Pulling the plug on the pesky telemarketers: It can be done
By Libby Wells • Bankrate.com

They've become the leading household pest -- calling early on your day off, and interrupting work, play and meal times to sell everything from burial plots to credit cards.

Curses and threats don't faze them. Telemarketers take a drubbing and keep on dialing.

Their chutzpah is paying off. The Direct Marketing Association, a trade group with 4,600 member businesses, estimates that Americans spent $230 billion last year on goods and services sold over the phone.

"Consumers do respond when it's in their interest," says spokesman Chet Dalzell. "It's been going on for years in the credit card industry and now energy and utilities are starting to jump in."

Deregulation opened the doors
One reason telemarketing is mushrooming is deregulation. The breaking up of businesses lowers the barriers for competition, which means companies must find faster, cheaper ways of selling stuff. "In the 1970s and '80s sending people out on the road got wildly expensive," Dalzell says.

So companies took to the telephone. Ten years ago, there were an estimated 300,000 telemarketers. Today, there are about 2.3 million.

But as their ranks swell, so does the number of people who are fed up with unwanted sales calls from script-reading reps who can't pronounce your name correctly.

A Burlington, Mass., business, essential.com, is polling its Web site visitors on telemarketing. The survey is a promotional tool, but the results seem to mirror most folks' opinion of sales-by-phone.

Asked how telemarketing calls make them feel, more than 2 million respondents -- or 88 percent -- said "furious." When do these calls annoy them the most? "Anytime," 97 percent said. The rest of the polltakers said it bothers them at dinnertime and on weekends.

"Time is money and if you're a small business and you have people annoying you at home, it costs you money," says Steve Thomas, spokesman for essential.com, which sells utilities, Internet access and online bill-paying services to small businesses and consumers.

The Web is rife with anti-telemarketing sentiment. Sites such as Junkbusters and Don't Annoy Me are full of tips, tricks and venom. Then there's the Telemarketing Scum Page, written by a guy who claims he has foiled the calling centers' voice-recognition technology by recording his dog's bark on the answering machine.

Gadgets to do the job
There are plenty of gadgets for sale, too. Some require that callers enter passwords. Others -- such as Radio Shack's Hang-Up Announcement Module -- let you record a nice, or nasty, announcement. When an unwanted call comes in, you touch a button, your message is delivered and the device terminates the call.

But the most effective weapon against intrusive solicitations isn't a mechanical product, a smart-alecky comeback, a slam-bam of the receiver or a house pet. It's the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, a law enacted by Congress in 1991 and implemented by the Federal Communications Commission the following year.

Most people aren't familiar with this powerful shield. Ninety-six percent of essential.com's 2 million-plus survey-takers answered "no" when asked whether they knew of the rule.

What works
Consumers who exercise their rights under this act can reduce residential solicitations to a trickle. The nut of it is the "do-not-call" rule. It's simple, effective and easy to remember. The next time a tele-peddler phones your home, take a breath and say:

"I do not want to receive solicitations. Please place this number on your do-not-call list, in accordance with the Telephone Consumer Protection Act."

The telemarketer is required to keep a record of the request and refrain from dialing your number for 10 years. If the jingle comes from a calling center that sells for more than one company -- and some of them have dozens of clients -- a do-not-call order should apply to every entity it represents.

In addition, the rule forbids calls to your home before 8 a.m. or after 9 p.m. local time; computerized or pre-recorded voice calls, and unsolicited advertisements sent to your fax machine.

The TCPA does not prohibit solicitations from nonprofit groups, political campaigns, government agencies or polling organizations.

The law has some teeth
States are empowered to take civil action against companies that break the law. The fine is $500 for every violation, or the amount of your actual loss, whichever is greater.

"We don't advocate litigating, but it's nice to know we have a law with some teeth in it," says Jodi Beebe, the hot line director for the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse in San Diego.

More than half of the telemarketing companies that consumers complained about last year are located in California, Florida and New York, according to the National Consumers League.

At the same time they are patiently giving telemarketers their marching orders, consumers can supplement the effort by writing to the DMA's Telephone Preference Service and asking to be removed from its call roster.

"The DMA and the Telephone Consumer Protection Act are really the primary ways at this point to get off those lists," says Beebe.

The Direct Marketing Association's subscribers include telemarketing companies who mine the organization's consumer information storehouse.

"About 75 to 80 percent of national telemarketing lists go through our database," notes Dalzell. "Our subscribers are telemarketing agencies calling on behalf of five clients to 50 clients."

Every three months, Dalzell says, the DMA sends its don't-call list to organizations across the country. "In three to six months, you'll see an effect at your home," he says.

Requests must be made in writing and are good for five years. About 3 million Americans subscribe to the Telephone Preference Service.

The state route
Some states also maintain quit-calling lists, but they usually charge a fee. Florida's Division of Consumer Service, for example, charges $10, and $5 to renew each year.

But maybe you don't feel like writing letters or reciting federal law, and are willing to pay for peace and quiet. You might be a candidate for the Phone Butler, an invention inspired by personal experience.

Attorney Ken Jursinski was on the horn to Europe, about to close a high-dollar deal, when a call came through on another line. It was one of them, trying to sell stocks and bonds.

Jursinski told the tele-pest he had an overseas call on hold. Undaunted, the salesman said, "That's what the hold button is for."

"I got really hot," says Jursinski, who has since retired. Shortly after, the Phone Butler was born. The $49.95 device is "half the size of a deck of cards," he says, and plugs into the phone jack.

When a telemarketer rings, the answerer hits the star key. The Butler graciously declines the inquiry, asks that the number be placed on the do-not-call list and hangs up.

"I get a smile on my face because I know it's being taken care of politely," says Jursinski. "It's sweet revenge, not the negative kind."

He's had calls from several telemarketing firms wanting to sell the popular product. His answer: "No, thanks." Click.

-- Posted: May 15, 2000