Posted on 10/16/2012 10:37:37 AM PDT by MissesBush
Like you I joined the do not call list. I generally do not like to receive unsolicited calls including political ones. But politics is not what the do-not-call is for. It might be nice to have that option, but that is not what joining tells people.
I might go along with the idea that it would be worthwhile to scrub call lists from most of these numbers because they will be less productive. But even then I think the question is whether calling them does more harm than good. My opinion is if you call everyone else and still have resources to call these too, you will likely still gain more support than you lose by calling.
My personal solution to unwanted calls is to generally let unrecognized callers go to voice mail. Many of these are mis-dialed calls which the dnl does not prevent either. If someone is particularly tedious I might use the ultimate punishment for someone paid for calling and simply answer in a friendly voice and ask can they hold on for little while and then never come back (so they waste time calling and lose money). I have done this on rare occasions.
Like you I also code. I have written some interactive-voice-response routines to route some of my call traffic. When I find the time I plan to set up a type of white list and caller authentication system that will screen unwanted calls more thoroughly.
The bottom line though is that if you have a phone there are generally going to be times you have to deal with unwanted calls whether it is like these or even just friends, family, customers, etc. calling at inopportune times. To me it is only realistic to accept it and manage my calls accordingly.
Sales and political calls are mostly numbers games. These may very rarely allow someone to persuade someone else to change their vote. What they are more likely to accomplish is remind people of a deadline to register or get someone to early vote who might otherwise be at risk of not voting due to a work schedule or travel issue. People also sometimes miss voting due to getting sick or having some other major issue keep them from voting or registering in time. Only a small percentage of calls may translate into additional votes, but those few extras may be enough to change the outcome in some cases.
Anyone who does these calls should have a thick skin and be willing to politely and meekly apologize to anyone offended or caught at a bad time. It is also an opportunity to correct wrong impressions in some cases.
FYI. I just stumbled on that the FTC is offering a $50,000 prize for the best solution to stopping calls that violate the do not call list laws:
http://robocall.challenge.gov/
Wouldn’t mind collaborating with a like-minded fellow coder on a project like this.
“FYI. I just stumbled on that the FTC is offering a $50,000 prize for the best solution to stopping calls that violate the do not call list laws:”
1) Prohibit non-residential phones from suppressing their caller ID. Significant fines for any phone company which allows this. A call volume trip point could be set for even residential phones say for example 50 or more calls a day eliminates the residential exemption to number suppression. I am seeing approx 50% of offending callers suppressing their number.
2) Develop a manual push button code sequence like *-1-1-1 which could be detected when an unwanted telemarketing call on a DNC listed phone is received to immediately put that number on notice with the FTC.
3) I was looking at programming a micro which contained my list of allowed numbers and all others would suppress the phone ring then send the caller to VM or, if an out of state area code, generate the tone sequence for an out of service line would be automatically generated. Some of these call centers automatically delete a number if they receive that tone sequence.
4) A no charge website which lists the phone co, owner of violating phone number, full address should be mandatory (again with the residential exemption).
Funny while I was typing this some douche bag called for Credit Services ( 5 to 8 of these every day) hiding their number behind “Easy College”. I’ll file a report on them immediately.
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