More on Gabriola telemarketing annoyance
Those cursed telemarketers called me at 9:47 am yesterday (Sunday!) morning; I bet they’re targeting all of Gabriola Island. (See previous blog entry about them here.)
The call display said unidentified caller. The recorded message began Local septic tank owners…
Good heavens. I want to know which slimeball company is behind this, because these morons keep calling and calling. So this time I did wait on the line, and I did press 1 for more information. That got me to more recorded nonsense. It’s all about some miraculous product for my septic tank, yadda yadda. They asked me to leave my name and number so they could call me back.
I hung up, and grumped about people who call before I have enough caffeine in my brain to be awake. And then I went to the CRTC‘s website to see if this is even legal. Apparently not. The CRTC says that telemarketers must follow these rules when they call:
- Among other things, telemarketers must:
- identify who they are and, upon request, provide you with a fax or telephone number where you can speak to someone about the telemarketing call
- display the telephone number that they are calling from or that you can call to reach them, and
- only call or send faxes between 9:00 a.m. and 9:30 p.m. on weekdays and between 10:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. on weekends.
- Telemarketers must not use Automatic Dialing and Announcing Device (devices that dial telephone numbers automatically and deliver a pre-recorded message). However, these devices can be used by police and fire departments, schools and hospitals, as well as for appointment reminders and thank you calls.
The fine for breaking these rules can be up to $15,000 for a corporation, and that’s for each violation.
So, hmmm. Maybe I will leave a message for the telemarketers next time, so they can call me back and tell me who they are. And then I can feed them to the legal department at the CRTC.
Related
- Are these complaints about the same compay? – 800notes.com
- Septic Safety – tcpatools.com
Filed in assorted 2 Comments so far
2 Responses to “More on Gabriola telemarketing annoyance”
marja-leena on 08 Mar 2010 at 10:56 am #
The worst offenders for us are these recorded loud messages about “an urgent message regarding your credit card” and to press a number on the keypad to call back. We always hang up. Because we don’t have call display, there seems to be no way we can get information on who they are to report them to CRTC. Have you or any of your readers had these calls and been able to report them? I worry that some seniors or others may be trapped by this.
(Sorry to use your blog as a message board – you’ve touched a nerve with this post!)
Gabriolan on 08 Mar 2010 at 11:37 am #
I wish I had a good answer for you, marja-leena, but I can’t think of one. If you can spare the effort you might talk to your phone company and the CRTC about this: ask them how you can find out who’s calling you in order to make a complaint.