Caller ID works as welL. The thing that I find amazing is that with caller ID the industry still seems to thrive. The article stated that a significant portion of your telemarketing calls will be eliminated if you sign up for the do not call list. Since we got call waiting ALL of it has been eliminated!

This is a great example of democracy really working. The people understood this issue well enough (they don't want annoying phone calls!) that the lobbying efforts by the telemarketers have failed. Politicians realize that if they take the lobbying money and vote for the telemarketers, they will be voted out of office. (Politicians may also be tired of receiving telemarketing calls.)

On the other hand, there are issues like Disney buying a never-ending copyright where the public doesn't have enough of an interest in the matter to care and so Disney can purchase that copyright without any trouble. Possibly the same deal with the RIAA running roughshod over the consumer. Now, my question to the Slashdot audience, how can we better educate people to let them know what is going on with both Disney and the RIAA so that if a politician does take the money from the lobbyists and make the WRONG votes, they are voted out of office?

It's not really two million jobs anyway.. the same industry that does outbound telemarketing also does inbound telemarketing, and they count all of them employees when they figure up how many jobs it is. Realistically, most of the people they are counting do inbound service and wouldn't be effected anyway.

Nah, I'm talking about the local ones that call me constantly. Theres 9 million mortgage "brokers" in my neighbourhood, and they're the worst offenders. They call constantly with the rates being so low.

It's a simple way to make money. Call everyone with a local number. If three or four refinance through you, and you make 3 or 4 grand a pop as a finders fee, you're set. Lather, rinse, repeat.

Thing is, they pay the same local flat rate that I do on my business line that I use only when needed.

Caller ID works as welL. The thing that I find amazing is that with caller ID the industry still seems to thrive.

Because telemarkerters either don't provide caller ID information, or they LIE with what they do provide.

You can sue anyone for anything, that's your right as an american citizen.

Civil cases have always been about someone trying to convince the judge that something isnt fair, and the judge proclaiming the most effective argument (ie loudest) the winner.

Nope. Been in a car accident lately? I was and for the next two days I was called by no fewer than 10 lawyers, body shops, and chiropractors. The list will stop all those calls.

Although high school and college students made up a good portion of the workers at the 2 telemarketing companies I worked for (in high school and college, natch!) another, possibly even larger chunk, was made up of low income, low-educational level single parents. According to this article [salon.com] quotes statistics (granted, provided by the DMA) claiming that 60% of their employees are women, 25% are single mothers, 33% are minorities, 5% are disabled.

From my experience, I think those stats are more or less accurate. While a lot of students work telemarketing jobs for a summer or a year or two, people who stay with a company for several years are more likely to fall into the categories above.

As a progressive, those are the kind of people you don't want to see put out of work. And if you're conservative, you don't want ANY people back on welfare.

Personally, I'm not a fan of the calls. CallerID doesn't do a good enough job of blocking them, and I would never buy anything from them anyway. I also don't feel very sorry for the corporations who will lose "50% of their business." So, I'm on the list. But I don't think much for the chances of the newly unemployed, with "compassionate conservatism" looking out for them.

I always ask to be put on the DNC list. I used to just mess with them [nokilli.com], but now I just say remove me. The last time the caller was from India and she started laughing. "You want me to what?" She put her boss on the phone so I could repeat "Put me on your do not call list". He laughed too. He said, "You know we're calling from India, so there's nothing you can do. If you'd like call up DirectTV and complain to them, but we'll still call you for our next client."

They were both actually really nice and honestly amused. I filed a report with the FCC against DirectTV but I'm sure I'll never hear anything back from it.

Although since I've been asking to be put on the master DNC list, and asking for a written copy of the DNC policies to be mailed to my PO Box, I don't get as many calls. I've also never received a copy of the DNC policies.

Two words:

Privacy Manager

We've got it at home. All calls coming from anyplace that doesn't display the originating phone number are dumped to a VRU. The VRU asks for a passcode. If no passcode is entered, the VRU prompts for the name. The VRU then calls us and gives us the option of 1)taking the call, 2)hanging up, 3)dumping to CallNotes.

