What a Ding-A-Ling!

What a Ding-A-Ling! was Originally Posted on June 12, 2005 by lavarock

It is 6am on Sunday morning. and I can’t get back to sleep. It seems that someone decided to take a “survey” and call me at 5:15am.

I have reported them to the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) via their online complaint form. I can do this because I have signed all of my telephones up in the “Do Not Call Registry”, and have had them there for years. Violaters of the list can be fined $11,000 per call. HOWEVER, there are some gotchas.

The biggest one is that YOU do not get the money. People used to sue the companies and have won amounts like $500. Courts may defer now to the Federal law and database signup.

Secondly, there are certain people who are still allowed to call you, people taking a survey, charitable organizations, companies you have a ongoing relationship with (like your bank).

The fourth group of people whom Congress allows to call and harass you, is Congress itself! Yes, political organizations can call you even if you aks them not to. So those “Donate to us”, “We are having a town meeting” and “get out to vote” messages will still come through.

So as you see from the above, going to “DoNotCall dot Gov” https://www.donotcall.gov may help, it won’t eliminate all sales calls.

So how do I get to complain since supposed “survey” calls are allowed? Well, the Telemarketing Act restricts when people can call call you. (Calls cannot be initiated before 8 AM or after 9 PM in the recipient’s timezone.
) No matter what criteria they are covered under, 5:15am is NOT in the allowed timeframe!

Telemarketers claim that it is their right to call people, their “freedom of speach”, but you know, we have the freedom NOT TO LISTEN!