“Jingle All the Way to Robocall Madness” |
| Jingle All the Way to Robocall Madness Posted: 13 Dec 2010 08:03 PM PST Updated: Monday, 13 Dec 2010, 9:48 PM CST HOUSTON - Those jingle bells you hear this time of year might just be phone calls from telemarketers, even if you're on the Do Not Call list. I heard that jingling on Monday morning. So I whipped out my iPhone to record the sales pitch. After all, it was about the sixth time this same robo-call landed on my number, offering to set up a free, in-home evaluation to earn me a $3700 tax credit for reducing my power consumption. The only way to get that much back from the government is to install alternative-energy technology, like solar panels, says tax accountant Bob Martin. Anyhow, I pressed "1" and talked to a representative from the Energy Awareness Organization. Google that name and you'll come up with a list of complaints. Now you can add me to that list. Here's how the phone call went: Ned Hibberd: "Ma'am, our phone number is on the do not call list. Why am I getting these phone calls?" "Lisa" with Energy Awareness Organization: "Right... see, cuz the Do Not Call list applies to sales people and telemarketers. Since we're neither of those, that's why we're able to call you. So this is not a sales call." That argument won't fly with the courts. They've ruled that if the call is made for a commercial purpose, it's a sales call. Now back to the conversation… Ned Hibberd: "Be that as it may, I have asked Brad with your same organization to take our number off the robo-call list." "Lisa": "Okay, so you're not interested in reducing your power bill?" "If you speak with them," says Leah Napoliello with the Houston Better Business Bureau, "they are going to try to sell you something, of course. So the best thing is just to cut them off before you can even engage with them further." Napoliello tells me there are exceptions to the Do Not Call rules, but this company doesn't appear to qualify for any of them. "It's not legal whatsoever. And especially if someone is calling you like that, over and over again, the best thing to do is to file a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission." I might just do that. And, by the way, I tried to contact the Energy Awareness Organization for its side of the story. I called three of the phone numbers that are associated with their calls. But my calls just rolled over to voicemail. And wouldn't you know it? The inboxes were full. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php |
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