Do Not Call Listing Means "DO NOT CALL!"

Everyone knows the drill; you sit down to dinner and the phone rings. Its some solicitor trying to get you to listen to their spiel. Depending how often this happens you say "No thank you" and hang up or, if this is an increasingly occurring event you look like the guy below.

"Read My Lips1"

A few years back the government, after years of complaining, finally listened to the "people" and instituted a "Do Not Call List" where we could register our phone numbers online and were assured that we wouldn't be bothered, at least as much. Of course, our politicians, ever mindful of THEIR self interests, not OUR self interests, let political and non-profit calls go through. 

The first time I registered the calls  did indeed go down. That law expired and the second time I registered under the new law, I got more phone calls than before! It was if I had registered with every tele-marketer in the world!

They even included a fine of around $8,000 per call this time around. That was a joke. I read somewhere recently that only about 10 companies had ever been fined. Its a shame. If they wanted to make up the deficit they would have made a fortune on the fines collected from the millions of calls made every day!

Now, to get around the personal touch of at least telling the caller to take your name off their list, we have robo-calls. These are automated and short of just hanging up, there is no way to complain or tell the person to f&@* off!

If you don't think this is design, think again. Ever been on a political phone bank? Watched the never ending appeal drives on PBS? Telephone banks take time and money to set up. And then there's the spiel. These people are trained to the nth degree on how to handle the unlucky called upon. It must be profitable because they are still in existence. Has there ever been a profession more hated and vilified than this? I don't care how many people it employs, it must be the job from hell. Do you know anyone who brags about this as a profession? I never have met one. They may brag to each other, otherwise I think it is an unspoken brotherhood. Sorta like a used car salesman or politician bragging to each other while the public remains at best skeptical.

Here's my take on this whole business ... Until the telemarketing industry pays my telephone bill, they have no right to call me unless I give them permission beforehand. Their argument is that they have the right of free speech. So do I. And I say, yet again, until they are paying for my telephone line the minute they call my phone they have crossed the line into my private space. They have violated my rights and money.

Its time the government finally steps in, begins fines and after raking in several hundred million the whole industry might just collapse on itself. If nothing else, thousands of seniors will be spared from buying things they never should have in the first place. Our reward? Eating dinner at last in peace!