Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!samsung!sdd.hp.com!decwrl!hayes.fai.alaska.edu!accuvax.nwu.edu!nucsrl!telecom-request From: wagner@utoday.com (Mitch Wagner) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: San Jose Mercury Strikes Again Message-ID: <11425@accuvax.nwu.edu> Date: 26 Aug 90 22:51:21 GMT Sender: news@accuvax.nwu.edu Reply-To: wagner@utoday.com (Mitch Wagner) Organization: UNIX Today!, Manhasset, NY Lines: 83 Approved: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 10, Issue 602, Message 2 of 6 In article <11328@accuvax.nwu.edu> John Higdon writes: [ That he has ten phone lines in his home, and he's been getting calls from the San Jose Mercury News boiler-room telemarketers on every one of them and that he hasn't been getting any cooperation from the telemarketers in getting the calls to stop. ] # I told them that I considered this to be telephone harrasment. Then I # asked for a good reason for me not to turn the matter over to my # attorney for civil action. The reason one of them gave was, "This is a # major telemarketing effort. It is virtually impossible to guarantee # that some specific numbers won't be called in light of how many # automated calls are made each day." Translation: Your telephone # tranquility and privacy, Mr. Higdon, is secondary to the larger # picture of telemarketing and commerce. My response was that I viewed # the situation in reverse. My peace and privacy would prevail over # their entire operation, if necessary. If I had to shut them down to # keep from getting further calls, that's what I would do. # Where did we leave it? They will block the entire 723 prefix from # their machine until they figure out how to REALLY block individual # numbers. (I guess all the previous conversations were just pissing in # the wind; they never were able to block as they had claimed.) If the # calls stop, that's just fine. I suggest you start sending them registered, return-receipt-requested letters of the "As we discussed in a telephone conversation earlier today.... " variety. Also, keep careful notes of your phone conversations with these people. You want to have evidence of your good-faith efforts if you do go to court on this. Have you tried going to the Merc to complain about what their contractors are doing in their name? Also, have you considered filing *CRIMINAL* harassment charges against the president of the company by name, and John Doe, Richard Roe, etc., being employees of that company acting on orders of the president. If you've considered it and rejected it, think again. This strikes me as being right down the middle of the definition of criminal harassment: They've been calling you ten times a night, on several nights, despite your repeated requests to stop. If they are found guilty, they'd be fined a couple of hundred bucks, which would probably not hurt them much, but you'll have achieved two goals: (1) You will have impressed them as being not just some moron off the streets, but rather someone with access to the courts and willingness to use them and (2) Perhaps more importantly, the defendants will be required to show up in court or face contempt charges and possible jail time. Let them learn what it's like to lose time to petty bullshit! Also, you may want to have your lawyer send them a letter demanding that they stop, for reasons similar to number one in the above paragraph -- let 'em take a gander at that law-firm letterhead and know you are not just some schmuck in a trailer-park. DISCLAIMER: I am not a lawyer, so you take my advice at your own risk. (Actually, most people I know have learned better than to take *my* advice; that's why I've been forced to take my act to comp.dcom.telecom.... :-) As an afterthought, why do you have ringers on your modem lines, anyway? I don't even have a phone on my modem line; when I do get around to getting a cheapie to plug in there, I'll probably keep the ringer off. Everybody who knows me knows that I only answer the other line -- since I only dial out on the modem line, I couldn't even tell you off the top of my head what the number is.... ) Mitch Wagner VOICE: 516/562-5758 GEnie: UNIX-TODAY UUCP: wagner@utoday.com ..uunet!utoday!wagner [Moderator's Note: Bravo number two! Really, the only thing some companies understand is repeated slaps with lawsuits; particularly in Small Claims/Pro Se Court, which they *hate*. And document *everything*, and every name, even the switchboard operator and the receptionist. Sue 'em all, individually and in their employment capacity. PAT]