Do Not Call Listings to Expire in 2008

Ant writes "Yahoo! News report that the cherished dinner hour void of telemarketers could vanish next year for millions of people when phone numbers begin dropping off the national/United States (U.S.)'s Do Not Call list. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC), which oversees the list, says there is a simple fix. But some lawmakers think it is a hassle to expect people to re-register their phone numbers every five years. Numbers placed on the registry, begun in June 2003, are valid for five years. For the millions of people who signed onto the list in its early days, their numbers will automatically drop off beginning next June if they do not enroll again."

Comments

Does the DNC list even mean anything?

[Anonymous Coward]

My mobile # is on the DNC list and I still get calls. I have filed complaints with them and still get the same people calling over and over again. Emperion Marketing (505 647 9618)is my worst offender. I keep getting calls from these asshats, though I have called them and told them to take me off the list. I have filed 4 complaints about them and it hasn't done a thing.

BTW, register your number here https://www.donotcall.gov/register/Reg.aspx

Re:Does the DNC list even mean anything?

[GreyPoopon]

keep getting calls from these asshats, though I have called them and told them to take me off the list. I have filed 4 complaints about them and it hasn't done a thing.

You do realize that you can take them to small claims court yourself, right? I strongly suggest that you keep a log of their calls and anything you tell them.

Re:Does the DNC list even mean anything?

[drspliff]

I had a call today from a company trying to offer me a loan, did the usual stuff asking them to remove me from whatever list I was on and to stop calling - they said to call back on a number (national rate, about 10p a min) only to get transferred to the "customer relations" department which never picked up.

Then 3 hours later I get an advertisment SMS from the same company, call back up, get transferred again, and the "customer relations" department never picked up - again.

I've been on the UK TPS (Telephone Preference Service, the UK do not call list) for several years, but still get these stupid companies calling up that I have no idea who they are (so obviously they cant have a previous "relationship" with me).

I finally got through to the customer relations department after 20 minutes on hold, explained to them that they can be fined upto £5000 for every offence only to be told I have to write in to their marketing department to get it removed.

I mean seriously, WTF! I've spent about £5 on phone calls today just trying to sort it out with this asshole company, only to be flogged off with a standard excuse and a PObox address.

Can't They Send a Reminder?

[Slashdot Parent]

They have an email address associated with each phone number. Why can't they send out a reminder 6 months before your number's expiration so you can renew?

FYI- You can renew your Do Not Call registrations at any time, even if they are not about to expie. I renewed all my numbers today, despite some of them not expiring for over a year.

Re:what happened to privacy?

[belmolis]

What I described is the existing procedure, not necessarily what I want. In any case, the phone companies don't need to submit identifying information, just a list of phone numbers. And note that this information is publicly available anyhow, with somewhat more effort. The government can easily enough check whether a phone number has been changed, as can you.

Why cron was invented

[giminy]

0 0 1 1 * wget --post-data 'ctlACPH1:txtAreaCode=&ctlACPH1:txtPhone=&ctlEmail:txtEmail=&txtConfirmEmail=' https://www.donotcall.gov/Register/Reg.aspx

You could wrap the wget in an if-block to see if the year is divisible by 5, but I'm lazy.

Reid