Comment Number: OL-113753
Received: 1/10/2005 2:09:10 PM
Organization:
Commenter: Lacie O'Daire
State: OH
Subject: Trade Regulation Rule on Telemarketing Sales
Title: Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, Request for Comment
CFR Citation: 16 CFR Part 310
No Attachments

Comments:

Pre-recorded messages are more burdensome than a live telemarketer. A person has the ability to directly tell a telemarketer that they 1) want to be removed from their list or 2) they have called a noncustomer who is on the do not call list. A prerecorded message does not allow you to directly address your desire to not be called at that number. Also, and most importantly, I have found that a person is INCAPABLE of hanging up on the precorded message...even after you hang up the phone, the message is playing...(i.e. you cannot get a dial tone to call out until the entire message is played). This is frustrating and interferes with a person's ability to make another call from their line. Additionally, if the messages get sent to voice mail or an answering machine they are long and take space away from important messages. Allowing companies to increase this method of sales is a bad idea and totally undermines the idea of the do not call list. If a person cannot communitcate directly with a telemarketer they cannot inform the company of a 'do not call' infraction, thus the company is 'unaware' that they are calling a noncustomer that is on the do not call list. how conveinient. a person who does not want to bothered by this company would have to take their valuable time to return a phone call to inform the company not to call again. i thought the do not call list was about letting people chose how to spend their phone time at home...calling telemarketers back and telling them to stop is not how i want to chose my time. Finally, an another annoyance is that these calls are often repeated ad nauseum...perhaps several times a day, week or month and you can't directly tell anyone that 1) they have called before or 2) do not call again.