Tuesday, September 30, 2008

DON'T CALL!

What a great concept...the idea that telemarketers can no longer call you up to peddle a credit card with an 21.5% interest rate or getting informed that you've won a trip to Florida so long as you attend a "brief" meeting that peddles timeshares. All you have to do is register your phone number, and you can do so by clicking here.

Now it isn't perfect. You can still get calls from newspapers selling subscriptions, charities, any business where you've had dealings with in the last 18 months, political organizations and marketing/polling firms. And you need to renew your request to be kept on the list every three years. But still, if I think about all the telemarking calls I've gotten in the past, most of them are about signing up for a new credit card or switching to a different phone provider. So if they're no longer allowed to call you up for that, I'm all for it.

But going further...those automated phones with the two second "pause" before you hear a live person lessened the nuisance for me somewhat. If I don't hear anyone after I say "hello", I usually hang up knowing full well a computer just dialed me up. So at least I'm not talking to someone trying to peddle me their junk.

It will be interesting to see how many less phone calls we'll get from this list.

Comments:
Sign me up!
An article in the Citizen today reported that the online and phone systems for taking DoNotCall requests was completely overwhelmed yesterday. Geez, there's a surprise.

If they were smart, they would have defaulted all phones numbers to the DoNotCall list and then just asked people to request removal from the list if they wanted calls. They would have received 4 requests.

/rt.
 
Thanks for the link SBP.
Wow, I just registered my number and was surprised by the lack of details required to prove you own the number. A feature on the website also allows you to de-register your number... which I did for your number BP.
/rt.
 
In the meantime try this trick. When a telemarketer calls you... try to keep them on the phone as long as possible without committing to purchase anything. Eventually... they will start trying to wind up the call... but don't let 'em. Try telling them stories about your pets or your kids... or better yet... let your toddler talk to them. HA HA HA
 
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