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Australian Do Not Call Register
green-e writes "Looks like us Aussies are finally introducing a national 'Do Not Call' register. Under the plan all telemarketers would be banned from calling homes after 8pm on weekdays and 5pm on weekends. Companies that call a household on the register could face fines of up to $220,000 (AU), which could be legislated early next year. About time something like this should be set up. How effective has it been in the US ?"
Are there going to be exceptions to the companies who can call "customers?" ie: Companies working on behalf of the government (aka. pre-election surveys), etc.
I wonder how well this will turn out to be...Looks like we'll have to wait and see.
I registered for the one in Colorado (the original). I have had no problems (except that I am called all the time by the republican party even though I am a registered libertarian). IIRC, I did not register with the federal one.
But I know of several people that did register with the federal and gets called all the time by everyone (oddly enough, they are now afraid to register in the Colorado one). For all purpose, the federal DB has been a way to get a name, an address, and a number; IOW, the marketers wet dream.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
I've had enough of calls from Indian call-centre workers saying they're in Melbourne. It's great when you ask them how the weather is there, and they say the complete opposite of what it acutally is.
It's about time something like this was put in place. But will it work.
The easy part was getting the brain out, but the hard part was getting the brain out.
I haven't had a landline for two years. I have a mobile phone with silent ring if it's someone not in the addressbook, and Skype with contact disabled if not approved by me. No telemarketing or nuisance calls whatsoever.
Trust the Computer. The Computer is your friend.
It's also a lot worse in Australia than here. I visited friends in Australia in Feb 2004, and spent time staying at three separate houses the weeks I was there. It wasn't unusual to get 10 to 15 calls every night, weekend included.
At least my hosts had the sense not to spend much time on these people, happily shouting a big FUCK OFF down the phone before hanging up and getting back to life.
Australians are a lot more dependent on land lines too, than here. I know many people in CA who don't have a land line at all.
I don't get that many calls now, and I don't think I will sign up for this. It is just another place for your phone number. I just hang up if I am annoyed.
The way it works is if you are on the no call list, you can't be called at all. Else you can only be called during the day. It also applies to call centres outside Australia if an Australian company has contracted the call centre.
(It is also ironic that the US flag is under the Slashdot whilst talking about Australia. We are after all the 53rd state (after the UK and Canada).)
I wank in the shower.
And even better way to handle telemarketers.
1) When the call you, make sure tell you their name and who they are calling on behalf of.
2) After they tell you this information, politely say. "I'm not interested. Please don't call me again at this number. Thank you" and hang up.
This will accomplish two things. One, since they have said their name and who they are calling for, it is officially a 'contact'. If you just hang up on the person as soon as they say "Hey, this is Bill, can I talk to (your name mispronounced)?" then you won't be considered contacted because you never heard the name of the place they are calling for. If you aren't marked as contacted you will be called again, perhaps two or three times before they give up on you.
If this entertaining? No. But, it is the nice thing to do. Telemarketing is a shitty job that no one really wants to do. I did it when I was in college because I needed the cash. Did I go whistling to work just hoping I could annoy some people at home? No.
Of course you can't dick around with telemarketers because they aren't allowed to say anything. This isn't you outsmarting anyone, or being cooler than anyone, they just simply can't argue with you and follow the rules. Could I beat the shit out of someone who was paralyzed from the waist down? Hell yes! Would I ever do it? No, because just because it's easy to do, doesn't mean you should do it.
The law in the US has helped, but there are still telemarketers of one type or another.
I work from home, and use my cell as the business phone. Our POTS line gets five or six calls a week, even with the law and Anonymous Call Rejection... but at least ACR means that I have a phone number displayed for those that do get through.
Some are companies we deal with, but I tell them to put us on their Do Not Call list immediately or lose our business. (I 'threatened' the NRA: I explained that I would donate $100 to the Democratic National Committee for each subsequent call... alas, there were no more calls).
Some claim exemption from the law, saying they don't have a Do Not Call list. I reply that they'd better start one, because I will charge them with harrassment and criminal tresspass in Delaware if they ring my phone again, and did I mention that my wife is a lawyer? (They never call again).
Most important is to take a polite but aggressive approach as soon as you answer the phone, controlling the call (and therefore the caller):
Hello, this is Tina from AMC and I...
Tina? What's your full name, Tina?
