commercial calls an advantage over straightforwardly commercial calls. Simply doing away with all mass calls is simpler and more intelligent, as well as being more in line with the Bill of Rights.

24

[QUOTE=Derleth]
There is no possible free speech issue if only the method is banned, as opposed to the content. . . .
[/QUOTE]

You forgot your “IANAL” tag, which is probly important in this situation, because you don’t know what you’re talking about.

Seriously, though, does anyone who *does *know what they’re talking about know what the parallels are between telephone solicitation by a charitable organization and door-to-door solicitation, which the Supreme Court ruled was protected speech? Despite Derleth’s brilliant expertise, it was the method being challenged in this case.

Isn’t the basic principle here that people who have political speech to communicate should be as freely able to do so as is possible under our constitution? Limiting the methods for the communication of non-commercial speech is one slippery slope I’m not interested in sliding down.

The Constitution offers greater protection for political speech than for commercial speech. I’m fine with that. I’d rather live with a few annoying phone calls than change that.

25

[QUOTE=jayjay]
I can be unusually sensitive to noise when I’m trying to concentrate on something, but the phone ringing (at home) doesn’t make me do much more than glance at the Caller ID.
[/QUOTE]

Well, that’s delightful for you, but I answer phones all day at work, and by 6:00 pm, the sound of a ringing phone makes me twitch. I turn my phone off when my daughter is at home, but when she’s not, I can’t. I also can’t ignore unknown numbers, because my daughter sometimes calls me from pay phones or friend’s phones.

Sadly, the surest way to guarantee that you WILL be called is to donate money to any cause. I’ve told everyone I’ve ever donated to that I don’t appreciate the calls, and if they persist I will stop donating. Bothering me at home to ask for money is the surest way to not get any. Fortunately most legitimate organizations will take you seriously and leave you alone, at least until next year. And don’t get me started on the cell phone calls. I *pay * for these fuckers to annoy me?

Claiming a first amendment right here is ridiculous. The right to free speech doesn’t extend into my home.

26

I downloaded a free Caller ID program for my computer. Not only does the caller ID pop up on the screen, but you can also program it to hang up on any number you select after one ring. So at least when the same telemarketerfucks call every damn day, the phone only rings once.

27

[QUOTE=kevja]
What is is difficult about hanging up when you know it’s a telemarketer?
[/QUOTE]

There is also to a degree, the fact that I pay for the service they use to try to harass me. I was paying a monhly fee to have voicemail added to my phone line because I didn’t have an answering machine. The only messages I ever got were from telemarketing firms. So I cancelled the service. I will not pay for their sales pitch.

If there is a billboard with an advertisement, or a fullpage spread in a magazine, I didn’t pay for that. I do pay for my phone service. I dont’ wish to have my phone ringing while watching DVD or while eating my meal (I won’t answer anyway). I didn’t not invite them to call me, so they can fuck off.

28

[QUOTE=Frostillicus]
The problem with using Caller ID and just not picking up the phone when you see that it is a 1-800 number, is that the fuckwads will keep calling you back, sometimes every frickin’ day, until you finally snap and pick up the phone and tell them to go fuck themselves. (Hypothetically speaking, of course.)
[/QUOTE]
You do realize that most phone companies now offer blocking services so that such calls are forwarded to a black hole, where they get what they deserve?

Sign up, Dude.

29

[QUOTE=Musicat]
You do realize that most phone companies now offer blocking services so that such calls are forwarded to a black hole, where they get what they deserve?

Sign up, Dude.
[/QUOTE]

Most of the calls of this type that I get show “Out of Area” on the Caller ID, and as far as I can tell, Verizon can’t block those.

30

[QUOTE=Hippy Hollow]
For instance, if you subscribe to a magazine, the magazine can sell your number to a company who will try to extend or hawk other subscriptions to you. There’s also a couple of “charities” (actually advocacy groups) that call repeatedly asking you to respond to a survey.
[/QUOTE]
They also sell your address for junk mail campaigns.

You can’t avoid giving them your address, but I would recommend not giving the magazine your number to begin with. At an electronics store, the clerk said I had to give him a phone number becase the computer woudn’t finish the transaction otherwise. :dubious: (So if I didn’t have a phone I couldn’t make a cash purchase at their store?)

Well, they didn’t need to call me. When I’m reasonably sure it’s for marketing purposes only, I use the phone number for the phone company. It goes to an automated menu for ordering a phone line. It’s the kind of number most people would recognize by the letters (eg/ 555-FONE), but when you just say the numbers, they just dutlifully fill it in to their computer. The clerk said I must give him a phone number. He didnt’ say it had to be mine.

This way it also doesn’t bother anyone. The number should already be in the “no call database” of any marketing company that knows its business. If it’s not, then the telemarketing computer calls the number, when it “answers” and a live telemarkerter is put on the line, they tune in to: “Hi, welcome to Phone Company. Please listen to all the options carefully as our menu has changed. To reach the sales department, press one now…”

I know someone who uses Voice Over IP. He can program it to do all sorts of fun things. When one particularly annoying telemarketing company calls, their call gets forwarded back to their own main incoming number.

31

[QUOTE=Derleth]
There is no possible free speech issue if only the method is banned, as opposed to the content.
[/QUOTE]

There can be. If a law was passed saying that, for example, it was illegal to discuss political issues in public, regardless of your position on the issue, that would raise a free speech issue.

