I was reading CancunCanuck’s blog this morning about the phone call she received from her brother announcing that he and his long time partner are getting married. This made me think about the telephone and what it means to me.
The telephone can be a friend bringing good news – “Hi Mom, we set the date for our wedding”. I was so happy to hear this news since Tara and Kelly had been talking about getting married for years.
The telephone can be a foe delivering really bad news. – “Jackie, Tara has had a cardiac arrest and is in ICU at OHSU”. True story. I got that call on 12/28/07 the day after I arrived in Mexico for a two week vacation.
I do work for one of the major telecommunications companies which happens to not only be a tier one service provider but also the local telephone company in 14 states in the USA. So I am very familiar with the rules and regulations regarding caller id, solicitation, etc.
Lately I have been getting really irritated with the number of solicitors who call my home telephone # even though I have registered on the DO NOT CALL REGISTRY. I do have a security screen feature on my line that forces a caller without caller id to identify themselves. Without this feature I am sure I would get even a ton more solicitor calls. I can get home from work and have 15 new callers with 6 or more voice mails from telemarketers/solicitors.
WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT THE NATIONAL DO NOT CALL REGISTRY
The National Do Not Call Registry gives you a choice about whether to receive telemarketing calls at home. Most telemarketers should not call your number once it has been on the registry for 31 days. If they do, you can file a complaint at this Website. You can register your home or mobile phone for free.
There have been many laws passed by various state public Utility commissions and the FCC that regulates companies that use either live telephone solicitors or automatic dial announcing devices (ADADs) must provide on Caller ID machines their company’s name and a telephone number. These telemarketers can no longer use per-call blocking or per-line blocking to prevent customers from identifying the caller. The number which appears must also accept incoming calls.
How a lot of the telemarketing companies get around the different rules and regulations can be by number spoofing (caller id might show 999-999-9999) or they pass caller id like Ohio, Florida, Maine with 8XX telephone #. You name the state and it has probably shown up on my phone on caller id.
Once in awhile out of curiosity I will answer a telemarketer’s call if the caller id number and name is one that I see multiple times a day for weeks showing on my phone. First off they can never pronounce my last name (it’s not that difficult), they ask to speak to Jacqueline or they ask if Mr. is at home.
I personally have nothing against the individual telemarketers making the calls as I know to them it is just a job. But do they really like what they do? How many times a day must people receiving their calls treat them rudely or hang up on them? I am sure glad that is one job I have never had.
Top telemarketing voice mails I receive:
“Your automobile extended warranty had expired. This is your last chance…” If this is my last chance why do you freaking keep calling me?
“This call is important to you, please press 1 to speak to an agent now”. If it were an important call to me wouldn’t I be calling them?
“I can lower your home mortgage rate by blah, blah blah”. I doubt it since I am locked in at one of the lowest rates offered several years ago.
“You have won…. You recently entered a contest”. No I did not; I think I would remember doing that.
OK, you get my drift, irritating huh?
WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUTTHE NATIONAL DO NOT CALL REGISTRY
The National Do Not Call Registry gives you a choice about whether to receive telemarketing calls at home. Most telemarketers
Filed under: Communications | Tagged: solicitors, telemarketers, telephone |
Jackieinpdx's Blog 
I have been getting “final notice” calls on my cell phone for weeks now about my car warranty expiring. And we are getting, on our land line, fairly frequent “final notice” calls to lower the interest rate on our credit card. All these calls get an immediate hang up! Bruce did one time (out of curiosity) pick an option to go further with the credit card one, got a gum chewing not particularly literate young lady and there were kids crying in the background. He hung up.
I have been getting last chance call on my car for a year.Wonder if there is any profit in ext.warranty?
There must be a profit in auto extended warranties or else why would we get so many calls from so many different people? Interesting line of work, maybe they receive a % of the payment.
We get the “final notice” postcards in the mail quite frequent, but no calls at home…so far!!
Now that it’s election time, those calls seem to come in during dinner time!!
I just recently watched a special on TV about telemarketers working from their homes. This may be why you hear crying kids in the background!!
Brenda,
When I think of telemarketers I have two visuals:
1. A sweat shop environment where they are all lined up in a row, no privacy and the manager is walking behind them listening to every call
2. Stay at home moms or dads in their sweats aeting a sandwich and feeding a baby while making their calls
You know those signs that you see on utility poles or bus benches that advertise “work from home and earn a bzillion $s.” I think that is how the telemarketing companies recruit their employees.