Ready for no more telemarketing calls

Lolita Harper

The smell of pot roast is wafting through the air and the family has

just sat down for supper. As dad gets ready to pass the potatoes, the

phone rings. It is a nasally sales person with a phenomenal deal on

vacuum cleaner bags.

“No thank you.” Slam.

Even if most people’s evenings are not so Leave it to Beaver-ish

and the pitch on the other end of the phone is likely more credible,

for many people, it still isn’t OK to receive a call from a salesman

at dinnertime.

For them, Wednesday looks to be a phone-call free day.

President Bush signed a bill Monday that removes one of the

hurdles of the federal “do not call” registry, started by the Federal

Trade Commission. An attempt by legislatures to stop the annoying

calls that interrupt their constituents’ dinners, the no-call law

creates a national registry of those whose phone numbers may not be

dialed for telemarketing cold calls.

Telemarketing companies have balked at the new legislation, saying

it would cost them millions of dollars in business and kill thousands

of jobs. Their argument often falls on ears as deaf as those who

answer one of their company’s cold calls.

Costa Mesa resident Jason Drexel, who works at L.A. Boxing in

Costa Mesa, said calls frustrate him most when they come during

business hours.

“It actually [ticks] me off because I think it’s a potential

customer, and then, I end up hearing some bull script being read in

my ear,” Drexel said.

Drexel so far doesn’t worry about getting calls at home because he

does not have a land line -- just a cell phone. Telemarketers haven’t

gotten access to that number just yet, he said.

Despite Bush signing the bill Monday, it is not clear that

telemarketers’ access to other numbers is going to disappear

altogether.

Constitutional challenges remain as a judge has blocked the start

of the rules by arguing they infringed on telemarketers’ freedom of

speech. Though for now, the rules will go into effect Wednesday, that

decision likely will be battled in the courtroom.

The Federal Communication Commission announced Monday that it

would enforce the “do not call list,” keeping the registry, which 50

million people have joined, on track for the Wednesday launch while

adding another twist in the duel between telemarketers and government

regulators over the anti-marketing measure.

Newport Beach resident and businessman Ray Saggar said he likes to

turn the tables on the telemarketers and ask them random questions to

throw them off. Questions like, “What are you wearing?”

“I like to mess with them,” he said. “The funniest thing is when

you can just tell that they are reading and you keep interrupting

them and they keep losing their spot.”

There are dozens of sites on the Internet with tips on how to

avoid telemarketers, what to say, how to embarrass them and even how

to sue if they refuse to delete your number from their cold-calling

list.

Bob and Tammy Green in Iowa wrote on one site that each time a

telemarketer calls, they request to be deleted from the list. They

get the name of the company and a supervisor and write them in a

notebook, along with the time and date. The Greens have successfully

sued two companies. One for $400 and court costs and the other for

$600.

“Most company’s get the ideal real fast and never call you back,”

the couple posted. “If they realize you’re going to get in their

pocketbook, they leave you alone.”