Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!zephyr.ens.tek.com!uw-beaver!mit-eddie!mintaka!olivea!samsung!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!usc!ucselx!bionet!hayes.ims.alaska.edu!accuvax.nwu.edu!nucsrl!telecom-request From: john@bovine.ati.com (John Higdon) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: Mercury Marketing Again Message-ID: <13999@accuvax.nwu.edu> Date: 25 Oct 90 03:43:58 GMT Sender: news@accuvax.nwu.edu Reply-To: John Higdon Organization: Green Hills and Cows Lines: 41 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 761, Message 2 of 10 John Cowan writes: > I don't understand what's so difficult about getting rid of > telemarketing calls. I've never had more than two of them from an > undesired source. But your techniques wouldn't work with the Merky News. They pay no attention to whom they call on either a short or long term basis. The numbers are dialed by a machine and then passed to a boiler room operator. Even if you threatened to boil the caller in oil, you could find the same person calling you back the next evening -- and it wouldn't be his fault! The system doesn't care about your response, it doesn't care whether you already subscribe, and it doesn't care if you are a Trailblazer; it will call you back over and over again. > [Moderator's Note: My sentiments exactly. I've always been amused by > the messages both here and elsewhere on the net by folks who > apparently are frightened to death that they might actually encounter > one on the phone and have to say no... I have no trouble telling telemarketers where they can go and what they can do. Where I draw the line is when the same one calls back three and four times a week, week after week, going sequentially down my ten lines EACH TIME. Please do not trivialize the offensiveness of the Merky telemarketing. I regularly turn down the Police Athletic League, the Fund for Homeless Furniture Makers, endless investment "opportunities", MCI LD offers, etc. The list is endless. BUT ... 1) These groups and salespeople take "no" for an answer and don't call back for at least a couple of months, and ... 2) they don't scan down sequentially, turning a minor inconvenience into a major annoyance. The Merky News telemarketing system is possibly the most offensive and irritating abomination ever concocted in the world of telephony (short of GTE and COCOTs, of course). There is no defense against it other than direct legal threats to those in charge. This has worked quite nicely, but for now only those with 723 prefixes are safe :-) John Higdon | P. O. Box 7648 | +1 408 723 1395 john@bovine.ati.com | San Jose, CA 95150 | M o o !