DREUBEN@eagle.wesleyan.edu (Douglas Scott Reuben) (01/10/91)
Hi- John Levine recently posted a message about being called by an automatic/ recorded solicitation for a 900 number, which gave a mail-drop address but no other address to reach them at. I've had this problem myself for a few months now. It seems that someone in my local area keeps calling all the numbers in my exchange (and the other nearby local exchanges) every few weeks with a silly 900 number solicitation. One of my numbers has Call-forwarding, and they have always managed to call when my forwarding is set to some toll number! So I typed up a general letter, which more or less says that the recorded solicitations are harassing and annoying, and that I am giving them written notice to stop, and a reasonable period of time to reprogram their equipment so that I no longer receive any calls at any of my numbers. (I also mail it out registered, so I get confirmation that someone actually received the letter.) The problem was getting their actual addresses. After numerous futile efforts, I called New York Telephone's Call Annoyance Bureau. At first they told me it was something the "FCC had to investigate", and told me to call a special office at the FCC about it. When I asked for the number, the rep. said "Oh, it is a private number, we can't give it out." After pointing out how ridiculous this was, I told the rep. a number at the FCC, she said she was surprised that the FCC gave out their numbers, and said that I should thus call them. I told the rep. that this was unacceptable, and that as NY Tel was the billing agency for this 900 company (for NY Tel customers), and that NY Tel MUST be sending them a bill somewhere, and that I wanted the address that NY Tel used. She refused to give this out, so I said, "Ok, let me start over. I am getting calls that I consider harassing and annoying. Your phone book states that you can take care of these calls. So take care of them. YOU tell whoever is calling me to stop - I'll even give you a pre-typed letter that you can send them with all the details." She paused for a while, and no doubt realizing that this will mean a lot of extra work for her, said, "Ok, what are the services you wanted again?" and I read off the list of all the different 900 companies, and she just read off the billing address from the computer. All the addresses were in Nevada, but I did get the return forms in the mail from four of the five companies that I mailed to, so perhaps this will take care of the calls once they tell whoever it is around my area with the solicitation machine to try some other set of numbers (or just de-program my numbers from the machine, if such a thing is possible.) I would suggest that anyone having similar problems contact the call annoyance bureau of their local telco and approach the situation as a "call annoyance" problem, which got the right response in my case. This has also worked with SNET (who were a bit more reluctant at first), and NE Tel/Mass (who were actually very helpful and gave me the addresses right away without an argument. ) Good luck! Doug dreuben@eagle.wesleyan.edu // dreuben@wesleyan.bitnet [Moderator's Note: Maybe you could share with us the names and addresses of the ones you have located. Please? PAT]
linc@tongue1.berkeley.edu (Linc Madison) (01/17/91)
Doug Reuben wrote about getting addresses for 900 companies. I ain't no lawyer, so I can't say for sure if this applies, but... In California, it is illegal to advertise anything that asks you to send money to a P.O. Box without also giving a street address. This law as it stands probably doesn't apply to 900 companies, but a good argument could be made to your local legislator that it should be extended. (Of course, the better idea is to just outlaw ALL 900 and 976 service.) Linc Madison = linc@tongue1.berkeley.edu [Moderator's Note: The only money you send in this case goes to the telco, acting as collection agent for the information provider. Although telco typically uses a Lock Box / Remittance Box to receive money -- your monthly payment -- they have a street address also. PAT]