[privacy] FTC Hangs Up on Telemarketers' Pitch

[<rms () bsf-llc com>]

The Web site for Voice Message Broadcasting Corp. is here:
 
   http://www.vmbc.com/
 
Their president can be reached at this email address:
 
   jcrowe () vmbc com
 
Richard
 
  _____  

 
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/16/AR2006101601
187_pf.html
 
FTC Hangs Up on Telemarketers' Pitch


By Cindy Skrzycki
Tuesday, October 17, 2006; D01




The Federal Trade Commission effectively slammed the phone down on the U.S.
telemarketing industry earlier this month, rejecting a request to allow
prerecorded calls to consumers without their expressed consent.

Acting on a 2004 petition filed by Voice Message Broadcasting Corp. of Costa
Mesa, Calif., the FTC decided it wouldn't allow companies to use taped
calls, even if they claimed a "prior business relationship" with the
consumer. The only way around the ruling, the agency proposed, would be if
the customer consented in writing that he was willing to accept such calls.

"This adds protection for consumers so they don't have to deal with
prerecorded messages," said Allen Hile , assistant director of the FTC's
Division of Marketing Practices.

The decision followed an outpouring of 13,600 comments -- all but 600 in
opposition to the request. Many pleaded with regulators not to create a
loophole in the National Do-Not-Call Registry, which allows consumers to
limit the telemarketing calls they receive and contains some 130 million
numbers.

"The Do-Not-Call list has been enormously successful," said Marc Rotenberg ,
executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center , a
District-based group that monitors privacy issues and filed comments against
the industry request. "More people signed up for it than voted in the last
election -- Bush and Kerry combined. It's a very clear statement Americans
don't want to hear from telemarketers."

Consumers who put their phone numbers in the registry are protected from
receiving unsolicited calls from companies. Exemptions allow charities,
political organizations, telephone surveys and companies that have conducted
business with a client in the preceding 18 months to make unsolicited calls.

FTC officials said consumers now receive 80 percent fewer calls than before
the list was created in 2003. And comments opposing the petition show many
want to keep it that way.

...

Jesse Crowe , president of Voice Mail Broadcasting, said the idea behind his
petition was not to harass customers, but to give them an easier opportunity
to "opt out" of a call and be put on the no-call registry.

Under current rules, prerecorded calls are allowed to be made to answering
machines under certain circumstances. The FTC said 97 percent of such
computer-generated calls must be quickly connected to a live sales
representative if they are answered by a person. The 3 percent of
"abandoned" calls usually occur because a telemarketing agent could not come
on the line quickly enough.

Crowe said using prerecorded messages would eliminate the problem of
abandoned calls, which make many consumers irate or fearful as they rush to
answer the phone and find that no one is there.

He said the FTC misunderstood the calling model he suggested, and consumers
were whipped into a frenzy of opposition by Rotenberg's group.

The FTC didn't use "proper logic" and act in the consumers' best interest,
said Crowe. He said the system he advocated would have included a prompt
early in the prerecorded message that would have allowed the person
answering the call to hit "3" on the keypad. The consumer then would have
been prompted to ask to be put on that company's do-not-call list.

Voice Mail Broadcasting, a private company with about 50 clients, sponsored
a survey that found consumers are more comfortable with prerecorded
solicitations because it is easier to get on the list or terminate the call,
Crowe said.

...

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