Comment Number: OL-104371
Received: 11/29/2004 10:24:27 AM
Organization:
Commenter: Mark Kirk
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:

Please reject this proposed amendment. The "Do Not Call List" will rapidly lose its value if exceptions are made to it. A person signing up for this list expects that it will act just as its title states, as a list forbidding marketing calls. If a person starts receiving calls under this proposed amendment then trust in the list (and the FTC as its keeper) will be damaged. This is simply the market at work, just as people have the right not to be forced to buy a certain product they also have the right not to be forced to receive an unwanted act (a sales pitch in this case). If the Direct Marketing Assoc. is troubled by this then the problem is with their "product" (sales pitches), not the Do Not Call List. If people wanted to be interrupted at random times during the day by strangers to listen to a sales pitch they wouldn't have signed up for the Do Not Call List in the first place. If the FCC must make an allowance then only those companies that have specific written permission from a customer may contact them. They may not include 3rd parties in the agreement nor require such an agreement for goods or services. Such an agreement may not contain any enticement such as cash, goods, or services. Customers may negate this permission at any time.