masterwolfe
Resident Redneck
join:2001-03-07
Hiawassee, GA
 ·Windstream
| Check this out
ETC (local phone company here) got my gf's name wrong when they signed her up, badly wrong, such as Lisa instead of Mary, and that is not her middle name or any sort of alias she uses. Within a week of her signing up, she was getting tons of junk snail mail addressed to Lisa... so when we moved into a house together, and I opened an account with them, I asked them to use just my first initial, and sure enough... I get tons of junk mail addressed to me by that name. And the lady I spoke with SWORE they don't sell or give out such info. Bull-CRAP they don't.
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Dishplayer 625, DirecTV Plus R15, Windstream Ultra DSL |
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peter_m
Premium
join:2005-07-13
Canada, QC | Scary that they would lie to you flat out! Must have some local laws that protect you from this? |
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masterwolfe
Resident Redneck
join:2001-03-07
Hiawassee, GA
·Windstream
| The CSR might not even be aware... who knows? Shortly thereafter, I canceled my account with them, since they also lied about a supposed upgrade in my area, which never happened.
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Dishplayer 625, DirecTV Plus R15, Windstream Ultra DSL |
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odinb
join:2001-11-26
Frisco, TX
| reply to masterwolfe
SBC (now AT&T) does a similar thing. As soon as your phone is active (same day or day after), the "please donate to this or that" starts coming in massively. I had to shut off the ringer to stop it, I was getting 2-3 calls per day after a couple of weeks....
I never gave out that number to anyone, since my main line is a VOIP line, and the SBC-one was just to get a discount on the DSL. The rep clearly stated that they did not sell my number when I asked, yeah, sure...
Now I do not even connect a phone to the AT&T line anymore, so they can call all they want.
This has never happened to me on any of my VOIP-lines...
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Type "miserable failure" in Google |
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peter_m
Premium
join:2005-07-13
Canada, QC | reply to masterwolfe
You are right, the CSR might not be the problem and she might have been told to answer that way. As a corporation, they still lied to you. |
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David
Last man standing
Premium,VIP
join:2002-05-30
Granite City, IL
clubs:
 ·magicjack.com
·AT&T Midwest
| reply to odinb
Well I hate to kind of burst your bubble, and the only reason why I am bursting it is on something that you may or may not know.
Two things you need to know.
1.) I have worked for a telemarketing company for a short amount of time in my life. Yea it was 1996 if memory serves, only worked there about 3 months max. It didn't pay worth a crap, and I am just not that good of a salesman. It was one of those things "Ok I tried it once in my life, not going to do it again." type of deals.
2.) Been working for at&t for about 7 years.
So I can qualify myself for both sides of the fence.
When you buy a new phone number or a land line with any traditional telephone company, or ILEC. It's been long known that most phone companies, including CLEC's, have always published a directory. Since way before ma bell was ever broken up they published a white pages and a yellow pages. I think the yellow pages came later (I will have to look this up when I have a spare hour). The white pages printed in public everyone's name and phone number. Now something you didn't know. There's a directory out there called the "haynes Criss-cross directory" (»www.haines.com/index.html). Basically this is one of many companies that takes a local directory and compiles it with other local directories, basically for marketing purposes. They sell disks and such to load inside of auto dialers and such for telemarketers. Now you probably ask how do they get the local numbers? Shockingly enough they pay for them! It's public information so why not? They even pay more money for more recent ones. I have heard that some people even got paid to send companies such as these those books.
Now I know this is going to be shocking and I thought about it for a few years and thought there was nothing I could do. Till one day at a gas station I talked to someone who was annoyed as I was. The guy across from me and him said "Get an unlisted number, solved my problem!"
Now I kind of thought $1.60 a month was nothing much so I gave it a shot. Switched the number and the new one was unlisted. Sure enough, my calls I got in 1998-1999 were virtually nil. I couldn't count the number of sales calls I got on one hand. The other thing it did was when people dialed your old number, they didn't get your new one. You had to give it out. Opposed to the switch telling you that the number has been changed and here it is.
Now why is VoIP exclusive? Well last time I checked a VoIP company don't provide phone books, like a traditional ILEC/CLEC does. I think the ILEC is required to provide a free White pages and the yellow pages are paid by local companies in your area. I don't think VoIP is required to do this. If they are ever required to I would expect this telemarketing tide to change and not for the better. Plus there is probably nothing in your EULA that says they can't sell those numbers at any point in time. Cell phones got excluded by the FCC because people pay for minutes for calls received and made. VoIP, while I like it and even assist customers with it on occasion, will probably break down and do it after a while. I don't think people with VoIP pay per call sent and received least the vonage ads don't say it on tv. So if vonage was desperate for cash they could publish their lists, there's nothing that says they can't. Even then the national do not call list might apply, or might not.
Morale of the story: Your phone number that is of an ILEC base or land line belongs to an ILEC/CLEC and typically is required to be published (I honestly think it is either a courtesy or a requirement). You can probably defeat this on 3 fronts.
1.) national do not call lists
2.) state level do not call lists
3.) unlisted number.
The last sales person that called me on my home phone here was about 6 months ago. Only reason he knew our number was we gave it out at a home improvement show in STL. So do I consider all three of those a success. Well I am not answering my phone much less hear it ring every day of the week. More of my wife's friends call than anything.
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If you have a topic in the direct forum please reply to it or a post of mine, I get a notification when you do this.
Koetting Ford, Granite City, illinois... YOU'RE FIRED!!
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morbo
Complete Your Transaction
join:2002-01-22
00000
clubs:
 ·Charter Pipeline
·AT&T Southwest
| customers should not have to pay any monthly fee to avoid harassment by telemarketers, due to AT&T/phone company basically selling your information.
yes yes. do not call lists, and what not. but those take MONTHS to go through. in the mean time, multiple unsolicited calls per day.
the default should always be PRIVACY. unless consumers ask for it, PRIVACY SHOULD BE THE DEFAULT.
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David
Last man standing
Premium,VIP
join:2002-05-30
Granite City, IL
clubs:
·magicjack.com
·AT&T Midwest
| Well I guess you could tell the ILECs to stop selling or even giving away the white pages I guess. But then again if the ILECs/CLECs give the phone books away for free, and I wanted to make a quick $25 plus free shipping to one of these places who's to stop me? or anyone for that matter?
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