Comment Number: OL-100109
Received: 11/20/2004 9:11:03 PM
Organization:
Commenter: Camille Rofrano
State: NY
Subject: Trade Regulation Rule on Telemarketing Sales
Title: Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, Request for Comment
CFR Citation: 16 CFR Part 310
No Attachments

Comments:

I am absolutely opposed to the plan to allow telemarketers to make robocalls to customers with whom a company has an established business relationship. The purchase of an item, whether it is a box of detergent or a complete home theater system, hardly constitutes a relationship. It's simply a purchase. The FTC is overstepping its boundaries in trying to decide with whom I choose to have a business relationship. If I choose to receive phone calls from a company from whom I've made a purchase, I am quite capable of giving them my phone number and inviting them to call. I don't need the FTC to declare open season on me, regardless of my past purchasing decisions. I pay to have a home phone for my personal convenience and safety, not as a tool to stimulate free enterprise. Right now, I receive email alerts from some selected companies. I can read the email at my convenience or simply delete it unread. This allows me some control over my time and protects my privacy. Allowing telemarketers to call me at their whim removes the elements of convenience and protection for me. Before the Do Not Call list was implemented, I was besieged by relentless telemarketers of every ilk. As a result, I implemented a personal policy of never, ever, doing business with anyone who made an unsolicited call to my home. As a matter of principle, I simply will not purchase anything from telemarketers or the companies that employ them , and I don't care what it is or how good the price is. Advertising is like pollution -- it's everywhere. We don't need more of it, we need less. The prospect of a government and its agencies that holds commerce as its highest priority is at best disappointing, and at worst sickeningly frightening.