OT - No-Call list

[geoschmo]

Originally posted by Mathias_Ice:
Don't do it!!!! Show me where in the U.S. Constitution you get to tell me I can't promote my company via calling you.

This is not even the point. The question is what gives your company the right to use the telephone service that I pay for to harrass me with calls I did not ask for and do not want.

Unsolicited telemarketting calls should be illegal by default. If telelmarketers want to use my phone to make me offers I did not ask for then they should pay my phone bill. Give us the option to sign up for free phone service that is supported by the advertising revenues. Those that choose to get their phone for free will be the only ones that have to tolerate the calls. It would work the same way as television. I don't pay for broadcast tv. I have to put up with ads to get it free. I buy cable and I get lots of ad free channels.

The same should work for email spam and popup ads. If the vultures want the right to bombard me with their insipid ads they should pay for my Online service and email. If I don't mind the ads I'll get my service free. If I don't want the ads I will pay for my ISP service.

I think it's flat wrong that to get the calls to stop I have to go out of my way and sign up for a do not call list. They should need my permission in advance to call me, not the other way around.

Geoschmo

[Krsqk]

How much does telemarketing drive up your phone service rates? Don't telemarketers pay for their own phone service, too (multiple-line rates, at that), and the right to use it? Following that logic, you should be charged to call anyone, for using the phone service they paid for. Remember, you're paying for the right to send and receive phone calls. See if your phone company has a plan which doesn't let anyone call you but lets you call out if it really bothers you.

Again, if you don't mind taking thirty seconds and they don't take advantage of your courtesy, you can stop them and get your name removed. If they take advantage of it, you can hang up on them. Few people are truly that inconvenienced by the loss of thirty seconds--and they wouldn't have called it an inconvenience if it were a call from a friend or a relative, although they can't know the difference until after they stop what they're doing to answer the phone and the call would likely Last much longer than thirty seconds. (Is the inconvenience having to stop what you're doing, or is it talking to someone you don't know?) If someone really is bothered by the loss of that time, they can 1)take the phone off the hook/turn the ringer off until they're done with their important business, or 2)disconnect their phone service.

[DavidG]

Originally posted by Krsqk:
How much does telemarketing drive up your phone service rates? Don't telemarketers pay for their own phone service, too (multiple-line rates, at that), and the right to use it? Following that logic, you should be charged to call anyone, for using the phone service they paid for. Remember, you're paying for the right to send and receive phone calls. See if your phone company has a plan which doesn't let anyone call you but lets you call out if it really bothers you.

Again, if you don't mind taking thirty seconds and they don't take advantage of your courtesy, you can stop them and get your name removed. If they take advantage of it, you can hang up on them. Few people are truly that inconvenienced by the loss of thirty seconds--and they wouldn't have called it an inconvenience if it were a call from a friend or a relative, although they can't know the difference until after they stop what they're doing to answer the phone and the call would likely Last much longer than thirty seconds. (Is the inconvenience having to stop what you're doing, or is it talking to someone you don't know?) If someone really is bothered by the loss of that time, they can 1)take the phone off the hook/turn the ringer off until they're done with their important business, or 2)disconnect their phone service.

I don't think anyone suggested it was driving up our phone rates. (although I wonder how many would object if they started calling you on your cell phone in which you pay for incomming calls) The bottom line is that many people find telemarketers intensely annoying. Frankly they are often extremely rude and can really get me upset. The loss of 30 seconds is not the problem. I should not have to do things like make my phone number unlisted or take my phone off the hook and thus miss the calls that I want just to get them to stop.

[minipol]

Originally posted by geoschmo:
Unsolicited telemarketting calls should be illegal by default. If telelmarketers want to use my phone to make me offers I did not ask for then they should pay my phone bill.

Here here! I fully agree. They almost render the phone service unusable. Like someone else said, if they want to offer something, buy time somewhere and place adds there. Not on a service a lot of people use every day. We didn't ask to be harassed.

[DavidG]

Anyone every heard the sound clip "one angry brit" on www.heavy.com? I'd post a link if I could. Very funny clip on one guys reaction to a unsolicited phone call. hehe

[Suicide Junkie]

I buy cable and I get lots of ad free channels.

Woah! I'd like some of that! Where do I sign up?

[Thermodyne]

Geo hit the nail on the head. I have a phone for my use, not some bunch of el-cheepo phone
bank scum to use for their income tools. If the pizza shop just used your car to deliver your
pizza, wouldn’t that piss you off? And what if you didn’t ask for a pizza? They just used your
car to drive up and tell you that there was a sale?

I have made call after call to have my name removed from lists. I have spent hours trying to get a word in so that I could ask them not to call me. Actually asking them about their sexual limits will usually get them to hang up I am glad that with a few key strokes, I can now stop most of them.

[ July 11, 2003, 01:59: Message edited by: Thermodyne ]