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30 Million Consumers Hang Up On Telemarketers

by Broderick Perkins

Bolstered by the Federal Communications Commission's stiffer provisions and undaunted by stepped-up legal action, the National Do Not Call Registry may have accepted 30 million telephone numbers from households that are hanging up on telemarketers.

At nearly a million phone numbers a day since the registry opened on June 27, the registry reported it had gathered 28.7 million telephone numbers by July 28 and should have no problem reaching its projected 60 million phone numbers by the time do-not-call rules really begin to clock unwanted calls.

Those who've already signed up with the registry should begin to see telemarketing calls stall in October -- just in time to avoid the seasonal telemarketing offensive. After the calls stop, they aren't allowed to return for at least five years. At the end of five years, however, you can renew your disdain for telemarketers by signing up with the registry again. In October, telemarketers must begin purchasing the list and cannot call numbers on the list. Telemarketers must be in full compliance by January 29, 2004. Telemarketers who violate the law can be fined up to $11,000 for each illegal call.

Telemarketers, who generated nearly $300 billion in consumer sales alone last year, are "cold calling" salespeople who telephone their pitches -- too often ringing right at dinner time when they know you are home.

The original do-not-call rule initiated by the Federal Trade Commission exempted telephone companies, airlines, insurance companies, banks and others not governed by the FTC, but on July 25, the FCC changed that. The FCC approved final rules that removed the exemption and added more provisions. Both federal commissions operate the registry.

The American Teleservices Association(ATA) this month blasted the FCC provisions and asked a Denver federal court to overturn the FCC's addition. In January, the ATA sued the FTC over its initial rule. The ATA's complaint says the registry will cost the $680 billion-a-year industry and the nation 2 million jobs.

The Direct Marketing Association, which offers consumers it's own voluntary Telephone Preference Service (TPS), in January filed suit in the U.S. District Court in Oklahoma City, calling the registry unconstitutional in violation of First Amendment rights to advertise freely.

Last week, the DMA called the maximum annual $7,300 (per telemarketer) access charge set for the do-not-call list "a new and unreasonable tax".

The National Association of Realtors is also at odds with an FCC provision that does not exempt certain intrastate calls -- a rule that will limit real estate professionals' telemarketing.

The protests from some of the nation's most powerful trade groups may not be enough to beat back the groundswell of support from tens of millions of consumers. They apparently find the do-not-call service both easy to use and one of the most beneficial pieces of consumer regulation to come out of Washington, D.C. in decades.

In addition to registering online, consumers can also register by telephone at 1(888) 382-1222, or via TTY/TTD (Teletype or Telecommunications Device for the Deaf), 1 (866) 290-4236.

Do-Not-Call Details

When you sign up for the registry, certain telemarketers may not call you for five years. You'll have to renew after five years, if you change your phone number, or if you take your number out of the registry and later want to put your number back on the list. Three months after you sign up, you should begin to suffer fewer -- if any -- telemarketing calls.

Telemarketers must search the registry every 90 days and delete registered phone numbers from call lists. Consumers can file a complaint against telemarketers who violate the rule. Violators can be fined up to $11,000 for each illegal call.

Organizations with which you have established a business relationship can call you for up to 18 months after your last purchase, payment or delivery, even if your name is on the national do-not-call registry. Companies to which you've made an inquiry or submitted an application can call you for up to three months.

You may ask any company not to call you and it must honor your request, even if you have an established business relationship. That's also true if you do not put your number on the national registry -- you can prohibit individual telemarketers and any company from calling, one by one, by asking them to put you on their company's do-not-call list.

Callers soliciting charitable contributions do not have to search the national registry, but a for-profit telemarketer calling on behalf of a charitable organization must honor your request to be put on its do-not-call list.

You may also give written do-call permission to companies that you want to call you.

Dozens of states have do-not-call registries and the FTC has allowed them to remain in place, but most states plan to transfer numbers on their lists to the national registry. States must enforce national provisions unless the state has tougher do-not-call rules.

When telemarketers are allowed to call you, they must transmit their telephone number and company name, if possible, to your Caller ID service.

Published: August 7, 2003

Use of this article without permission is a violation of federal copyright laws.

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Broderick Perkins parlayed a career in old-school journalism into a contemporary digital news service that really hits home.

The award-winning consumer journalist, originally from Wilmington, DE, is founder, publisher and executive editor of the bootstrap DeadlineNews Group, a Silicon Valley-based editorial content and consulting service specializing in residential real estate, consumer news and related editorial consulting services.

The DeadlineNews Group includes the website, DeadlineNews.com, offering real estate editorial content and consulting services, and its back shop, the Deadline Newsroom, an open house on news that really hits home.

Perkins obtained his formal journalism education from University of Delaware and a journalism boot camp, the Institute of Journalism Education at the University of California-Berkeley. He went on to 20 years of service as a daily newspaper journalist at the Wilmington, DE News Journal and San Jose, CA Mercury News.

Perkins covered housing on the San Jose Mercury News reporting team which earned a General News Reporting Pulitzer Prize in 1989 for coverage of the Loma Prieta earthquake.

He has also produced real estate, consumer and small business content for the Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, RealtyTimes.com, Nolo.com, Better Homes and Gardens, the National Association of Realtors, Homestore/Move and Intuit/Quicken among more than three dozen publications.

In addition to managing the DeadlineNews Group, Perkins most recently served as chief editorial consultant for Nolo's Essential Guide To Buying Your First Home, Nolo, and writes real estate television scripts for RealtyTimes.com.

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