Deadline For Telemarketing Comments is Friday

BuckMulligan writes "Attention, Citizens! The deadline for filing comments against the telenuisance industry is Friday at 5 PM. You can send comments via e-mail to TSR@FTC.GOV. Also, EPIC has a guide to telemarketing and suggestions for comments online. It's important to note that the FTC regulations won't apply to banks and telephone companies that telemarket. However, these rules could be extended to those industries. This is also a lesson that state privacy legislation is better because state do-not-call lists apply to all telemarketers--even banks and common carriers." My state has a statewide do-not-call registry and although it has a list of exemptions a mile wide - charities, anyone you've done business with, etc. - getting on that list has cut out most of the telemarketing calls we used to get. Very nice. Update: 03/28 17:57 GMT by M : EPIC informs me that the deadline has been extended to April 15. Taxes and telemarketing, two great things that go great togeth... well, nevermind.

Comments

in new york...

[quinto2000]

we have a great do not call list. just threaten to sue, and watch those calls disappear :)

my friend has a better solution though -- he asks them if they have "Mr. T" protection. There's usually a stunned silence, and then he explains that he just bought a credit card from Mr. T, and he need protection if he switches cards.

telemarketers have a really amazingly crappy job, so it can be fun to amuse them and yourselves. i feel bad if i'm impolite to them though.

Well, I Did My Part

[willfe]

I fired off a clear, concise message (no, not just "telemarketing suX0rs, d00d!" :) to the FTC. Hopefully they'll actually read it, and maybe even listen to some of the suggestions.

Telemarketing is one of the biggest annoyances of the modern age; its sibling Mr. Spam is about the only thing worse I can think of.

I know, I know, "but it provides jobs for lots of people!" Sure it does. It provides jobs people hate themselves for doing. It provides low paying jobs. There's plenty of other work out there. We don't need telemarketing.

The scariest part about telemarketing to me is that it's still around. It's only still being done because some (sizable) group of fucking morons actually buys stuff from telemarketers. Telemarketing has a non-zero success rate. Probably single-digit percentages, but still non-zero. It's reached (and passed) that break-even point where it makes more money than it costs.

The fastest way to be rid of telemarketing is to say "no" every fucking time. Even if you're on your way out the door to buy a time share, if you get a call trying to sell one, offer to fax a copy of your middle finger instead. Even if you donate to charities often, don't donate to those who solicit over the phone (or, at least, don't donate to them when they call you).

Bugging the FTC about this feels good, relieves stress, and lets us blow off steam, but we need to get some other things done to make a sizable dent in telemarketing's armor.

Actually the FTC itself can help with some of it. Like the linked site above points out, it'd be great if telemarketers were actually forced to transmit accurate, valid caller ID data. I turned off my caller ID over a year ago because not many people call us, and telemarketers always show up as "OUT OF AREA" or "BLOCKED". What the hell good is that little six dollar-per-month gem?

The killer was when the phone company here (Qwest) unveiled this magical new product. For only thirteen bucks per month, they'll magically block all telemarketing calls for you. They'll never even ring your phone. How convenient; they sell me a product to identify telemarketers and other undesirables so I don't have to answer my phone when I don't want to. Then they sell "block your caller ID data from appearing on phones you call!" services to telemarketers so they can sneak right past the service they're selling me. Then they turn back around and try to sell me another service to block the calls I can't screen myself because they've disabled my ability to screen them?!?!

What's next? Phone companies letting telemarketing companies buy or lease a change in "classification," so even their telemarketing blocking service doesn't work anymore?

Screw that. Where the FTC can help is to put a stop to that little scam. Sell me phone service, and tell me who's calling. Nothing else. Don't let telemarketers block caller ID. Only allow private individuals, at residential locations, block it. Why should some big faceless corporation care anyway if some yahoo in Georgia knows that Wesayso(tm) Corporation just tried to sell him a George Foreman Nose Hair Curler?

Whining to the FTC will help, but won't solve all our problems. We have to stop saying "sure! I'll take a fifty year subscription to Cat Boogers magazine for just five hundred easy payments of a thousand bucks each!" We have to (gently :) coach others not to do so, and (even more gently) get on them if they do it anyway.

If we make telemarketing less effective, or more expensive than it's worth, it'll go away and die the natural death it so richly deserves.

Re:Well, I Did My Part

[Anonymous Coward]

The scariest part about telemarketing to me is that it's still around.

The scariest part about telemarketing to me is that it's done by prisoners. Think about that the next time you mouth off to one of them.

Re:Well, I Did My Part

[Anonymous Coward]

Telemarketing has a non-zero success rate. Probably single-digit percentages, but still non-zero.

As a former telemarketer, I'd say the success rate is probably even smaller than that. Tenths of a percent. Hundredths of a percent for a bad telemarketer or a hard to sell product. That's all it takes, though.

Take those annoying winsheild repair places, for example. If I can call 40 people an hour (I can) and sell two of those a day, I've easily made the company a lot more money than just my salary and only had a success rate of .6%

Re:Well, I Did My Part

[Anonymous Coward]

It must depend upon what industry you are in. I was doing magazine renewal calls. Calling people whose magazine subscriptions were about to expire, or just expired a month or two ago. I worked for a company that did calls for over 20 magazines, from over 10 different publishers. I won't say what one of their primary accounts was, but let's just say a lot of 10 year olds get really excited about the Africa issues. :-)

On some of the magazine titles we called on, we approached "conversion rates" of 20-30 percent or more. Most of them were down around 3 to 5 percent though. Many times I even had people say "I'm glad you called, I lost my renewal letters I've gotten and didn't want it to expire." I know that side of the industry is small, and rare, but it does exist.

That also brings up my point on the caller ID strings. No I don't like getting "unavailable" calls, but at least at this company, there wasn't a way to display accurate caller ID. We would call for one magazine for an hour, then another, then another. We never changed desks, phonelines, nothing. It would be cost prohibitive for a company to install phone lines for every account they worked for.

The only reason I worked for the company I woked for was because of their ethics. They didn't use autodialers that hung up on people. We had a modem at every desk that dialed the number. We listened to 4 rings, and then hung up the phone. Told the computer to dial the next number, and repeat. We also politely ended the call if the person said No. We wouldn't (and were repremanded if we did) press on "But sir, you really need WhizBang! Magazine (tm) to make sure you are knowledgable about your hobby."

You can flame me all you want, but I was just doing a job. Yes I upset a few people, but as mentioned above, some people were glad I called. I was never rude to anyone, and apologised every time I interupted dinner or someone's movie (or even sex!) I knew I was selling a quality product, and earned 8 to 15 dollars an hour doing so. It sure beat the he** out of flipping burgers at some grease joint for minimum wage.

Am I still doing this? Not for over 5 years. Am I sorry I did it? No. I personally feel everyone should have to work as a telemarketer for at least 6 months before being able to answer a telephone. It teaches you how to be polite on the phone to both people that you call, and the people that call you.

Re:Well, I Did My Part

[AbeChen]

You may want to have a look at www.Avinta.com where a new retail consumer product TriVOX (VN100) could get rid of most of the problems related to Telemarketer. So goes the resulting frustration.

Build your own pyramid

[RumGunner]

If your job sucks, quit. Then find another job. It may seem simplistic, but it's worked for me, and several of my friends. To paraphrase the words of Daniel Quinn, "If you're tired of building someone else's pyramid, WALK AWAY."

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Why isn't this on the front page?

[allism]

You'd think that anything that would save us half an hour to an hour a day would be stuff that matters...