www.DoNotCall.gov

[BlueStar]

Yep, as of today, you can register for free at www.donotcall.gov to keep telemarketers from calling you. (Charities, nonprofits, political parties, and pollsters can still call you, though.)

[ava transformer]

praise the lord, cuz i'm tired of being awakened when i nap by some bitch bastard telemarketer

[Krafty]

Wow, that's great. Thanks.

[BlueStar]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...do_not_call_23

WASHINGTON - People pestered by telemarketers can start signing up Friday for a national do-not-call list intended to block most phone sales pitches.

Consumers can register for the free government service by visiting the Web site www.donotcall.gov. Telephone registration using a toll-free number — 1-888-382-1222 — is available in states west of the Mississippi River, including Minnesota and Louisiana, the Federal Trade Commission said. Nationwide registration should be available by July 7.

The national registry, an FTC project more than a year in the making, was being inaugurated Friday at a White House ceremony led by President Bush (news - web sites).

The list will block about 80 percent of telemarketing calls, FTC Chairman Timothy Muris said.

"People own their homes and their phones and now they will have a choice about whether they want the calls," Muris said in an interview.

Telephone registration is being done in stages to ensure the system can handle the volume of calls expected, the FTC said. The commission expects up to 60 million phone numbers to be registered in the first year.

"I think this has been a complaint of consumers for a very long time," Federal Communications Commission (news - web sites) Chairman Michael Powell said on NBC's "Today." "This is a day they've awaited for a long time."

People who sign up this summer should see a decrease in telemarketing calls after the FTC begins enforcing the do-not-call list on Oct. 1, said Muris, who joined Powell on NBC.

"We are going to assign dozens of people to enforce this very important rule," Muris said.

Registrations will have to be renewed every five years.

On the Web site, people will have to provide the phone number they want protected and an e-mail address to receive confirmation. Consumers calling the toll-free number will have to call from the telephone number they want to register.

Telemarketers attempt up to 104 million calls every day, according to the FCC (news - web sites).

The industry has said the registry will devastate their business and has sued the FTC, saying the program amounts to an unlawful restriction on free speech.

The FCC voted 5-0 Thursday to add its authority to the do-not-call list, blocking telemarketing calls from within a state — the FTC could only police interstate calls — and from industries whose calls the agency regulates, including airlines, banks and telephone companies.

Of the states with do-not-call lists, 13 plan to add their lists of 8.1 million numbers to the national registry this summer, three have legislation pending to allow them to share, and 11 will not share the information, the FTC said. Consumers on state lists added to the national one need not register again.

Beginning in September, telemarketers will have to check the list every three months to see who doesn't want to be called. Those who call listed people could be fined up to $11,000 for each violation. Consumers would file complaints to an automated phone or online system.

Exemptions from the list ******* calls from charities, pollsters and on behalf of politicians. Registered consumers also can give written permission to get calls from certain companies.

A company also may call someone on the no-call list if that person has bought, leased or rented from the company within the past 18 months. Telemarketers also may call people if they have inquired about or applied for something from the company during the past three months.

But consumers can avoid those calls by asking to be put on an individual company's do-not-call list.

Congress authorized the FTC to collect up to $18.1 million from telemarketers to pay the program's expenses in the first year.

[Mason R Butler]

Fuck. I do phone surveys, which are NOT *******d in this thing. I'm going to get even more people yelling at me that they're on the stupid list (this time national) and want to speak to my supervisor. Shit, this is gonna be annoying.

[crescentfresh]

I agree, this will put a lot of people out of work. You need to think about things like that. It may be annoying, but they're just doing their jobs.

PS the page won't load, I've tried it like 20 times over the day.

[BlueStar]

Originally posted by crescentfresh

PS the page won't load, I've tried it like 20 times over the day.

Apparently, the site has been getting an insane amount of hits. It took me awhile to get the page to come up too.

This is just further proof of the PUSSIFICATION of American society. Hang up the phone. Don’t answer unavailable #’s or #s you don’t know. Get rid of your ground-line and go 100% digital. Do something.

What was the point of all these states spending money to implement their own no-call laws if it was just going to get federalized? Wisconsin could have used the money it spent on its no-call program on teacher salaries or some other worthwhile cause. Everyone seems to think that this no-call crap is such a great idea. I say you’re all just a bunch of pussies.

[Mason R Butler]

Originally posted by crescentfresh
I agree, this will put a lot of people out of work. You need to think about things like that. It may be annoying, but they're just doing their jobs.

PS the page won't load, I've tried it like 20 times over the day.

I just wish people knew what telemarketeres were. A lot of people call houses unsolicited, but you can only take care of the telemarketers. Everyone thinks this list thing is some magic cure-all; my parents asked me if I'd be out of a job soon too and apologized for putting themselves on the list.

My worrying about this is just as stupid as that middling of/have argument in the other thread.

