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Please hang up... don't try your call again
Telemarketers continue to annoy consumers in increasing numbers, but there are steps you can take to stop them
By: Pat Daley
 It happened again just the other day. I answered the phone to hear some financial services company offering a free lunch for me and my significant other at an upscale restaurant in our closest village.
It's the second or third time we've had that call - right around lunch time, too. I guess that's part of the ploy to get us listening to a pitch for some investment or another.
Now, around here we know there's no such thing as a free lunch and we politely declined the invitation. We would also have been in the right to say, "And don't call again!" with every expectation that the company would, in fact, follow that command.
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90% of survey respondents are bothered by telephone soliciting at any time of the day. More than 60% said the calls make them "furious". |
It's a bit surprising that telemarketing continues to be big business given how much it seems to annoy consumers. An unscientific poll by Essential.com - a company that sells electricity, natural gas, and telephone services - yesterday showed more than 90% of their respondents are bothered by telephone soliciting at any time of the day. More than 60% said the calls make them "furious."
But a big business it is. The Canadian Marketing Association (CMA) says that direct marketing - by telephone, mail, internet, television, or other means - is an industry growing by 9% a year with marketers and their suppliers adding 236,000 full-time jobs to the Canadian economy. And even though people say they hate the intrusion, we spend an average of $474 each on goods, services, and charitable donations every year.
If you still want the calls to stop, there are regulations in both Canada and the United States restricting the activities of telemarketers to some degree - but both put the onus on consumers to take action.
In the U.S., the Federal Trade Commission says it is an "abusive telemarketing act" to call someone who has asked not to be called. However, a company is exempt from prosecution under the regulation if has written procedures to comply with the rule, has trained its personnel, maintains a list of people who may not be contacted, or if a call was made in error.
The problem with this, according to the Southwest U.S. Region of the Consumers Union, is that a person has to deal with each telemarketing company individually. Testifying last week before a Texas House Subcommittee on Telemarketing, the Consumers Union called for a statewide "no-call" list that consumers could get on by filling out and mailing in a page that would be included in their phone book.
It's in the phone book that Canadians will find the rules about telemarketing in this country - where telecommunications are federally regulated by the Canadian Radio Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC). The rules, which are part of the telephone company's tariff conditions, say telemarketers must:
state on whose behalf they are calling
display a phone number where they can be reached
remove a customer's name and phone number from lists within 30 days of a request (in effect for three years)
provide, on request, the name, phone number, and address of the telemarketing organization
You'll find similar rules in the CMA's Code of Ethics along with a limitation on the time of day calls can be made: between 9:00 a.m. and 9:30 p.m. weekdays, 10:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays, and no calls on statutory holidays.
The CMA maintains a Do Not Mail/Do Not Call service. You'll be directed there by the phone book or any government consumer protection office if you ask how to stop those annoying phone calls and direct mail soliciting. Of course, it only helps you to deal with CMA members, who the association says account for about 80% of direct sales in Canada.
Four times a year, the CMA sends its members a list of people who have asked not to be contacted. That's why it can take three months before you notice a reduction in telemarketing calls. You can register with the service on the CMA web site at www.cmaconsumersense.org/marketing_lists.cfm or by writing to them at 1 Concorde Gate, Suite 607, Don Mills, Ontario, Canada M3C 3N6 or call (416) 391-2362.
If after three months you are still getting calls from companies that are CMA members, the Association will contact them directly on your behalf. If the company that bothers you is not a CMA member, you can either write to them directly or ask at the time they call that your name and phone number be removed from their lists. They have 30 days. If the company does not comply, their telephone service can be suspended with two business days' notice.
I'm one of the lucky ones, I suppose. I don't get enough telemarketers phoning (and don't start now!) to make it worth the trouble of asking to have my name removed from the lists. And three months seems like a long time to wait; I know I'd forget when the request was made and probably start in on the next poor sod phoning from a call centre somewhere.
Pat Daley is a freelance writer and editor in Athlone in Simcoe County, Ontario.
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