Combine this with CallerID, CallWaiting CallerID, CallNotes, CallBlocker and Anonymous CallBlocker and very few calls get through.

The only calls that do publish their phone number to CallerID. Asking for a manager, getting their info and then informing them to remove us from their list or face a $500 fine next time they call is all it takes.

Sure, the entire package costs $80/mo but its worth it.

Most telemarketing calls show "No Data". Unfortunatly, so do many legit calls. Caller ID is nice but not a solution to this problem.

I actually have a low-end office-style phone system at home. I just setup auto-attendant, and callers have to press "5" to get to me (the message tells them so.)

I get ZERO telemarketing calls now. None. No political calls, no charity, nothing. Before I put that system in, it was getting to 5 or so a day (usually around dinner time.) Family and friends thought it was strange, but after I tell them what it does and how it works, they all want one.

$80 / month? That's NUTS. I just get plain caller ID and use my phone system with auto-attendant. I get ZERO telemarketing calls now and don't need an extra $60 / month of crap to make it work. One time $120 investment.

They are just as bad as other telemarketers.
The do not call list should include all telemarketers, not just businesses.
These people should be suing because the law is not being applied equally -- in which case, I would have to agree.

alas the single DNC lists are hardly obeyed, most companies just wait a couple of months and call you again.

Does asking your telephone soliciters not to call you work better for you than I? I still get lots of calls, i've asked every one to DNC me.

The mainstay of the problem is you had no proof that they put you on a dnc, and likewise no proof that you asked. In many cases you can't even proove who's calling you. Having the calling companies maintain the DNC list is like letting the fox guard the chickens.

Are you going to sue a company over failure to comply with DNC, not likely, and the number of people who would are so small that they don't matter. But now you get a centralized list, you have some proof your on the list, people can band together and take down these fly by night companies with class action suits.

I think if companies really honored the DNC lists this would never have gotten to the point it is now, where noone can eat dinner in piece, where you get woken up hours before your were ready on a weekend morning, where many a sexual encounter was thrawted by ye old ringer.

as things work now, it would be like requiring a no soliciting sign to specify who can't knock, I just picture this door covered with No Soliciting "sun paper" no soliciting "boyscouts" no soliciting "electrolux" it's assinine to try to stop the calls on a one to one basis.

I think that this list is set to improve the quality of life for most people. Companies have been making money at the cost of soo many peoples misery for such a long time. Just the fact that a company can survive by this intrusive method of marketing is appauling.

you want to get my attention use a commercial, direct mail or a billboard, something that i can choose to ignore if i'm not interested.

Is there a constitutional right to privacy that I missed?

Amendment IX
The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.

Yes.

You're making the (incorrect) assumption that all states have a DNC list. As of this moment, there are only 36 states that either have or are going to have a DNC list. Of those, 6 have not yet gone into effect. (Data from here [the-dma.org]).

The various states have different rules regarding who can and cannot contact people on the DNC lists. In general this doesn't affect most telemarketers -- they're verbotten no matter what. Who it does affect are the somewhat more socially acceptable telemarketers, and the ones that are least likely to be trying to screw you for a profit -- pollsters, charities, etc. It makes their job more difficult and thus more expensive, which is rather silly since they're generally less objectionable than telemarketers trying to sell you crap.

On top of that there's jurisdictional issues when the telemarketer is from out of state. The odds of anyone collecting on a telemarketer in Alaska making illegal solicitations to someone in Alabama are considerably reduced when you have to deal with two different state laws than when you have to deal with a single Federal law.

We've got something similar, called "Security Screen" or something. if there is no CAller ID information, the caller is prompted with a friendly voice:

The number you are calling does not accept unidentified calls. If you are a solicitor, please hang up now. Otherwise, please enter the 10 digit number you are calling from.

So When I call my girlfriend from work, I just enter my phone number, it shows up on the Caller ID as "Security screen - 555-555-1212".

The only solicitors I get now are people who work from home and their own number shows up on the caller ID, which is great, because I just call them daily at 6:00 pm and list off the crap I have sitting in my garage for sale.

I believe you're referring to a "land line", not LAN line.

The idea that judges should consider both the law and what is fair has been a fundamental part of common law for centuries.

Back when common law was first created in England there were seperate judges of law and equity, but modern judges are arbiters of both. As an example, this is part of the reason why non-compete clauses in contracts are difficult to enforce, because it's easy to argue that such clauses are unfair (i.e., not equitable). Of course, when acting for equity a judge's powers are technically much more limited than when acting for law, which historically leads to the kinds of strange rulings people are used to from the legal system.

"I am at a loss as to just what sort of job loss the telemarketing association is referring to."

Telemarketing, from what I understant, is the leading field of employment in terms of employing people who were previously on government-funded welfare programs. There will be a tremedous job loss, and it will be lost jobs for the poorest and least-educated people.

Poster wrote:

I also have to pay a $2 monthly fee to NOT list my name and number in the phone book.

So drop your home phone line and just use your cell. (the morons up here are trying to get cell customers to pay an extra 4-5 bucks a month for the "privilege" of being listed in the white pages - fuck 'em in the heart. Telephone spam is still spam)

Yeah, it's an off-the-shelf box. MANY companies make SOHO phone systems. On the low end, there is smething like the "VoicePro 206" that you can find fairly cheap on ebay, panasonic has the KXTA-624, and so on.

I just use standard analog phones with my unit - some decent 2.4G DSS cordless ones work great.

Even better (From Seinfeld):
http://www.sconet.state.oh.us/Communications_Offic e/Justice_Pfeifer/2002/jp082802.asp [state.oh.us]

For those to lasy to click a link:

"SEINFELD: (ANSWERING PHONE) Hello.

"(TELEMARKETER): Hi. Would you be interested in switching over to TMI long-distance service?

"SEINFELD: Oh, gee, I can't talk right now. Why don't you give me your home number and I'll call you later?

"(A LONG PAUSE) (TELEMARKETER): Well, I'm sorry. We're not allowed to do that.

"SEINFELD: I guess you don't want people calling you at home.

"(TELEMARKETER): No.

"SEINFELD: Well, now you know how I feel."

Just about the only person *not* exempted from calling people on the list is Homer and his auto-dialer.

Not true. Almost all of the exceptions, such as the one for telecom companies, were removed shortly before it was enacted. The only exceptions left in [donotcall.gov] are for political donation solicitors (gee, big surprise that politicians would keep that in), charities, phone surveyors not soliciting for goods or services, and "companies with which you have an existing business relationship."

Of course, that last exemption is the one that's going to be abused. However, any entity at all is subject to the $11,000 max fine if they call after you tell them you don't wish to be called.

For those telemarketers who are upset let me put this spin on the whole thing.

You are not going to lose 50% of your business. You are going to lose 50% of the numbers you can call. The 50% that don't want to be called and wouldn't buy anything if you did.

The remaining 50% will probably be more productive.

2) Prerecorded commercial solicitations to your home may NOt be initiated without the EXPRESS permission of the owner.

I can confirm this. How do I know? I called the FCC last year and I asked. I believe the complaint form is Form 475, which can be found here [fcc.gov].

Enforcing the Do Not Call list from other than US telemarketers is covered in the Do Not Call legislation. A call from outside the US will not necessarily be blocked, but the parent company selling the product as well as any vendor involved in delivering that phone call is responsible for that call.

That is, a US company involved in any way, shape or form with the delivery of that phone call may be fined as defined by the legislation. Just because the phone call originates outside of the US does not let any US corporation get around the Law.

Also, realize that many states have their own Do Not Call lists and the legislation behind the state list may be different than the Fed. list.

If you haven't seen what all the specifics are, I encourage you to look at
donotcall.gov [donotcall.gov] to get the facts. There is a grace period from the time you register your phone # and there are exceptions which is all explained at
donotcall.gov [donotcall.gov]. Additionally, you may want to look at your state governments homepage to see if it has its own list.