| Comment Number: | OL-102857 |
| Received: | 11/28/2004 1:22:24 AM |
| Organization: | |
| Commenter: | Love |
| State: | PA |
| Subject: | Trade Regulation Rule on Telemarketing Sales |
| Title: | Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, Request for Comment |
| CFR Citation: | 16 CFR Part 310 |
| No Attachments |
Comments:
Pre-recorded telemarketing calls are the most heinous marketing method ever devised. I was recently plagued by numerous calls asking for my vote for our state's Attorney General's race. Needless to say, I did not vote for that candidate. It is bad enough that political candidates have been given a free pass to make these sort of calls, but at least they are ended once the election is over. To open it up to telemarketers all year long is unconscionable. These calls cannot be stopped, even if you pick up the receiver and hang up mid-message, they keep on going. If you have an emergency where every second may count, your phone is tied up with no way to stop it. There is no person on the other end to take down your request not to be called again, which is perhaps the most egregious aspect of pre-recorded calls. They give no option to opt out of being harrassed. To allow this exception to the do not call list is opening up the phone system to the same sort of spamming that is such a huge, seemingly unstoppable problem now on the internet. The telemarketers have no rights which supercede the phone owners right to privacy and their right to not be harrassed in their own homes. We do not pay for phone service (including numerous federal, state and local taxes, fees, etc.) so that telemarketers can invade our homes and disrupt our lives.