I have a couple of concerns about the Do Not Call list. While I applaud the effort, in the face of the political opposition, the
implementation leaves something to be desired.
Here are the issues I see
- There is no real verification when people list or de-list themselvs. I can write a perl script to handle the listing/de-listing of a number. I could then run that with a list of number, and remove anyone with which I have a grudge from the list. Any schmoe can remove - or add - any other schmoe from the list.
- When the list is given to the telemarketing companies, is the email address attached to it?
- It's too easy for a company to weasle out of a penalty; it's too easy to fake their Caller-ID information, or not provide it entirely. Yeah, we know that's illegal - how you gonna prove it?
- There shouldn't be any exceptions to the types of calls. Exempting political calls is obviously an attempt by the politicians to protect their bread and butter; telphone surveys? Those are even more of a waste of time, and will be used to sell stuff - you can guarantee it; charities should also not be exempted - those are some of the most corrupt organizations, save for the political ones. But the exemption most open to abuse is the 'existing business relationship' If I buy something from a company, that doesn't mean I want them calling me to try and sell me more crap. This will get extrapolated into scenarios such as if I buy something with my VISA, I'll get telemarketing calls from other places that accept VISA cards because of the common denominator therin. Sound like a flimsy pretext? Then you just don't understand the telemarketing biz.
- The claims process: you will have to know the real name of the company, the real phone #. These are easy for the telemarketing company to hide. They can munge the Caller ID info, and the second you ask for information about the company, they'll just hang up. I've been hung up on when I asked to be put on their Do Not Call list.
- It won't do anything about the fly-by-night boiler room operations. These companies contract to do the telemarketing for other companies. They'll just change identies and move on to avoid the heat.
Do you really want to eliminate telemarketing? You can. Wanna know how? Ok, are you ready?
DON'T BUY STUFF FROM THEM!!!!!!.
It's that simple. Telemarketing (oh, and email spam) exists because it works. It's not horribly efficient, but there's enough of an ROI to keep it going. If people weren't so stupid as to keep responding favorably to it, then it would go away of it's own accord. Nobody advertises weight loss programs by stapling flyers to kittens, do they? No, because it doesn't work!