FTC Do Not Call registry goes live

[Jason McCullough]

Finally (http://www.donotcall.gov/). It only took, what, 30 years of loud complaints?

[Lunch of Kong]

Yeah, but trying to sign up for the do-not-call list is WORSE than signing up for Star Wars galaxies. The do not call list web server is either dead or dying.

[Joe O'Malley]

I've been at it since 8 am this morning. Finally got my confirmation email an hour ago, but can't get into the link provided to finish registering.

Were's the conspiracy theorists around here? I bet there could be a consiracy where all the telemarketers have conspiratorily conspired to slam the site so that regular folks can't use it.

Either that or they've already figured out a crack to harvest all the email addresses from it :roll:

[Supertanker]

I signed up our home and cell phone numbers late last night. I figured most of the east coast was sleeping & that would be my best chance. It was very fast. :P

[Tyjenks]

1,000/sec. are registering. They are constantly adding servers and re-configuring as we speak according to the governemnt spokesman.

Can somebody get their number and post it in an SWG thread or email it to Raph?

P.S. I still cannot access the site.

[Jason McCullough]

Hah, I did it last night. Suckers!

[Tyjenks]

Hah, I did it last night. Suckers!

Just got in for home, but here at work, the telemarketers must be trying to get them all under the wire. In the last hour I have received 8 calls regarding my long distance svc. and yellow pages ads. No kidding.

[Rywill]

I vaguely remember reading that there was a concern that registering could actually make things worse for you--that foreign-based telemarketing cos would harvest the phone numbers, or that your email would attract spam. Is that stuff not true?

[Gary Whitta]

I put myself on the list. I hope it works. Burn in hell, you telemarketing fucks!

Let's hear from Bill Hicks again, shall we, boys and girls?

"By the way, if anyone here is in advertising or marketing, kill yourself. Thank you, thank you. Just a little thought. I'm just trying to plant seeds. Maybe one day they'll take root. I don't know. You try. You do what you can. Kill yourselves. Seriously though, if you are, do. No really, there's no rationalization for what you do, and you are Satan's little helpers, OK? Kill yourselves, seriously. You're the ruiner of all things good. Seriously, no, this is not a joke. 'There's gonna be a joke coming...' There's no fucking joke coming, you are Satan's spawn, filling the world with bile and garbage, you are fucks and you are fucking us, kill yourselves, it's the only way to save your fucking soul. Kill yourself, kill yourself, kill yourself now. Now, back to the show."

[Robert Sharp]

My wife signed us up. I just wish it worked for ALL telemarketers. Many use random dialing and stuff and others have not agreed to follow this list. suxors. We need laws against telemarketing!

[Jason McCullough]

You can sue the ones that refuse to follow (or hand it off to the state) for like 10k a pop. It's not voluntary.

[Robert Sharp]

You can sue the ones that refuse to follow (or hand it off to the state) for like 10k a pop. It's not voluntary.

Are you sure about that? Do you have a link or anything that supports that? Also, how would you go about doing that? I could use the extra money, and I would love to get them to see that they need to stop calling me.

[Jason McCullough]

Pre-do not call list you could sue for something like $350 a pop (Junkbusters.com has a lot of stuff). I'm not sure if you can still do that, but all the media reports insist they've got an $11,000 fine coming every time they violate the list (subject to exceptions for charities and whatnot).

[Mark Asher]

Do pollsters and people who just want to give me information count as telemarketers? The last few days I've been getting calls from people who "don't want to sell me anything" but want to ask me questions about products and give me information about auto insurance rates.

[DennyA]

Check out the info on the page, Mark. It has a FAQ. The insurance industry and pollsters (along with - ugh - long distance companies and a few others) are among those exempt from the registry. It's companies not covered by the FTC that are still allowed, apparently.

There's an FCC proposal in the works right now to extend the DNC registry to include many non-FTC-regulated industries as well. I need to find out the details on this so we can spread the word that folks need to push the FCC to pass that.

[Robert Sharp]

Check out the info on the page, Mark. It has a FAQ. The insurance industry and pollsters (along with - ugh - long distance companies and a few others) are among those exempt from the registry. It's companies not covered by the FTC that are still allowed, apparently.

There's an FCC proposal in the works right now to extend the DNC registry to include many non-FTC-regulated industries as well. I need to find out the details on this so we can spread the word that folks need to push the FCC to pass that.

