Thursday, June 7, 2012

How the Do Not Call List works

or rather how the DNCL is supposed to work.

If you do a search (Google) for a telephone number of someone who calls you, you will find many websites that will have a "forum" of respondents that have an opinion on who the caller was and what they want from you. It is clear, to me at least, that both telemarketers and the consumer (the person that gets the "cold call") do not understand what the Do Not Call List is and how it is supposed to work.

This list is one that you can sign-up for and if you are on that list a telemarketer is SUPPOSED TO CHECK that list to see if your number is on it. If it is on that list then they are breaking the law if they call.

The problems are that the telemarketers DO NOT CHECK THE LIST and there is no consequence when they don't.

If there is governmental issue here, CRTC or other agency, is that people who are on the DNC list and are continuing to be contacted by telemarketers should report the offenders to the administrators of the DNC. Is then, and only then, that anything can be done about it. Just because you are on the list it does not mean that you will not be called and the number of telemarketing  calls will decrease. YOU NEED TO REPORT THE OFFENDERS and once they have called you should point out to them that they are breaking the law and that they should check the list BEFORE they call. Tell them that you are reporting them.

The problem with this is that you have to get the full name of the company that called, where they are located and if you can who you are speaking to. When challenged that they should not have called as you are on the DNC you will probably be told that they will put you on their list and they will not call you again. No No No! This is not how it works! IT IS NOT THEIR LIST, if one exists, it is the official one, the one that you registered with. In any case it is doubtful that they would check that list either.

Only if these idiots are reported will the calls you continue to get diminish. I don't think that this is going to happen any time soon. In which case just have fun winding the callers up. They waste your time, waste theirs as well - this is more likely to stop their calls in future.

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