john@zygot.ati.com (John Higdon) (08/24/90)
Several months ago, I related the story of the {San Jose Mercury News'}
telemarketing boiler room and its calls to my ten home phone lines on
a semi-regular basis. After speaking with the president of the
telemarketing firm, I was led to believe that there would be no
further calls. Not true.
Last Monday evening at 7:40 PM, they hit again. When the first call
came in, I tried to explain to the person that I had many lines in the
hundreds group and would appreciate it if they could refrain from
calling them. I was hung up on. Then, for the next thirty minutes, I
went through modem hell.
The next day, I called the president of the boiler room company as well
as head of marketing for the {San Jose Mercury}. I posed this question:
What would you do if every so often someone called you at home at
various times of the day, disturbing your sleep, your dinner, and your
work? In addition, they called all of your computer modem lines,
wreaking havoc? And they continued to do this in spite of the fact that
you had repeatedly asked them to stop and you had cooperated with them
to the point of revealing all of the unlisted numbers to them for the
purpose of having them not dialed inadvertantly?
I told them that I considered this to be telephone harrasment. Then I
asked for a good reason for me not to turn the matter over to my
attorney for civil action. The reason one of them gave was, "This is a
major telemarketing effort. It is virtually impossible to guarantee
that some specific numbers won't be called in light of how many
automated calls are made each day." Translation: Your telephone
tranquility and privacy, Mr. Higdon, is secondary to the larger
picture of telemarketing and commerce. My response was that I viewed
the situation in reverse. My peace and privacy would prevail over
their entire operation, if necessary. If I had to shut them down to
keep from getting further calls, that's what I would do.
Where did we leave it? They will block the entire 723 prefix from
their machine until they figure out how to REALLY block individual
numbers. (I guess all the previous conversations were just pissing in
the wind; they never were able to block as they had claimed.) If the
calls stop, that's just fine.
Now when they call my 266 number...
John Higdon | P. O. Box 7648 | +1 408 723 1395
john@zygot.ati.com | San Jose, CA 95150 | M o o !wagner@utoday.com (Mitch Wagner) (08/27/90)
In article <11328@accuvax.nwu.edu> John Higdon <john@zygot.ati.com> writes: [ That he has ten phone lines in his home, and he's been getting calls from the San Jose Mercury News boiler-room telemarketers on every one of them and that he hasn't been getting any cooperation from the telemarketers in getting the calls to stop. ] # I told them that I considered this to be telephone harrasment. Then I # asked for a good reason for me not to turn the matter over to my # attorney for civil action. The reason one of them gave was, "This is a # major telemarketing effort. It is virtually impossible to guarantee # that some specific numbers won't be called in light of how many # automated calls are made each day." Translation: Your telephone # tranquility and privacy, Mr. Higdon, is secondary to the larger # picture of telemarketing and commerce. My response was that I viewed # the situation in reverse. My peace and privacy would prevail over # their entire operation, if necessary. If I had to shut them down to # keep from getting further calls, that's what I would do. # Where did we leave it? They will block the entire 723 prefix from # their machine until they figure out how to REALLY block individual # numbers. (I guess all the previous conversations were just pissing in # the wind; they never were able to block as they had claimed.) If the # calls stop, that's just fine. I suggest you start sending them registered, return-receipt-requested letters of the "As we discussed in a telephone conversation earlier today.... " variety. Also, keep careful notes of your phone conversations with these people. You want to have evidence of your good-faith efforts if you do go to court on this. Have you tried going to the Merc to complain about what their contractors are doing in their name? Also, have you considered filing *CRIMINAL* harassment charges against the president of the company by name, and John Doe, Richard Roe, etc., being employees of that company acting on orders of the president. If you've considered it and rejected it, think again. This strikes me as being right down the middle of the definition of criminal harassment: They've been calling you ten times a night, on several nights, despite your repeated requests to stop. If they are found guilty, they'd be fined a couple of hundred bucks, which would probably not hurt them much, but you'll have achieved two goals: (1) You will have impressed them as being not just some moron off the streets, but rather someone with access to the courts and willingness to use them and (2) Perhaps more importantly, the defendants will be required to show up in court or face contempt charges and possible jail time. Let them learn what it's like to lose time to petty bullshit! Also, you may want to have your lawyer send them a letter demanding that they stop, for reasons similar to number one in the above paragraph -- let 'em take a gander at that law-firm letterhead and know you are not just some schmuck in a trailer-park. DISCLAIMER: I am not a lawyer, so you take my advice at your own risk. (Actually, most people I know have learned better than to take *my* advice; that's why I've been forced to take my act to comp.dcom.telecom.... :-) As an afterthought, why do you have ringers on your modem lines, anyway? I don't even have a phone on my modem line; when I do get around to getting a cheapie to plug in there, I'll probably keep the ringer off. Everybody who knows me knows that I only answer the other line -- since I only dial out on the modem line, I couldn't even tell you off the top of my head what the number is.... ) Mitch Wagner VOICE: 516/562-5758 GEnie: UNIX-TODAY UUCP: wagner@utoday.com ..uunet!utoday!wagner [Moderator's Note: Bravo number two! Really, the only thing some companies understand is repeated slaps with lawsuits; particularly in Small Claims/Pro Se Court, which they *hate*. And document *everything*, and every name, even the switchboard operator and the receptionist. Sue 'em all, individually and in their employment capacity. PAT]
wolfgang@uunet.uu.net> (08/28/90)
In article <11392@accuvax.nwu.edu> mearle@pro-party.cts.com (Mark Earle) writes: >Here in Corpus Christi, TX, a machine aparently makes the rounds of >various organizations (I hear of it as being resold often) with a >similiar flaw. On several occasions, my voice and modem lines got >calls from this thing. [...] This same sleeze machine would not >release your line for two minutes (length of pitch). Quite an annoyance. Does anyone know if whistling a 2600 hz note into the phone would break this call off? "But officer, I was just doing that to disconnect a telemarketer..." Wolfgang Rupprecht uunet!nancy!wsrcc!wolfgang Internet: nancy!wsrcc!wolfgang@uunet.uu.net Snail Mail Address: Box 6524, Alexandria, VA 22306-0524