Tina Brown...
Thank you, Ms. Brown. I am required by Federal law to inform you that this call is being recorded. And what do the letters "A M C" stand for, Ms. Brown?
Uh, the Annoying Marketing Council...
And where is the Annoying Marketing Council located, Ms. Brown?
In Walla Walla, Washington, but I...
And what is the phone number of the Annoying Marketing Council, Ms. Brown?
Sir, I am not permitted to...
Actually, Ms. Brown, Federal law requires you to provide that information.
Okay, it's 215-555-4242...
Ms. Brown, the reason I've asked for this information is to put your company in my [imaginary] Telemarketer Database, and now I need you to put this number on your Do Not Call list, effective immediately.
I can do that, sir, but it takes up to 30 days to be removed from our list...
Actually, Ms. Brown, you will need to make sure it happens immediately. If I am called again by the AMC -- even if it's five minutes from now -- I will immediately file civil and/or criminal complaints against the Annoying Marketing Council, and against you personally.
Sir, I should let you speak to my supervisor...
No, Ms. Brown, Federal law requires that you, the caller, handle this. I need to go. Rest assured, if the AMC appears on our caller ID again -- even if we don't answer the call -- you will hear from our attorney... and she's my wife, so she works for free. Goodbye. [click]
I get no repeat callers.
I was doing CRM systems when many US states passed do not call lists. The result was impressive in two ways:
* The calls at home absolutely stopped after the lists went into effect.
* You could stop an telemarketer cold with one sentence: I'm on the do not call list.
* Call centers had to re-invent their business to focus on inbound calls.
* Companies had to learn that marketing is the stuff that makes the company phone ring.
* Internet advertising asploded.
-- $G
We've had this kind of register for some time now here in Norway and the same rules apply i.e. telemarketers can't call you unless there is a previous relationship. It works great if you just remember to register everyone in your household of legal age. My existing "relationships" have not been abused and they're not likely to be. The law gives the consumer agency semi-effective means of punishing any offenders (fines/jail time). It's really only the very small, less serious companies that break the law - and they're not easily persuaded to stop.
:) On the other hand most people would probably not accept deals offered in a foreign language anyway. Although recently there was this Florida-based American telemarketing company scamming people with offers of holidays to the Caribbean if you wouldn't mind handing over your Visa account number... Yes, several people fell for it.
The great thing about living in a small country is that you do NOT get bothered by foreign telemarketing companies because they can't break through the language barrier! Now the truth is that most Norwegians speak english quite well - more than enough to understand telemarketing calls - but thank God the telemarketers don't know that
Another great thing about the language barrier is that when a recent phishing scam appeared aimed at customers of a large norwegian bank - most people laughed it off since the e-mail was written in english... And there are no translation services on the net for the language that will work properly, hehe.
I bought a second home elsewhere in the US, and didn't get around to setting up telephone service (with the ILEC) until just before I actually needed it. I forgot to register for the DoNotCall list for a couple of days, however, and was inundated with calls when I finally did arrive at my second home. They did drop precipitously after the 30th day after I'd registered on the Do Not Call list, and the remaining calls disappeared completely after I politely asked for their organization's name, address and telephone number and then told them that they were in violation of Title 47, Code of Federal Regulations, Part 68, Section 1002(b). (Whether that's the most applicable statute or not is irrelevant - it _sounded_ good enough to them and they haven't called back).
There was even a bill collector, and I was very pleasantly surprised when I informed them that I had apparently inherited a deadbeat's phone number and therefore couldn't help them. They actually apologized and never called back, even though their automatic system had been hammering me multiple times!
So, my advice to my Aussie friends (and I'm an ex-VK2, thank you) is to dig in your heels, and make the politicians pass appropriate legislation (with strong penalties - the AUD$220k is a good _start_). Otherwise, they may find the bills for their 013 and 0800 numbers skyrocket with all of the spurious incoming calls from the voters. Australia seems to be becoming very draconian about certain aspects of the Internet, so perhaps applying that same mindset to annoying telephone calls could actually benefit society for once. Otherwise, use some of the techniques on the callers that have proven successful in the past - act dumb when they call, waste their time, call their freephone numbers incessantly with dumb questions, fill out subscription cards for magazines in their names, etc., etc. When they figure out what it's costing them indirectly, they might ultimately stop.