That's what I thought. There are a lot of exemptions. I think charities are also exempt. Most of the people we are listing here on the ones that call me all the time. It looks like the only thing this list will solve, at least in my case, is the call for credit cards and possibly loan consolidations.

[DennyA]

Dammit. Stupid courts. (www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0924Telemarketing-ON.html)

[Moore]

heh, and guess what? the telemarkerters have the list. So now they have a list of last-chance numbers they can call, to cram in the sales in case the final decision isnt in their favor.

[Jason McCullough]

I stopped all telemarketing a while back by canceling my landline and switching to cell only. More expensive, but it works.

[Bullhajj]

I stopped all telemarketing a while back by canceling my landline and switching to cell only. More expensive, but it works.

Until they get your cell phone number. I've got one once. And then you realize you had to pay for the call, you get really pissed.

[Jason McCullough]

Oh, I got a followup poll question from Pizza Hut (twice!!!! those fuckers), but that was it.

[Alan Au]

Until they get your cell phone number. I've got one once. And then you realize you had to pay for the call, you get really pissed.
I thought cell-phone telemarketing was a big no-no, mostly due to the "callee pays for air-time" bit. (?)

- Alan

[Jason McCullough]

That's true, but if you think about it the cell/landline distinction is really stupid. What, is my time worth absolutely nothing?

[Rywill]

Since you lose your time in either case, how is that a distinction? Put another way, getting a call on landline = lose the value of your time, getting a call on a cell phone = lose the same time value plus lose actual money out of your bank account. One is obviously worse than the other.

[Jason McCullough]

If you want to get *really* technical, all those increased land line calls require more capital outlays for the phone company, which either increases your basic phone service bill or increases the price of long-distance calls (which subsidizes basic phone service). Cell phone companies are effectively just charging you for capital outlays, maintenance, and service with a small profit margin tacked on; same for land lines.

The money has to show up somewhere. :D

[Anders Hallin]

Wait a minute, why do you have to pay for when people call your cell phone?

[Moore]

You have to pay for all the time you use on your cell phone usually (in the US) no matter if the call is outgoing or incoming.

I hate cell phones, I'll NEVER have one again.


(Unless they stop charging data calls seperately, bluetooth enabled phone in my pocket + pocket pc in hand would be too cool to pass up if it wasn't forty bajillion dollars per microsecond.)

[Anders Hallin]

You have to pay for all the time you use on your cell phone usually (in the US) no matter if the call is outgoing or incoming.
That's completely insane.

[Jason McCullough]

You have to pay for all the time you use on your cell phone usually (in the US) no matter if the call is outgoing or incoming.

I hate cell phones, I'll NEVER have one again.


(Unless they stop charging data calls seperately, bluetooth enabled phone in my pocket + pocket pc in hand would be too cool to pass up if it wasn't forty bajillion dollars per microsecond.)

Verizon up here has a $40/month unlimited data access thing at 3G speeds.

[XPav]

You have to pay for all the time you use on your cell phone usually (in the US) no matter if the call is outgoing or incoming.
That's completely insane.

You people usually pay per minute for local calls from a land line. That's insane.

[Anders Hallin]

You people usually pay per minute for local calls from a land line. That's insane.
At least it's my choice whether to call someone or not.

[Bullhajj]

I just read where Congress just passed a bill that explicitly gives the FCC the authority to build this list. Should be on the President's desk tonight. Wow, that was fast. Looks like everythign is going to move ahead on the Oct 1 deadline.*

*Much too lazy to post a link, but I almost have >2k posts so just go with it.

[DennyA]

Damn. Looks like my suggestion to my representative to add a clause officially proclaiming the judge on the case a "National Doofus" was too late to make it into the bill.

[Midnight Son]

He no doofus, he was prolly paid off by the friggin' telemarketers.

[Damien Falgoust]

Dammit. Stupid courts. (www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0924Telemarketing-ON.html)
In the spirit of Dave Barry (www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/living/columnists/dave_barry/6649728.htm):

The judge striking down the do-not-call list on constitutional grounds is Judge Edward W. Nottingham of the Denver District Court. His office phone number, publicly available from the court's website (www.co.uscourts.gov/contact_frame.htm), is (303) 844-5018.

I suggest you call his chambers and share with him your constitutionally-protected views. Repeatedly. Preferably right around lunchtime.