Unsolicited sales calls by telephone are a pet peeve of mine. The following is an extract from a letter I've sent to my local Congressman and Senators regarding this issue.

Proposal:

A Bill to Control and Minimize the Intrusive Nature of Unsolicited Telephone Sales Calls

The Problem:

Every year, more business are utilizing telephone solicitation as a method of reaching and acquiring a customer base for their products and services. Because a ringing telephone demands immediate attention, this type of sales promotion is intrusive and annoying to citizens who are trying to enjoy the privacy and solace of their homes. I received twelve of these calls during the month of May 1996. This problem is exacerbated by the dynamics of telephone solicitation. Most calls are made during dinner time (6PM - 8PM), a period I enjoy most with my family without interruption. The callers use scripts which anticipate typical negative responses so that they can continue their pitch regardless of the flow of the conversation.

Discussion:

Recent technological advances have provided some relief from the intrusion of unwanted sales calls. The telephone ID display, which identifies the caller while the phone is ringing, allows some of these unwanted calls to be ignored. However, because the transmission of the caller's number may be suppressed at the caller's direction, the Caller ID's effectiveness is diminished. Additionally, many of the businesses that initiate these calls are out of the local area, and their number is not transmitted.

For my business line, which had been inundated by as many as two of these unsolicited calls a day, I purchased and installed a device which intercepts all calls that do not provide an identifying number, and plays a message indicating that the call will not be answered. While this solution works, I can't use it on my personal home phone for fear that I'll miss calls from many friends and relatives who by choice don't transmit their number.

A article in a recent edition of the Sunday New York Times delved into some of the workings of telephone solicitation from the perspective of the callers. Based on the public's letters which were published subsequently, it seemed that while the article provoked some sympathy for the callers for whom this was "just a job", the bulk of the response was similar to my own: that this is a despicable aspect of the business world that needs to be controlled by law.

I conducted an informal survey of friends and coworkers regarding this issue. I asked 91 people the following three questions:

1. Do you feel that unsolicited telephone sales calls are annoying?
2. Would you be in favor of a law that controlled the manner in which these calls could be made?
3. Do you work for a business that uses telephone solicitation as a sales tool?

Question 1:

Yes: 82

No: 2

Sometimes: 7

Question 2:

Yes: 85

No: 4

Not Sure: 2

Question 3:

Yes: 2

No: 84

Not Sure: 5

While this simple survey is by no means an official representation of the public at large, I feel it's a reasonable portrait of the reaction of those within my social and economic milieu: the middle class. Those of us who subscribe to magazines, purchase goods by mail, invest in any market or savings plan, or simply own telephones are subject to these sales calls with increasing frequency.

Solution:

I propose the initiation of a bill specifically aimed at limiting the anonymous nature of these calls. This bill should be framed in a fashion similar to the regulations regarding the proliferation and maintenance of time-charged ('900') numbers and the sale and distribution of mailing lists. For the purposes of the bill, an unsolicited sales call would be defined as a call made by any business or organization for the purpose of offering a product or service, or soliciting money, involvement, or other investment on the part of the recipient of the call, to a person who has not specifically requested such a call. The following should be the central points covered by the bill:

• All unsolicited telephone sales calls (as defined above) must be preceded by a 10-second, pre-recorded announcement that identifies the call as a sales call, and informs the recipient of the call that s/he may simply hang up without any further involvement if so desired. For example: "Hello. The following is a sales presentation. You may hang up now if you do not wish to engage in this call."
• Local telephone companies must create and maintain a list of telephone numbers of those people who have specifically requested that they receive no unsolicited sales calls at that number. Any business making unsolicited sales calls must first obtain the most current list from the telephone company and abstain from calling any number on the list. Telephone service subscribers must be given a form along with their monthly bill on which to indicate their preference regarding the receipt of unsolicited sales calls.
• Any business or organization that initiates an unsolicited sales call must provide a valid and current mailing address to the call recipient upon request.
• A business or organization that initiates an unsolicited sales call may not intentionally suppress the transmission of its telephone number for Caller ID purposes.

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