To the best of my knowledge, yes, that is the basic principle, that political speech does have specific protection under the first amendment, and that any law that would limit such speech has to be held to a higher scrutiny.

32

[QUOTE=Musicat]
You do realize that most phone companies now offer blocking services so that such calls are forwarded to a black hole, where they get what they deserve?

Sign up, Dude.
[/QUOTE]

You do realize that those blocking services cost the customer even more money, right? At what point should the onus be placed upon the offending party, rather than the victim? The telemarketers keep trying to find ways to get around our attempts to block them, and we have to pay more and more money to prevent them from getting through to us- you’d think they’d take the hint.

Personally, I only have a cell phone. Also, whenever I buy from someone who wants my phone number to complete the transaction, my response is, “Ain’t got one.”

Everytime I hear someone giving a clerk their phone number at Best Buy, I just want to scream, “It’s a trap!”

33

[QUOTE=lissener]
You forgot your “IANAL” tag, which is probly important in this situation, because you don’t know what you’re talking about.
[/QUOTE]

I am a lawyer, and I don’t know what you’re talking about. One presumably willingly signed up to the “do not call” list. That means you do not want to listen. Since when did free speech require forced reception?

34

You do realize that for repeat callers all you have to do is tell them once, and only once “Please do not call here anymore” and by law they are not allowed to call you again. It works for me everytime.
It’s a lot easier to do that than hanging up on them over and over and over.

35

[QUOTE=lissener]
I’m saying that it’s a more complicated issue than simply “I don’t like to get such calls.”
[/QUOTE]

It is, however, as simple as “THIS PHONE IS MY PROPERTY, NOT YOURS”.

36

Long ago, in the days of dial up, and land lines, I had two telephone lines. One for talking to people, one for the computer to use. It had no phone, but it was connected to the computer. I used that number on all subscriptions, all nosy information requests, anyone I suspected would want to call me that I would not want to listen to.

Eventually I found a small program that logged incoming calls. I found it interesting, since one of its options was answer/do not answer. It logged it as unanswered. So, telemarketers got either a busy signal, or no answer. There were a few dozen incoming calls a month, plus however many called during the hours I was on line. Hope it helped make it less profitable to be a scummarketer.

Tris

37

[QUOTE=lissener]
Seriously, though, does anyone who *does *know what they’re talking about know what the parallels are between telephone solicitation by a charitable organization and door-to-door solicitation, which the Supreme Court ruled was protected speech? Despite Derleth’s brilliant expertise, it was the method being challenged in this case.
[/QUOTE]

Perhaps you should find a link that supports your assertion (e.g. an explicit statement of a “right to trespass”) rather than refuting it (e.g. this link to a case challenging a statute that permitted certain groups but not others to go door-to-door).

38

[QUOTE=Hampshire]
You do realize that for repeat callers all you have to do is tell them once, and only once “Please do not call here anymore” and by law they are not allowed to call you again. It works for me everytime.
[/QUOTE]

It depends on how well the staff is trained. I had one call centre contact me repeatedly for months after telling them not to. I currently reside in Canada and telemarketers here must follow Canadian regulations*****. I reminded them that they had only 30 days to make sure that I stopped receiving calls.

“You are incorrect.” He answered. “It will take at least six weeks.” BZZZZT! Wrong. He had only 30 days for it to go into effect, and then the moratorium on calling me would have to last three years.

Then I asked for the name of the telemarketer’s supervisor and requested a mailing address. He answered “We do not divulge that information.” BZZZZT! Wrong. Telemarkerters are required to provide a contact name and mailing address.

He tried to argue with me saying I was wrong, until I told him:

“You do realized that the telemarketing regulations are printed inside the phone book, don’t you? I’m reading them to you.” Then he got his supervisor on the line. (In this case the shift supervisor’s name was Steve Gagnon, I still remember after all this time, although I really don’t know why). That company, a major call center, no longer calls me.

BUT on more than one occasion, I have requested to be put on a telemarketer’s “do not call list”, and the response was “sorry, to disturb you” and a hang up. I’m willing to bet dimes to dollars those particular telemarketers treated never processed my do-not-call request. I always talk to a supervisor now and that is effective. (And Mr. Gagnon apologized profusely and agreed some of his staff needed additional training so as not to run afoul of regulations.)

Now, I have issues with companies based in Florida calling me. Attempts to get them to cease and desist are futile. They tell me to fill out the form for the (U.S.) national do not call registry, which you can not do with a non-U.S. area code.

*The rules may be different now. That anecdote occured approximately 5 years ago.

39

[QUOTE=Long Time Lurker]
I am a lawyer, and I don’t know what you’re talking about. One presumably willingly signed up to the “do not call” list. That means you do not want to listen. Since when did free speech require forced reception?
[/QUOTE]

Did you catch the part where he said he was talking about non-commercial speech?

40

[QUOTE=Cluricaun]
snip
Yesterday I finally answered one and talked to the guy for about 10 minutes about how excited I was to get a home equity line of credit. When he asked me what has been holding me back I told him. I live in an apartment.
Don’t think they’ll be calling back anytime soon.
[/QUOTE]

Haw-haw!! Thanks for the laugh.