In the ongoing battle to let us eat dinner in peace without being interrupted by amazingly annoying telemarketer blather and in this case the even more infuriating recorded telemarketing drivel, the Federal Trade Commission today basically outlawed such calls.
Specifically, the FTC changed its venerable Telemarketing Sales Rule (TSR) to prohibit, as of Sept. 2009, telemarketing calls that deliver prerecorded messages, unless a consumer has agreed to accept such calls from a given caller/seller.
Between now and 2009, telemarketers must provide an obvious, easy and quick way for consumers to opt-out of any call, the FTC said. Such an opt-out mechanism needs to be in place by December 1, 2008.
The change will not affect your ability to continue to receive calls that deliver informational prerecorded messages - notifying you, for example, that your flight has been cancelled, or that you have a service appointment. Such purely "informational" calls are not covered by the TSR because they do not attempt to sell the called party any goods or services, the FTC said.
However for those who have called on the FTC to help eliminate the other phone scourge - political robocalls - the new rule will not help. Calls from political campaigns are considered protected speech an FTC representative said.
Ultimately consumers may get some help from state legislatures as many are regulating or looking to pass laws for more control over automated or robocall computer-generated phone-calling campaigns. One group, the National Political Do Not Contact Registry is campaigning to outlaw political robocalling altogether.
Meanwhile, the FTC also adopted a regulation changing the way telemarketers use the phone. No doubt if you have received an unsolicited telemarketing call, there is a delay in the time when you pick up and say "hello" and the response on the other end. Sometimes no one answers at all. This situation is called "call abandonment" by the FTC and it has tweaked its enforcement of such delay or non-responses. The TSR in fact requires that at least 97% of a telemarketer's calls be answered in person and get connected to a salesperson within two seconds after a consumer answers.
Call abandonment is a side-effect of very efficient telemarketing equipment called predictive dialers. Predictive dialers place calls in anticipation that a salesperson will become available by the time one of the numbers called is answered, the FTC said.
Here though the FTC is making a more subtle change. While retaining the 97% requirement, it will now calculate call abandonment over a 30-day period, rather than on a daily basis as is now the case. The change will permit the use of smaller calling lists than before without an appreciable increase in call abandonments, the FTC claims. It will let all sellers target their calling campaigns to consumers most likely to be interested in their offer, and will benefit small businesses that have smaller customer lists in particular, the FTC said. The modified method for measuring the maximum allowable rate of call abandonment will become effective on October 1, 2008.
The new rules come in part from over 14,000 comments the agency received on the subjects since it last changed or proposed changes to the rules in 2006.
Layer 8 in a box
Check out these other hot stories:
Intel sues N-Data over patent claims
Self -growing material promises chip, storage advances
Trendy YouTube video site targeted for demolition
Deep sea robot delivers on first mission, replaces "Starship Enterprise"
Military lays out $4.4 M to supersize network monitoring technology
NASA spends $25M for two unmanned aircraft to explore the earth
The Leader in Network Knowledge
Call Abandonment Rates
Call abandonment rates of 3% over 30 days rather than 24 hours I think is worse. Who enforces that. It's much easier to monitor a system for 24 hours than to need data for a month. Again, might be better if the law was followed, but how can you enforce that.
It's like changing the speed limit from 60 miles an hour as a speed to 60 miles an hour as a distance traveled over 60 minutes. How's any cop going to be able to write a ticket with that rule. You could follow the driver for an hour, right!
Abandoned Calls
I personally get a very high rate of abandoned calls. Where there is no one on the other end and the caller id is "Out of Area" or some-such.
How do I get the FTC to enforce the current rules?
not feasible
You can demonstrate that the caller made x number of calls and y of them were abandoned, but I believe they (the FTC) look at the number of calls made by the caller rather then to a particular phone number, hence the abandon rate is calculated based on the number of all outgoing calls. Looking at how many people report hang up calls at http://800notes.com I also don't believe that the 3% rule is enforced at all.
Cool
Oddly enough I just posted about my discuss with this practice on Lounge Nouvelle a few days ago. Glad to hear about this.
Thanks - Political Do Not Contact Registry
Thanks for the mention.
Shaun Dakin
CEO
http://www.stoppoliticalcalls.org/index.php
First Amendment prohibits doing anything about robocalls.
That's why the FCC won't. Of course, that hasn't stopped the federal government before when it REALLY wants something, like your phone records.
The stupidity of our
The stupidity of our government agencies continues unabated...
First point. All calls should be OPT-IN, not opt-out. No one has a constitutional right to harass me. Secondly, I'm so tired of the first amendment being trampled upon for commercial interests. Finally, political calls ARE commercial interests. Until ALL money is removed from the election process, it IS a business.
It's time to vote ALL incumbents out of office at every level, local, state, and federal. Once we get rid of the bought and paid for politicians, perhaps we can actually affect change. Real change, not the lie being promulgated by a certain presidential candidate...
Uncle Sam's nephew
Opt-Out? Phooey!
I agree with Uncle Sam's Nephew -- the gummint solution to a problem is often worse or ineffectual. What a useless ruling. It just throws telemarketing back to having a persan demand "Please listen to the following message and stay on the line..." Heck, you still had to pick up, or listen to your answering machine. Why should it be MY responsibility to opt OUT of marketing harassment? The wording of the ruling reeks of compromise with the telemarketing lobby. Phone calls don't make up my mind about political candidates. Just say no. I'd prefer the "press pound to electrocute the caller" option. Or at least have it required that if you're pissed off, pressing pound sends the caller's number to the FTC as a complaint. Hey! Now there's an idea!
Ooh don't be so sensitive
I know of many call centers that look at calls-made not calls dropped. Why? Because that is how they get jobs that keep employees busy and families feed. Not to mention all those tax dollars for the commitments Uncle Sam has put us under.
The folks that make the dealers can not control the drop ratio so how can the poor saps that buy these expensive machines hoping to provide services to those that need them.
Let people find work any way they can.
How many homes have better windows now that save them money? How many have better mortgages?
How many have had appointments that have improved their lives?
Call rooms hire people that are not just unemployable downtown they hire people that are uninterpretable. These jobs keep these people working and paying into the system instead of draining it. Which we know they would qualify to do.
We need to use the money we have to pay up the deficit and to help business and individuals make more taxable income. Stopping some folks from doing some good and making a living does not work. Look at how much money we spend on controlling immigration but we need labor so the employers brake the law. We gather tax money from the products and the labor. So why do we tax ourselves and make laws against ourselves?
So our representatives can do something to make us feel better instead of facing the hard real problems we have.
Who cares if you are having dinner. Next time use a drive through.
If you have money and can spend it please do. If you have to work work and make money for yourself and for your employer and for your country. Work and let work is what has made this country great. BD
Big Daddy-What a scammer!
Big Daddy, you are obviously part of the telemarketing industry, the worst part. There may be some legitimate telemarketer out there but about 100% of the calls I've had the misfortune to experience are scams; "there is a problem with your credit card", "the warranty on you vehicle has expired", "your mortgage rate is incorrect." And now, Big Daddy is saying that all of this sleezy marketing is patriotic. The sad part is so many Americans fall for these petty scams otherwise they wouldn't do it. Big Daddy, if you want to help the economy get an honest job and stop preying on the poor suckers who fall for these slimey tricks.