| Comment Number: | OL-103713 |
| Received: | 11/28/2004 2:57:04 PM |
| Organization: | |
| Commenter: | David Porter |
| State: | MA |
| Subject: | Trade Regulation Rule on Telemarketing Sales |
| Title: | Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, Request for Comment |
| CFR Citation: | 16 CFR Part 310 |
| No Attachments |
Comments:
With respect to the exception for prerecorded telemarketing messages from entities with an 'established business relationship' to the phone's owner: I urge the commision to reject this change. Pre-recorded messages are the worst form of telemarketing. The use of such automated mechanisms allows the caller to annoy phone owners at minimal cost to themselves, whilst ensuring that the phone owner bears the burden of having to opt out of the scheme. Worse still, it is unclear to me what is really meant by "current customer" or "existing business relationship" means. Does it mean, for example, that if I wrote to Joe's Widget Company in 2003 for some product information, that Joe can now claim a business relationship with me? The telemarketing people will no doubt insist that "consumers" (sic) want to receive useful information from the telemarketers. If this is so, then they should have no objection to a genuine opt-in policy. Again, I urge the commision not to allow the regulations to be weakened for the benefit of telemarketers at the expense of the public.