| Comment Number: | 525547-00039 |
| Received: | 11/1/2006 7:23:42 PM |
| Organization: | Valley Technology Consultants |
| Commenter: | Jeff Monion |
| State: | CA |
| Subject: | Telemarketing Sales Rule |
| Title: | Request for Public Comment |
| CFR Citation: | 16 CFR Part 310 |
| No Attachments |
Comments:
Gentlemen, Regarding " “TSR Prerecorded Call Prohibition and Call Abandonment Standard Modification, Project No. R411001." I would like to ask that the proposal, as currently written, be revised to not include outbound IVR systems which meet the following criteria: 1.) Where there is an existing business relationship with the client. It would be useful to have some provisions to prevent abuse of this clause, such as disallowing the sale of the client relationship to affiliate parties. 2.) Where the IVR system has the ability to let the client opt-out with or without speaking to a representative. This opt-out would block ANY further attempt to contact the client with the exception of postal mail. Blocking irresponsible - and illegal - "voice blasting" operations is an appropriate and admirable goal. Full prosecution of these operations might eliminate the need for this rule entirely. However, legitimate operators of these systems already abide by these rules, and their offers are generally well received by their clients or they would not be continuing with these programs. My feeling, shared by many others in the industry, is that this rule is overly broad. Of course we are also concerned that having played by the rules all along, we will now see our very livelihood destroyed while the irresponsible operators who this rule is aimed at will likely continue to operate. Shady operators will continue to ignore regulations as they do currently, while many legitimate operators and their clients pay the price. This rule, as written, will also have the unintended effect of generating thousands of calls originating from overseas call centers to meet the human caller requirement. Now, instead of a system which allows clients to quickly and permanently opt-out with a single button press, you will see live agents with bad English heckling called parties from a script. This impact alone makes it imperative that the rule be reconsidered. I urge that the public comment time for this rule be extended, and that the final version makes a distinction between message broadcasting and true IVR, as well as preserving the current allowance for existing relationships between legitimate business concerns and their valued clients. Thank you for the opportunity to comment on this issue.