"Do Not Call" List Could Become Permanent
Thu Sep 13, 2007 12:31PM EDT
See Comments (94)
You know and love the Do Not Call list. It may not be perfect, and it seems powerless to stop the automated calls I get from some company promising a great price on cleaning my carpets (and they'll clean the hallway for free!!!), but it's the best thing we have for getting rid of telemarketing nuisance.
The catch with Do Not Call (and it's a small one) is that your registration expires after five years. For the millions of people who signed up when it was rolled out in June 2003, that means their phone numbers (to the tune of 50 million of them) will abruptly be taken off the list in June 2008, without warning. You can, of course, re-register, but I expect many will have long since forgotten that they need to do so.
Good news: A bill introduced in the House on Monday would make Do Not Call entries permanent, eliminating the need to re-register phone numbers. Why is permanence a good thing? Best quote, courtesy of bill sponsor Mike Doyle: "I suspect very few people are saying, 'Gee, I really miss getting those telemarketing calls at dinner time – I wish the government would take me off the do not call list.'"
More news as it develops, but overall it sounds like legislation I can really get behind. To find out when your Do Not Call entry expires, visit the Verify section of the DNC website. To renew your registration (and there's no reason not to do so), visit the Register page. Assuming the bill doesn't make it into law in a timely fashion, make sure you do so before your five years runs out!
Comments on "Do Not Call" List Could Become Permanent
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2 Posted by isfatchris on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:25PM EDT Report Abuse
What is the number for the do not call list
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3 Posted by rogueist on Thu Sep 3, 2009 8:49PM EDT Report Abuse
Thats great! I love it! Now if they can only make mandatory fines for spam calls on cellphones, I wouldnt mind getting $100k each time some telemarketer called my cellphone...
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4 Posted by az6024283313 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:00PM EDT Report Abuse
I went there and found that my registration ends in 2010 and reregistered and it only extended for 2 years! WTH? 2 YEARS? 2012. Can you say misguided at best?
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5 Posted by lilabner209 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 6:51PM EDT Report Abuse
"WTH? 2 YEARS? 2012." You didn't extend it from 2010 to 2015, you extended it from 2007, the date that you did it. That's 5 years!!
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6 Posted by s2kreno on Thu Sep 3, 2009 8:59PM EDT Report Abuse
Definitely support this legislation. I wish the phone companies would have some function like a spam key on email - when you get a "spam" call you could push a button and block that number forever! I get sick of telling people to stop calling me and being ignored. And yes I'm on the list, but apparently if you do business with someone once or make an inquiry once they have the right to bug you forever....not nice :[
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7 Posted by dewaltdakota on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:42PM EDT Report Abuse
I wish they would expand it, to include an option for keeping political organizations and charities from calling. I swear, I never received as many calls from them, until I added my number to the do not call list. They must use the list as a "hey, these are confirmed, active numbers ... let's call them!" list.
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8 Posted by perkins1375 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 8:07PM EDT Report Abuse
I love how everyone misses the point here. Was Walmart calling you? What about Home Depot? No...it was smaller, locally owned business that can't afford television ad and branding campaigns. Now the big guys don't have to worry about that little bit of the market they were sharing. The fact that did'nt get tossed around is that usually these telemarketing firms that were put out of business were the leading employer of the disabled and single mothers. re: Unskilled labor that was kicked back into the work force at HALF the income or onto unemployemt and welfare roles. How many people out of work and out of business in the name of our convenience.
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9 Posted by tef43too on Thu Sep 3, 2009 9:59PM EDT Report Abuse
Do Not Call should expand to also prohibit charities, surveys and political calls. They are just as annoying, just as intrusive, and shold be just as illegal.
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10 Posted by familysleuth007 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:58PM EDT Report Abuse
Now if they would just include political call in the DoNotCall catagories I would be supremely happy. Normally we get maybe one call a day and some days the phone doesn't ring at all until election time rolls around. Then it rings off the hook, 20 or 30 times a day!!
1 Posted by commorancy on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:28PM EDT Report Abuse
Now if only they would create a do-not-mail list. I get tired of having to toss out some other company's garbage that keeps getting shoved into my mailbox. Nor do I relish the thought of having to follow arbitrary guidelines and spend the time it takes to get my address removed from their list. Worse, the school districts randomly just place things into the mailboxes without any way to get the address removed (it's a courtesy service from the post office). It's not as if the mailbox has unlimited space in there.