| Comment Number: | OL-110709 |
| Received: | 12/18/2004 8:18:34 PM |
| Organization: | |
| Commenter: | David Kohn |
| State: | FL |
| Subject: | Trade Regulation Rule on Telemarketing Sales |
| Title: | Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, Request for Comment |
| CFR Citation: | 16 CFR Part 310 |
| No Attachments |
Comments:
Don't do it. I and 62 million other people didn't sign up for the do-not-call list so solicitors could keep calling. Letting companies call us with a machine is an intrusion on our lives and really cheap for them. Letting consumers opt out after they've been solicited only means the burden is on us to stop these people. That's not right. The burden for butting out of my phone life, and that of the 62 million other people who signed up for this list, should be on the companies. Consumers signed up for the do-not call list so companies wouldn't be soliciting them or interrupting their dinner with ads. Consumers signed up for the list so they'd be left alone. So force the comanies to do exactly that: leave all of us alone. What you really should instead of letting the companies slip in the back door with taped messages is to create a rigid and airtight definition of "pre-existing relationship." If a consumer hasn't bought something from a company, there is no relationship. An inquiry does not a relationship make. Tell companies that unless people have forked over money, there is no pre-existing relationship and they cannot solicit people over the phone. Period. Give the 62 million people who signed up for this list keep the privacy they expect. Tell the companies that unless money has changed hands, a consumer's phones are off-limits and law enforcement will be all over the companies' backs for intruding on our lives.