| Comment Number: | OL-111829 |
| Received: | 12/22/2004 12:14:52 PM |
| Organization: | |
| Commenter: | Dieter Zumsande |
| State: | CT |
| Subject: | Trade Regulation Rule on Telemarketing Sales |
| Title: | Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, Request for Comment |
| CFR Citation: | 16 CFR Part 310 |
| No Attachments |
Comments:
This is a really bad idea. It defeats the purpose of a no call list. I do not want unsolicited calls regardless if the caller is known to me or not. No calls mean no calls - a pre-recorded message is still a call, and just as annoying as someone bothering me. A better alternative that would be to allow people to "opt in" to telemarketing calls. In other words, the customer could somehow communicate to the vendor that he or she wishes to be contacted via telemarketing phone calls. A similar set-up already exists on the Internet, where a consumer can specify that they would like to receive marketing material or other information via email. Unless someone "opts in" voluntarily, they should not be disturbed if they've already registered on the do not call list. How ironic that the list of people who have signed up for do not call are now themselves a telemarketing target list. At a minimum, I believe many people feel betrayed. A more onerous result of this type of legislation is that the general public will feel even more distrustful of the government than before. This will be preceived as intrusive and violating people's privacy. When we signed up for this service, we did not expect to become part of a database that would be provided to outside telemarketing firms or other organizations. Actually, the notion of providing this list to third-parties seems illegal. No doubt lawsuits will spring up if this bad idea makes it to a vote.