Telemarketing age is beyond a friendly call

By Joshua O'Connell
Posted Monday, July 12, 2004

A recent incident at my house got me thinking about the ways we receive advertising nowadays. (As a marketing major, I'll likely be contributing to those sources some day, but tuck that thought aside for a few minutes.)

During that incident, my dad, in a fit of anger, started calling businesses back that were on the caller ID because we have both "Do Not Call" list protection and something from the phone company called Privacy Manager, which blocks anonymous calls from simply getting right through.

He made two mistakes: he didn't carefully check the caller ID to see who actually was calling, and he did it at 11 p.m., when he probably should've been in bed.

Ultimately, one of the people he ended up calling back and leaving a nasty voicemail was my best friend. In the voicemail to him, my dad said, "I'm going to sue you. In fact, I'm suing you RIGHT NOW!"

Needless to say, my friend was amused enough to save the voicemail, call me at 11:30 p.m. to describe the incident in vivid detail, and is working on making me a recording so I can share it with relatives at the next family reunion.

We both forgive him for the mistake, after all, the "Do Not Call" list is supposed to protect us from all these calls. It worked for a while, but slowly the number of calls to the house is increasing again, and now they're taking it further, leaving voicemails and calling more persistently.

Part of the problem is there's so many loopholes. Who knew that if you did business with a company a year ago, they're still within their right to call you? Two weeks ago I received a telemarketing call on my cell phone for the first time.

I shudder to think what would happen if my cell phone was ringing off the hook all day because of telemarketers. Realizing my phone number isn't on the "Do Not Call" list, I'm adding it now.

As a college student, I'm targeted heavily by mail, too. Not a week goes by where I don't receive at least three credit card solicitation offers. Apparently, contacting the credit bureaus is all you need to do to stop getting the offers.

I haven't done it yet because the amount of mail I'm getting makes me feel special. It also breaks up the bills I receive, the ones I need to pay for the solicitations I did answer.

If only they didn't offer me five magazines for $14 a month when I really wanted a subscription to some magazines.

This column originally ran July 12, 2004 in the Connecticut Post.

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