Well there you go, Canada has finally decided to join the 21st - make that 20th - century by starting a National do not call list. It will be available in September and you will have to register every three years...
From the website:Telemarketers will not be allowed to call you, and as a result, you should receive fewer unsolicited calls. Calls made on behalf of organizations or made for certain purposes as listed below, are exempt from the National DNCL rules:
- registered charities;
- political parties;
- nomination contestants, leadership contestants or candidates of a political party;
- opinion polling firms or market research firms conducting surveys when the call does not involve the sale of a product or service;
- general circulation newspapers calling for the purpose of selling a subscription;
- to a consumer who has an existing business relationship with the organization; and to business consumers.
Now is it just me or is this going to change pretty much nothing at all? Because I don't know about you folks, but I don't usually get many calls from John Doe who wants to wash my carpets. Or even the guy with the great investment opportunity.Most of the really annoying telemarketing calss I get are from - you guessed it - newspapers, polling firms and organizations with whom I already have a busines relationship, i.e. phone service, internet and cable providers as well as the bank who all find various wonderful reasons to call me at supper to offer me these incredible deals on services I neither have nor want.
"Because ma'am you really really need this service!!!!!!"
I'm thinkin' probably not. Most of the time when I really really need something, I can figure it out for myself.
Maybe I'm just being deliberately cynical, but I don't think the calls will diminish all that much.
Of course I will register, just to see how efficient this list is.
I'll get back to you on that.
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23 comments:
ever heard of this guy? he's got some great techniques to fight 'em too...
http://tommabe.com/
At last: phone-free dinners. Although I'm sure "they" will find a way to disturb us. Great cartoons.
FuBall: that Mabe guy sounds hilarious. Love the bit when he started calling telemarketers in their hotel room at 3am during their convention. Sweet revenge indeed.
It has made a huge difference in our phone calls. We get far fewer calls now. You said:
...with whom I already have a busines relationship, i.e. phone service, internet and cable providers as well as the bank who all find various wonderful reasons to call me at supper to offer me these incredible deals on services I neither have nor want.
Well we get calls from people we do business with offering what we already have! How stupid is that? I am always saying stuff like, "We've been getting this paper for 10 years! Don't you guys keep records?"
lol, we had call blocking at the last house. This number is brand new so no one has it yet.
Hey lil sister, I had the same thoughts as you. This list really doesn't do much for us. You should really get no unsolicited calls whatsoever. We should be allowed to charge them for the use of our time and telephone line. What will happen if we complain, probably not much of anything, it's like spam, illegal but we still get loads of it.
I usually look at the number that's calling and if I don't know it I just don't answer, they can leave a message. Also if you do pick up and there is a pause with nothing at the other end, it's because it's a computer and they are transferring you to a live person. I usually say hello and it there is no answer, I quickly hang up... So if you call to my place you had better talk fast...;o)
Fuball - I checked it out. Love it!!!
Mr. J - Phone free dinners in your dreams...
Geewits - when they call me for newspaper or magazine subscriptions, I always ask if they have a braille version. I love the sound of their voice when they think I'm blind. Lots of them apologize profusely. I love messing with them.
Hagelrat - Give 'em a couple of weeks.
BB - I let the machine pick up all the time. People know to talk and we'll answer. And yeah, I do the "cut off the computer" thing too.
I keep getting calls for services that are useless for an apartment, like duct work, new roofing, alarm systems, putting a sign on my front lawn. I also like to mess with their heads sometimes. The last time was for a garage door opener. Yes, I gave them my address. We made an appointment. Never actually saw the guy. Damn.
I'm lucky that I don't get too many calls anymore since I switched to cell phone. Most of the marketer calls are from my bank trying to sell me a product (I had lots of fun with them once lol) or the little red company. I now tell them once politely, twice less polite, then I hang up :)
Strangely enough I'm getting less and less calls now... wonder why?
The beauty of Caller ID is that I just don't pick up and they never leave messages. What burns me is the unsolicited faxes I get in my office from people offering to sell me insurance, buy my business, and so on. Those faxes cost me and waste paper. They need a DO Not Fax list.
Just like you, I'll register, though I am also as skeptical as you about it. I mean, this is Canada, after all, the country that makes the world safe from assholes because we seem to invited them in to join the ones already in residence.
On you last posting I noted how much you will love Palm Springs.
Oh, it make a big difference for us here! Do it!
It only sort of worked for me. Calls tapered off for a while, then the phone company started offering TV and call all the time to get me to buy that. I keep telling them to call my landlord so they can set up a dish, but they won't.
I'll be curious, too, for your updates. It did make a difference some years back when I signed up. But since then, I think they're back on my scent.
It helps minimize the calls but plenty of them still get through. Every call that comes in on my landline is screened through the machine. Fortunately, telemarketing isn't allowed on cell phones. Yet.
~*
Really, what a joke this no-call thing is once you read the fine print.
Scary thing is, it seems to pay.
I was offered a job of telemarketer once. I refused out of dignity, and because I find telemarketing unsufferable. In Montreal, they were a plague.
Hey Jazz, we receive too many calls of this nature but I doubt if there will be much change.. they should have done it years ago... There always seems to be a loophole for them to jump through...
I used to be a telemarketer...DON'T BLACKBALL ME!!
But I found a trick that works during dinner:
You answer and say "sure, hang on just a second"...and put the phone down, then go to finish your dinner like nothing happened.
Eventually, after dinner, I check and they're always gone.
Quite lame actually. Just once I'd like to find a dedicated enough telemarketer that stays on the phone the entire time.
I totally would listen to her after that!
Being deaf has its advantages.
Violet - you evil woman you...
UA - Are they allowed to telemarket to cell phones?
Citizen - Ah, the junk mail faxes... We get tons of those at the office.
Ian - We're going between Christmas and New Years - Any chance you and Wendy will be there then?
Wendy - I'll definitely do it.
Tick - I hate the phone company.
Jocelyn - I think you have to re-register every couple of years.
Chani - We have the answering machine on at all times too.
XUP - It's all a joke. Sort of like the "for your convenience we're now open 2 less hours every day" letters the bank or utility companies always send.
Joe - Scary yes.
Guillaume - I sort of pity the poor people who work for the telemarketing companies. It must be hell as jobs go, being told off all the time by "potential customers"
Gwen - what's a rule without a loophole...
TG - I often act like I can't hear them "Hello, Hello!" then say, "damn another crank call!" and hang up.
Rachel - Indeed! LOL
such hilarious comics. I've gotten to the point where I don't care how mean I seem or how much I'm cutting them off. I pick up, say hi, and then almost immediately follow with "sorry, not interested". I should stop saying sorry, eh?
Yup, I think it works. I don't get a lot of the calls I used to get.
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