telecom@eecs.nwu.edu (TELECOM Moderator) (09/05/89)
"We are not Pavlov's dogs," barks Bob Bulmash. "We should not have to jump everytime a bell rings." And if we do hop to the phone on demand, we ought to be paid for it, says Bulmash, president of Private Citizen, Inc., a Warrenville, IL organization designed to prevent what Bulmash describes as 'junk calls' from telemarketers. We deserve at least a C-note -- $100, he says. Twice a year, Bulmash, 43, a paralegal by trade, mails a directory of people who don't wish to have telephone solicitors call them to 600 telemarketing firms. Along with the directories, he sends a contract which states that the people listed will lend an ear to the spiel only in exchange for $100. If the solicitors call, the contract says, the telemarketing company owes the listener $100. It's for "use of private property -- the phone, your ear, your time," says Bulmash. Subscribers, now numbering about 1000, pay $15 per year to be listed in the Private Citizen directory. While Bulmash doesn't guarentee you won't be called, he does offer some success stories. He says subscribers have collected anywhere from $5 - $92 from telemarketing companies. He offers a money-back deal for those subscribers not completely satisfied. He says only one person has taken him up on it. "You can tell those companies 500 times over the phone not to call and they won't listen," Bulmash says. "But when you threaten them with charging them for your time, that gets their attention." Bulmash, who began Private Citizen in May, 1988, says telemarketers have the attitude of "we're big business, so you just hang up the phone if you don't like us. I say we have a right to be left alone in the first place, at least in our homes." Typically, a telemarketing call to a home has less than a 3 percent success rate, he said, with the other 97 percent of us -- and we know who we are -- being unnecessarily inconvenienced. Bulmash says he has testified before Illinois and California state legislative committees and has lobbied state and federal lawmakers for relief from telemarketers. He teaches the members of his organization how to bill for their time, and in many cases, make the charges stick and get payment for 'the use of their time, ear and phone'. For more information on Private Citizen, contact Bulmash at 312-393-1555. Patrick Townson
levitt@zorro9.fidonet.org (Ken Levitt) (09/08/89)
In an article <Telecom V9 Issue 347> Patrick Townson writes about demanding payment for junk calls. In Massachusetts there is a state law which says that New England Telephone must compile a list of people/phone numbers who do not want machines to call them with recorded messages, and that telemarketers with such machines must get this list from NET and not call anyone on the list. When this started, I had my name/number placed on the list, but it does no good. I still get these type of calls. Usually the calls only ask you to speak your name and phone number for them to tape record and do not identify the company that they are comming from. One time I was able to identify the company and tried to file a complaint. No one at NET or any state office I could find would admit to having jurisdiction over such complaints. I have my own method for dealing with companies like this but I can't write about it in a public forum. -- Ken Levitt - via FidoNet node 1:16/390 UUCP: ...harvard!talcott!zorro9!levitt INTERNET: levitt%zorro9.uucp@talcott.harvard.edu
otto@uunet.uu.net (Otto J. Makela) (09/12/89)
Over here in the boonies, there are just a few telemarketing companies...
This normally works very well, I'm not so sure if it would work with American
telemarketing companies (specially with automatic devices :-)
(phone rings)
Me: "Otto Makela"
Salesperson: "Hello, I'm from the Finnish sports association [or something
similar]. What are your views on competetive sports ?"
Me: "I think that competetive sports is a total waste of time and
money."
SP (weakly): "Er... in that case I assume you are not interested in our
'Illustrated sports magazine' ?"
Me: "Quite correct."
SP: "Thank you for your time."
(and they never call back)
--
* * * Otto J. Makela (otto@jyu.fi, MAKELA_OTTO_@FINJYU.BITNET) * * * * * * *
* Phone: +358 41 613 847, BBS: +358 41 211 562 (CCITT, Bell 2400/1200/300) *
* Mail: Kauppakatu 1 B 18, SF-40100 Jyvaskyla, Finland, EUROPE *
* * * freopen("/dev/null","r",stdflame); * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *