lonecity.com

I don’t think I have ever felt so relieved as when I heard the news story announcing the implementation of a government backed “Do Not Call Registry.”  While its true that I have been perpetually sinking further and further in to debt, it is also true that I have by most peoples standards a good credit score.  Part of that comes from the fact that I am so far in debt.  The creditors know there’s no chance I could raise the money to pay them off quickly but I always make timely payments.  The burden of having good credit however is that everyone wants a piece of me.  (no matter how little there is to go around)  Prior to the do not call registry’s inception  I was plagued by telemarketers.  Somtimes five or more calls could come in a single day.

The biggest problem behind the government trying to protect its people is that the real people we need protection from are still under the jurisdiction of that same government.  After my number became permanent into the do not call registry, calls almost stopped.  At its onset the program allowed people to report abusive telemarketers and they would be fined for calling someone they shouldn’t be.  I really liked that feeling of security.  When I did get the occasional call I took great pleasure in informing the turd on the other end of the line that he had just made a huge mistake and that I was logging the time of his call.  I took even more pleasure in actually reporting the calls knowing that a proactive person like me could really teach these bull marketers a lesson.

It had been at least a year since the last time I got a call obtrusive enough to merit reporting when the last one that really got to me came through.  When I informed him that my number was listed on the do not call registry, the dung pile who called me had the nerve to tell me that his organization was exempt from the progam due to its charter and that they could call whomever he wanted.  I wish businesses would wise up.  If I go so far as to regster my name I DON”T WANT YOU TO CALL ME.  IT DOESN”T MATTER WHO YOU THINK YOU ARE!!!.

It was as I went to report this doo doo head that I made the horrific discovery.  Over the past year or so the do not call registry has been bastardized.  No longer the thing of beauty it once was it is now the redheaded stepchild nobody wants.  All of the enforcement that once protected us consumers is now depleted.  Instead of promising to follow up with my telemarketer complaint and fine the offender, they simply keep the complaints as “statistical data” that law enforcement could potentially use in a serious harassment case.  Just imagine trying to prove “harassment” by way of telephone marketing calls…  Furthermore they have managed to slip in an amendment to exepmpt non-profit organizations.  I’ll say it again.  WHEN I LISTED MY NAME IT WAS BECAUSE I DIDN”T WANT UNEXPECTED PHONE CALLS.  IT DOESN”T MATTER WHO YOU ARE, YOUR CALL IS NOT WELCOME!!!

A year ago my phone was silent.  No more than one call a week from a friend or family member.  I’m now back to getting a few calls a week from people asking me to buy tickets to a fundraiser or support my local firefighters.  BTW, to dispell the myth, those people collecting mony for the firefighters are not actually giving the money to the firefighters.  By donating you are not supporting a good cause.  I watched a local news story on it, and in most cases over 90% of the money they collect goes to the telemarketing company and less than 10% makes it to the charity you think you are donating it to.

Its obvious that the only thing these marketers understand is what hits them in the pocketbook.  Its also become obvious that the governtment is to impersonal to really help us little guys out.  There will always be some elected camel dropping who feels its appropriate to amend a pefectly good very effectve law to poke a few loopholes in it in exchange for a campaign kickback.  After all, nobody is ever really going to know who it was that made it ok for telemarkers to start harassing us again.   

I can’t depend on people ever getting smart enough to stop giving money to telemarketers.  There will always be some elderly woman who will actually believe she is donating to poor familys of firefighters who aren’t getting paid enough.  Thats what our taxes pay for people, If they weren’t getting paid enough there would be a shortage of firefighters because they would find other jobs.  In turn the shortage would prompt people to be willing to pay a higher tax rate to get more.  Its a self balancing system. The only thing that will ever really stop the telemarketers is outside of the realm of reality.  Thats for people to wise up.

Anyhow the reason or idea behind my blog post today was to make a suggestion to other people like me who simply don’t want to recieve incoming calls from businesses.  The next time you get a call don’t tell the marketer you are not interested.  Don’t tell them anything.  Say “hold on, I have to get my baby out of the tub,” or “The food is burning, let me turn off the stove.”  Set down the phone and go back to watching tv or whatever you were doing.  Make an effot to keep the guy on the phone for as long as possible and NEVER give them anything for their call.  If the calling company has to pay this guy ten bucks an hour, for every six minutes of his time you waste, you’ve cost them a dollar.  If we are proactive enough we can make it too expensive for it to be worth them calling us back. 

If you have the time to spare, listen to their whole speech.  Act interested.  Keep them on the phone as long as possible, then give them a made up credit card number or tell them you’ve changed your mind.  You can even hang up half way through giving them your bogus payment information.  I’d love to hear everyones ideas on other ways to waste a telemaketer’s time.  There are a few good ones here.

I know it seems like I’m going a bit overboard and nobody should be this upset about an unwanted call or two.  The real heart of the problem stems from the fact that I used to work graveyard shift.  Telemarketers target my house between four and eight in the afternoon because that is when they expect most people to be at home with time to talk.  For me that means they ring the phone and wake me up during my beauty rest.  I get a bit irate when I don’t get my rest, and it gets worse when I find out the reason I didn’t get my rest is because some donky face I don’t even know felt he had a right to deprive me of it.