| Comment Number: | OL-105441 |
| Received: | 12/1/2004 2:05:58 PM |
| Organization: | |
| Commenter: | Damon Owens |
| State: | PA |
| Subject: | Trade Regulation Rule on Telemarketing Sales |
| Title: | Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, Request for Comment |
| CFR Citation: | 16 CFR Part 310 |
| No Attachments |
Comments:
Hello, It is my understanding that the FTC is considering opening a hole in the "Do Not Call" registry to allow pre-recorded messages to be sent to people on the list as long as there is some kind of business relationship. Please don't do this thing. Ordinary experience shows that companies will stretch the definition of "pre-existing business relationship" to nonsensical, illogical and reality defying lengths. Furthermore, it is obvious that any one actual business or group of interests can use a constantly shifting screen of fronts to keep pestering people. This kind of non-sense is a fact of life, and the Do-Not-Call registry offered a little blessed relief, and it had some minor teeth to help the reluctant get the idea. Even a seemingly small hole like this will largely destroy one of the best bang-for-the-buck acts your group has done. It has brought a lot of credit to you and this kind of non-sense would take all of that away and then some. This kind of failure would be evidence of something that is worse than the ordinary malaise one expects out of a large government agency, that is actual treachery. One would be quite correct to point out that this is a rabid and emotional response, but in this citizen's view, this is exactly what is happening. Really, If the offers being pitched in these pre-recorded assaults are that good, they should have the decency to use a human. If it is actually useful, I'll probably already know about it anyway. There is a strong trend among people of a certain age to use a cellular phone as their primary if not only telephone, and to supplement that with VoIP and IM goodness. I can only assume that your group is well aware of this. Fine tuned control and convenience are two of the big reasons people are going this way. It is, therefore, obvious that anything that hurts this type of experience can only accelerate the trend. If you get any grief from the telephone companies because the proposed policy would hurt their business with tele-marketers you might point out that they will have many fewer targets if they don't behave themselves. Please keep the Do-Not-Call registry what it is, a Do-Not-Call-Me-With-Your-Idiotic-Plan-To-Take-My- Money-During-Supper list. Please act in the public interest, squash this political varmint immediately. Thank you.