Comment Number: OL-113864
Received: 1/10/2005 3:16:40 PM
Organization:
Commenter: Wendy Goerl
State: WI
Subject: Trade Regulation Rule on Telemarketing Sales
Title: Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, Request for Comment
CFR Citation: 16 CFR Part 310
No Attachments

Comments:

Automated calling is fine if used to deliver requested information to a consenting party. However, too many businesses assume a single business transaction between customer and business (or a business's "marketing partners") constitutes "consent." I have personally received calls from third-party "marketing partners" of business I EXPLICITLY DENIED permission to contact me by phone YEARS after I ceased dealing with them. When I was in college, a certain phone company REPEATEDLY called me (or rather, the person who had occupied my room more than five years before) to "change my long-distance server" despite my explaining to them that the phone number they were calling was property of a non-profit institution, was not set up to allow long-distance calling, and I had no control over what company serviced it. Relying on telemarketing companies to maintain do-not-call lists is worse than asking the fox to guard the henhouse, and allowing automated broadcasting will defeat the entire purpose of creating the DNC list in the first place.