Comment Number: OL-101516
Received: 11/27/2004 6:43:37 PM
Organization: citizen
Commenter: Ben Mazzotta
State: MA
Subject: Trade Regulation Rule on Telemarketing Sales
Title: Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, Request for Comment
CFR Citation: 16 CFR Part 310
No Attachments

Comments:

Dear Sir or Madam, The proposed language is a gross violation of the spirit of the "Do Not Call" regulation. "allow telemarketing calls that deliver a prerecorded message to consumers with whom the seller on whose behalf the calls are made has an established business relationship." Private citizens have indicated their unwillingness to bear the burden of unsolicited phone calls. Neither the existence of the "established business relationship" nor the recorded nature of the message should trump the citizens' wishes. Citizens' time is valuable. It is a crime to send junk faxes, on the grounds that it entails stealing from the fax recipient. In the case of phone calls, citizens' time, and not their paper, is at issue. For the vast majority of citizens, it is their time which is the most valuable. Please do not water down the consumer protections already enacted into law. I'll be sure to write to my Congressman and bring this issue to his attention. Best wishes, BM