[noyen]

you telemarketing scum can die.

[ammy]

YEY!!!!!!!!

[pale blue eyes]

I think it's a good idea but I never hang up on telemarketers or other calls similar to that. I usually listen to their speil and then say "no thanks" or whatever. I never worked as a telemarketer or anything along those lines but I'm guessing they get enough shit from everyone else.

[sppunk]

Originally posted by The Ace of Aces
This is just further proof of the PUSSIFICATION of American society. Hang up the phone. Don’t answer unavailable #’s or #s you don’t know. Get rid of your ground-line and go 100% digital. Do something.

What was the point of all these states spending money to implement their own no-call laws if it was just going to get federalized? Wisconsin could have used the money it spent on its no-call program on teacher salaries or some other worthwhile cause. Everyone seems to think that this no-call crap is such a great idea. I say you’re all just a bunch of pussies.

Maybe even Milwaukee could hire a straight-laced mayor, instead of a cop-corrupting washed up crooked politician who thankfully resigned before he was assassinated.

[slugdownkoolaid]

my mom told me that she'd rather have me grow up a satan worshipping drug dealer (and i'm well on my way), then a telemarketer.

[Ghetto_Squirrel]

My mom told me last night that she is trying to get me a job as a telemarketer. What the fuck!?!?

On a side note, Pennsylvania has had something called NoCallsPlease that has been around for a while. I signed up for it last year, and it really does work.

[noyen]

Originally posted by Phreak
I think it's a good idea but I never hang up on telemarketers or other calls similar to that. I usually listen to their speil and then say "no thanks" or whatever. I never worked as a telemarketer or anything along those lines but I'm guessing they get enough shit from everyone else.

i gave up on that. 99% of the time when i say "no thank you" in a pleasant tone of voice i get a sarcastic "PSHTCHPTHPPT" horse sound and get hung up on. i don't care if there are down syndrome babies stuck on the bottom of the ocean and my 50 cents they want to hassle me for helps fund a super-rescue submarine. those babies can die. and their jobs can die with them. if your line of work is a telemarketer, we don't care how nice you are in your spare time. your job is the equivalent of an american indian bum wasted on listerine banging his head on my front door in the middle of the night. it's an annoyance, and it's not a needed annoyance. i applaud the federal government and it's efforts of herding telemarketers into a safe area and then launching them into the sun on a nuclear rocket.

[crescentfresh]

cool. the government can spend more money of this stuff, and pay unemployment to telemarketers.

[noyen]

telemarketer =/= drunk on mouthwash asking for 85 cents on street corner.

i have a better chance of hitting the drunk beggar asking for change with my car than hitting a telemarketer in the face with a baseball bat. i like those odds better. the government can keep spending money to abolish this greedy, intrusive form of "enterprise".

the telenuisance industry is crying to the FCC that they won't have money to buy dinner unless they can interrupt our dinner. WAH! history doesn't mention the thousands of blacksmiths who starved when ford's model T came out. and what about those poor coal miners who lost thier jobs to automation.

telemarketing jobs are not careers. their work is equivalent to a sweatshop - with folks they don't know answering thier phones and insulting them.

ff the FCC creates the regulations we need and deserve as human beings, everyone will be better off. since most folks don''t want to be junk called in the 1st place, we should have a "do-call" list. anyone that's not on it can't be called for any solicitation: sales / survey / political / charity purposes.

[dusty]

Originally posted by BlueStar
pollsters

i was one of those for a year and a half. none of the standard telemarketing laws applied to us. we could call as often as we wanted and if people asked us to stop calling them, we wouldn't.
it was a great job.

[Krafty]

Originally posted by crescentfresh
PS the page won't load, I've tried it like 20 times over the day.

Same here.

[dusty]

Originally posted by Krafty


Same here.

maybe it wasn't real. i submitted my number and i was supposed to recieve a confirmation email, but i never did.
although it does show up on *my* computer...

[BlueStar]

Originally posted by dusty
maybe it wasn't real. i submitted my number and i was supposed to recieve a confirmation email, but i never did.
although it does show up on *my* computer...

President Bush annouced it yesterday...it's for real. It was on the news this morning that the website crashed because of so many hits. I signed up yesterday morning and I just now received my confirmation this morning.

[dusty]

Originally posted by BlueStar


President Bush annouced it yesterday...it's for real. It was on the news this morning that the website crashed because of so many hits. I signed up yesterday morning and I just now received my confirmation this morning.

wow, thank you.

[Fattening Ass]

first butt sexor is given a chance now this. they are on a roll here,

p.s. i still won't vote for bush.

[dusty]

Originally posted by Fattening Ass
first butt sexor is given a chance now this. they are on a roll here,

p.s. i still won't vote for bush.

he's trying to build up to his big bang before next election.

[Fattening Ass]

i can see. i hope he gets aids.