From: Salvo Arione or Debra Maggiora
To: FTC.SERIUS("tsr@ftc.gov")
Date: Thu, Jan 24, 2002 2:01 AM
Subject: Comments on proposed changes to the Telemarketing Sales Rule (no-call-list)
 

The current Telemarketing Sales Rules (TSR) do not work. I regularly receive telemarketing calls from the same source, have to ask repeatedly for a name and company representation, and I always open my comment with "place me on your no-call list". The callers do "spook" however when I point out that they are the second or third call from their company and they had been explicitly told to "place me on the no-call list". They usually hang up--with no evidence that my wish has been compiled with. Others call back to initiate a "social telephone contact" (not sales related). I purchase the telephone service for my convenience, I am not paying to provide access to my personal time by unauthorized strangers. They inconvenience me when I must screen all calls, to avoid those solicitors.

The Proposed National "Do Not Call" Registry

Under the FTC's proposed change to the TSR, a consumer would be able to call a toll-free number to place their phone number on a national "do not call" registry. Once your number is on the registry, it would be illegal for a telemarketer to call it.

• Comment: Very good, but for what period of time? Will I have to re-register periodically like I do now to prevent unwanted junk (paper) mail? (I find this a nuisance--to continually re-register.)

Telemarketers would be required to "scrub" their lists, removing the numbers of all consumers who placed themselves on the national "do not call" registry. The FTC would manage the registry.

• Comment: Very good. Important to have regressive "clean up", otherwise businesses would claim they "grandfathered in" consumer's names or buy existing lists from other companies--names acquired before no-call registry took effect.

Placing your number on the "do not call" registry would stop most, but not all, telemarketing calls. Certain businesses are exempt from the TSR, and thus can still call you even if you place your number on the registry - including common carriers (such as long-distance phone companies and airlines) and insurance companies operating under state regulations. Also, according to the proposal, an individual company would be allowed to call you, even if you placed your number on the registry, as long as you gave the company your express verifiable authorization to do so - for example, by giving them written permission to call you.

• Comment: Bad loophole. Why are long-distance phone, airline insurance companies exempt? Phone companies are the most annoying of telemarketing representatives--calling the most often, often the most rude, and at inconvenient times. How can TSR be amended to include this category?

• Comment: The "permission" clause is good. Need to have those companies which are authorized by consumer be able to make the contact.

a.. How long should a telephone number remain on the national "do not call" registry? COMMENT: Forever. If a time limit is imposed, then devise a way (email?) to notify consumer 30 days before expiration that the protection this rule provides is being disabled, but allow for option to opt-in to the registry again.

b.. Who should be permitted to request that a telephone number be placed on the "do not call" registry? Should requests from the line subscriber's spouse or adult child be permitted? COMMENT: The name in which the telephone is listed should be allowed to list any names associated with that telephone number. The person who pays the bills/owns the number, owns the access rights.

c.. Should third parties (outside the FTC) be permitted to collect and forward requests to be put on the "do not call" registry? COMMENT: What does this mean? How would it be invoked? Please provide examples of this situation. For now, I'll assume this is a request to consider "outsourcing" the task to a third party--someone to collect the lists for the FTC. ABSOLUTELY NOT. Third party hosting comes with a pile of headaches. If this was the intent of the question, and you would like a list of specific issues associated with use of third party sites, PLEASE CONTACT ME.

d.. What security measures are appropriate and necessary to ensure that only those people who want to place their telephone numbers on the "do not call" registry can do so? Should consumers be able to verify that their numbers have been placed on the registry? If so, how? COMMENT: This is a difficult one. A truly secure process would be costly to implement. There must be some way to embed a string of numbers in a person's telephone bill (a string which would change slightly on each bill) and when the request is made, the FTC provides a "challenge question" which requires not only the telephone number to be provided, but various parts of that string from a current billing statement (randomly different each time a new caller calls in or sends email or fills out web form). If the challenge doesn't receive the expected response, name is not accepted. (I assume here that FTC has access to telephone records.)

e.. Should the "do not call" registry be an "all or nothing" option or should it instead allow consumers to specify the days or time of day that they are willing to accept telemarketing calls? COMMENT: I want "all or nothing". Why should the FTC collect names which can then be used/shared within time of day? That creates overhead for FTC, and circumvents the intent of these rules--which I'm not willing to pay for. Let each business entice me with ads in stores, newspapers, web sites, good old paper phone books, word-of-mouth-reputation ... and if I want their product, I know where to find them and make the contact myself.