Those Pesky Telemarketers

People who are at home during the day could make good money!

For a more amusing way to deal with telemarketers, check out www.antitelemarketer.com.  I don't know how effective their methods are in stopping the calls, but you may get some satisfaction and revenge on those who have bothered you!

A note of caution: the more you tell a telemarketer or person conducting a survey, the more they know about you and they will add it to the information that they already know about you and distribute to others.  You must also be extremely cautious about the telephone fraud that is rampant.  I'll speak more about that in another column. So what is my response?  "I am not interested, I don't like being bothered by telemarketers, I will be sure not to ever buy from your company and I want my name removed from your calling list."

My day of work is over and I can go home to relax.  I open my mailbox and find the odd bill, a stack of fliers and the standard letters promising me gazillions of dollars in credit at "wonderful introductory rates".  I hate junk mail.

I then collapse on the couch for a few minutes.  Unfortunately, I never seem to get more than five minutes of peace before the telephone starts to ring. 

They all start with "Could I speak with Mr. (some bastardization of my name)?"

"Speaking"

"And how are you this evening?"  (Dumb question.)

"Fine."

"This is (who cares) from (I'll be sure to never use your company as long as I live)."

How do I respond?  I'll tell you later...

We all seem to complain about those pesky telemarketers, but we do very little to prevent it from happening.  Some people think that it helps to be rude.  If an advertising technique proves to be generating more negative response then sales, one would hope that the technique would no longer be used.  However, we all seem to be so polite when we get the calls.

There are laws that regulate unsolicited telephone marketing.  There is also a code of conduct for members of the Canadian Marketing Association (CMA).  That code of conduct requires that telemarketing be restricted to 9:00 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. on weekdays and 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. on weekends.

If you request the telemarketers to remove your name from their phone list, they must do so within thirty days and cannot contact you for the next three years.  However, that only works for one telemarketer at a time.

A more effective way is to register with the Do Not Call/Do Not Mail service sponsored by the CMA.  You can register on their web site, www.cdma.org.  If you do, all of their members must remove you from their list for three years.  According to the CMA site, approximately 80% of direct response sales companies in Canada are members of the CMA.

The U.S. has laws that allow people to sue companies for $500.00 for each time that a company violates the Do Not Call rules in that country.