"All violations of essential privacy are brutalizing." - Katharine Fullerton Gerould (1879-1944), U.S. author, Modes and Morals
Like 50 million other Americans, I signed up for the nationwide, "Do Not Call List", so I was not at all happy to hear that U.S. District Judge Lee R. West ruled that it was not within the province of the FTC to create such a list. I was even more disturbed to hear, today, that another Judge - U.S. District Judge Edward Nottingham - issued an opinion blocking the list based on telemarketers' free speech rights.
Free Speech? Excuse me?
The First Amendment reads: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
Where in the First Amendment does it give anyone the right to invade my home and my right to privacy? Where does it say that anyone with something to sell can use MY telephone, which I bought and pay to maintain in order to keep in touch with friends and family, for thier commerical gain?
The "Do Not Call List" is the electronic equivalent of a "no trespassing" sign or a "no soliciting sign". Sorry telemarketers, your right to Free Speech does not include a right to come into my home to deliver it. Your right to Free Speech ends at my right not to listen to your sales pitch.
Don't get me wrong. I'm not against all forms of advertising. You can put commercials on my TV, on my radio or in my newspaper because I'm getting something back for that. It lowers the cost of delivering those media, so you get your 10 or 20 seconds to try and sell me something. I actually check out products I've seen on TV, heard about on the radio or read about in a newspaper or magazine.
I do not buy anything from telemarketers. Telemarketers give nothing back for my time - and my time is valuable. They interrupt whatever I'm doing and force me to get up to answer the phone. And yes, I have an answering machine, but then they leave their messages on the machine clogging up the tape for calls I want.
I don't even listen to telemarketers' spiel. Up until now, I politely say, "I'm not interested" and hang up. Now, I'm considering getting an air horn and giving them a blast in the ear. My name is on the "Do Not Call List" - call me at your own risk. Consider it my "no soliciting" sign and my "Beware of Dog" sign all combined into one.
IN an article on CNN, Robert Wientzen, president and CEO of Direct Marketing Association said, "If they don't want to receive calls, we don't want to call them." Hello - 50 million people have said, "Do NOT call us!" What part of NO don't you understand? Mr Wientzen claims that they have a "Do Not Call List" that they have maintained for 18 years. Well, first of all, that only covers those who belong to his association and there is nothing to prevent them from calling you anyway, except expulsion from the organization. Secondly, I went to their web site and their is a $5.00 charge to sign up on line. They accept credit cards - how convenient. Now they have your name and your credit card number as well. I don't think so.
I saw Mr. Wientzen on the Today show, yesterday, and he seems to think that there are people out there who want to have telemarketers call them. I certainly don't know any of them. Who are these people? Stand up and be counted. I think they should have a list of people who want to be called - they deserve it.
Posted by Cyberkat at September 26, 2003 11:38 AM | TrackBackBest thing you can do for telemarketers: say "Oh, yes, I'm very interested, just a moment"
Put the phone down and walk away. Eventually, you'll hear the "bzzt bzzt bzzt" noise and you can hang up.
This keeps the telemarketers busy. While they're busy, they can't be calling other people. The way telemarketers make money is volume -- they call as many people as possible until they find a sucker. If you can keep them busy, they can't be harassing some other poor schmuck. If everyone did this, they'd go out of business. :)
Posted by: donna on October 9, 2003 11:35 AMNow - that's a good idea. Think I'll try it next time.
Posted by: Cyber Kat on October 9, 2003 11:54 AMKat,
I too am grateful for not receiving all of the annoying 8pm calls I used to get. I have also tried the techniques listed above among others.
Saying that, I make a living calling people. Now it is true my target audience is people, who wish to hear from me, but they refer me to others. I do have to constantly find new leads.
So here is my new problem, when I call a new lead, who's friend has talked me up as a good person to work with, each call I make, I now wonder, am I going to be fined $10,000 because my lead generating friend, did not understand the new rules?
Most people are sales person phobic, and don't want to call me even when they want to talk to me. Human nature.
Yet, I still got calls from Arny last week. Interesting that the politicians do not need to heed “do not call”.
As far as your first amendment rant, you need to follow the court decision thread over the last couple of hundred years, to see why “do not call” may be unconstitutional. Many activities today, not understood in the past are now First amendment.
By the way… if you want to read really poorly written law, try the second amendment.
Lee