Slashdot Mirror
Telemarketers Sue Over "Do Not Call" List
Joey Patterson writes "CNN reports that 'Telemarketers expanded their legal challenge to the government's do-not-call list, suing a second federal agency over the call-blocking service for consumers that the industry says will devastate business and cost as many as two million jobs.'"
Was there a constitutional right to profit that I missed?
Wow, a lucrative publishing contract! I don't have to be evil anymore. --Meteor
Another industry with a doomed business model resorting to litigation to address its (short-term) problems.
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If I were a telemarketer, I'd be overjoyed at the prospect of a national do-not-call list. It should be seen as a list of people who aren't likely to buy anything from me, thus reducing the time I waste calling people who probably won't buy. The feds even pay to maintain it!
Also . .
The suit's argument that jobs will be lost is worthless. If they were motivated by providing jobs, I wouldn't get so many pre-recorded solicitations. I'm sure the industry would eliminate almost all their employees if they thought it would bring them more profit.
'I ain't a liar, baby, and I ain't proud I just want what I'm not allowed.' -- Violent Femmes, 36-24-36
If the RIAA can get their continued existance legislated, it's only fair the telemarketing field gets the same treatment...
-insert a witty something-
Caller ID works as well.
The question then becomes *why* we should have to pay a service fee and do manual filtering to avoid being harassed in our own homes.
Heck, I can't figure out *why* we have to pay extra to have an unlisted number.
May we never see th
Before everyone adds me to their Foes list, I want to say that I didn't last long: I quit. I was desperate for a summer job as a college student and thought that working indoors making a good wage was better than the crap jobs my buddies were getting pitching tar or whatever the hell they were doing in the heat. Funny thing is that I was selling premium television channels and I, personally, thought (still do) that TV was largely a waste. It took me a few weeks to develop my ability to sell something that I didn't believe in but pretty soon I was starting the heavy-sell over the phone. I was a hypocrite -- I personally thought what we were selling was crap.
Finally, one day I made a call and a very elderly woman answered the phone. I started into my sales pitch when she finally sobbed "Please, please, just leave me alone. My husband has died and I don't know how I'm going to pay my bills." And by god if I didn't have to bite my lip to stop myself from replying "You need some entertainment to distract you from your problems. Can I sign you up for the comedy channel?" Man, I was so programmed to try to turn a bad situation into a sale that it was just automatic! Fortunately, I still had some decency left and told her that I wished her best of luck and hung up. I quit the very next day. I still remember the look on the boss' face when I told him why I was quitting. I don't think he had ever had someone quit for moral reasons before. He was stunned that someone would voluntarily quit a high-paying, cushy job solely because of moral qualms. Because I had left before my shift was up, my ride wasn't there to pick me up. I walked all the way home in the rain. But I was happy. I had done the right thing.
Whenever I hear about the sob-stories of telemarketers, I simply remember back to those awful, awful people who I worked with those few weeks. Screw 'em.
GMD
watch this
To offset the revenue the telco loses from not being able to sell it...
Karma: Chameleon (mostly affected when you come and go, you come and go)
I'm confused. This means that half the people that buy products from telemarketers will sign up and therefore prevent themselves from buying new products?
That's exactly what'll happen. I've often heard from people that the do not call list will help telemarketers, as it will cut out people who never buy stuff from telemarketers. This is true, but the do not call list will also remove from the list telemarketers bread and butter: People who can't say no.
There are a lot of people out there, I know a few, who just can't say no to telemarketers, get drawn in and buy stuff they know they don't want. These people know they have a problem, but still get caught out everytime the telemarketer calls. So going on the do not call list is the easy way out for them.
Its the loss of these people that will telemarketers hurt telemarketers the worst.
I take it a step further. I would never buy anything from these people because I wouldn't want to perpetuate the process. Even if someone called me this evening to offer a great deal on a product I've been hoping to buy, I'll gladly spend a little more money and inconvience just to break the cycle.
Who knows, maybe the poor soul on the other end of the line will finally get the picture and go out and find true employment.
That's hours of my time spent doing something that serves me no purpose and waste's someone else's time as well. I think that second part is prtty important too. Why should telemarketers want to call people who obviously have no interest in buying their products? If their products are legit and they do have interested buyers somewhere, then they shouldn't be worrying about all the people who are going to hang up on them anyway. Every call they make that doesn't lead to a sale is lost money. Weeding out the futile calls should save them a lot of money.
If, on the other hand, their products are crap and NO ONE will want to buy it, save for the morons who can be talked into anything, then who cares if they can't sell them? I certainly don't. They need a better product, and a better marketing system.
This is just like the problem with internet ads. People spend so much time and effor (and money) on stupid methods of getting your attention (popups, animation, blinking, ads scrolling across the page, sounds, etc, etc, etc) because they know their products won't sell. They have no market, so they try to force their way into everyone's view hoping someone will bite. That's not how it works. Good businesses make products designed for a specific market and target their advertising to that market. I don't mind seeing an ad on slashdot for a compiler, and I'm likely to even click on that ad. That's good marketing. It's targeted well and it's a valuable product. There's no need for a popup there. However, I do mind seeing an ad (popup or otherwise) for a product completely unrelated to what I'm doing. An X10 ad popping up on my screen while I'm looking up programming references isn't going to lead to a sale. That's just ridiculous.
In summary, these people need to fire their marketing people (or maybe hire some if they don't have any) and try to actually sell a product instead of just throwing it out there hoping someone will see value in it.
if(!cool) exit(-1);