Political survey telemarketers

[bluebook]

Cell phones aren't protected against telemarketers if they can disguise themselves as non-profit or political stuff. Flat out scammers (like those people who call you to tell you that your vehicle warranty has expired) always seem to get through, no matter how often you keep up to date with staying on the DNC list.

And yet, cell phones were a major reason people dropped their landlines, so that unwelcomed strangers would quit calling them. And the madness still doesn't stop.

The problem here are these unwelcome callers. They just don't respect people's privacy anymore and they always find a way to work around the law.

If there's anything that requires closer attention, it should be these annoying people. Instead of passing a new bill that'd allow them to call cellphones, too, lawmakers ought to pass on a new proposal that'd give these people a more severe penalty like a large fine and at least 30 years jail time for telemarketing. Let's see how they'd like missing a big chunk of their life just because they couldn't find a more decent way to earn money. Telemarketers are no better than scammers. Why, if you read from consumer complaint sites such as http://www.callercenter.com, reports are usually about telemarketers trying to sell their products by misleading the customers, overcharging credit cards, and being rude most of the time when the customer refuses to buy.

[MadMike]

The problem here are these unwelcome callers. They just don't respect people's privacy anymore and they always find a way to work around the law.

This. While the so-called legitimate telemarketers don't break the law, they still don't respect people's privacy. Back when the concept of Do Not Call lists started, they had a fit about it, and tried to fight it every step of the way. They claimed they could "police themselves." Problem is, they had the chance, and they blew it. The telemarketing industry did have their own version of a Do Not Call list, but it was voluntary, and I doubt very many of them actually honored it. I did sign up for it, and didn't notice any reduction in calls. If anything, they increased.

The problem is not just with telemarketers, it's advertisers in general. They seem to think they have some god-given right to fill every last bit of open space with advertising. You see ads on pizza boxes, ads at the beginning of movies, ads on gas pumps... hell, I was at a bar a few weeks ago that had ads on the damn urinals! When is enough enough?

People are fed up with ads, and the industry only has themselves to blame. No one complained about telemarketers until they started getting pushy and calling way too frequently. No one complained about junk faxes until their machines started running out of paper overnight. No one complained about TV commercials until the shows became more commercial than show. No one complained about email spam until it started to greatly outnumber their legitimate emails. No one complained about pop-up ads until a single visit to a web page started filling up the screen. No one complained about banner ads until they started flashing and jumping around obxnoxiously. And so on.

[Racket_Man]

Another irksome thing from the old landline days was that the f'ing phone company would charge you a fee if you wanted a private number. Don't print my number in your phone book. I do not want to be in your database.

Pre modem telemarketing just used banks of phones to dial numbers whether from a phone book or dialing in sequence.

Even way back then, the problem was as computerized dialers/modems/war dialer programs become available to those outside of the telco's (see the original War Games movie from the early 80's) to how easy it was for me or anyone else to set up auto dial sutff.

all you had to do was input an area code and prefix and let the dialer program and modem do the work. NOW they just do this on a larger scale and with predictive programs AND they have a MUCH bigger pool of numbers to work with. add in number spoofing and blocking and the like....

Heck how do you think the phreaks of the day figured out a bunch of internal telco stuff??? they either experimented OR got inside info (by whatever means)

The DNC list is IMO a total joke

[Dreamstalker]

Precisely, MadMike. I find it bizarre that the advertisers fail to see that tactic is what's causing people to ignore or boycott them...oh noes sales are down! Moar ads! (more ads piss people off, resulting in ignoring or boycotting whatever company is doing it this week)

A landline can also be useful if for whatever reason, your home/building plays hell with cell signals. When I had my own place, my cell would not get service at all unless I was in the front vestibule (and even then it was dicey).

I don't put my cell phone # on my resume, mainly because I don't answer numbers I don't know (thanks to the telemarketers/robocalls), so a landline is useful for that.