Hanging Up On Telemarketers

We all have long, hard days when the world presses in at every turn. All you want to do is go home, wrap your family around you, and luxuriate in the privacy of your own home. Then the phone rings. You interrupt your conversation with your family, get up from the dinner table, answer the phone, and spend the next 60 seconds trying to disentangle yourself from a telemarketing sales call. If yours is an average household, you can get two or three, or even as many as five or six phone calls from telemarketers every day. For most people it is nothing less than a gross violation of privacy. That is why a law recently passed by the General Assembly that becomes effective January 1, 2001, is already proving to be one of the most popular new consumer laws ever to be enacted in this state.

The state Department of Consumer Protection reported that the initial public response to the new telemarketing legislation has been overwhelming. In less than a week, the agency has collected more than 10,000 names of people who have signed up for their new “No Call” list. After the first of the year, telemarketers inside and outside of Connecticut will face stiff fines – $5,000 in civil penalties and up to $25,000 for violating restraining orders – for calling anyone on the list. There are some exceptions to this rule: calls for which the consumer has given prior written or verbal permission; calls from tax-exempt, non-profit organizations; calls from phone companies compiling their own directories; and calls involving an existing debt or contract in which the consumer is involved. Even with these exceptions, this new legislation marks a major step forward in preserving the sanctity and privacy of our homes from our society’s ubiquitous pitchmen.

The Department of Consumer Protection says that Connecticut residents are signing up to have their phone numbers placed on the “No Call” list at a rate of 2,000 a day. If you would like to join the growing number of people who want to hang up permanently on telemarketers, contact the DCP: mail, Department of Consumer Protection, Trade Practices Division, 165 Capitol Avenue, Hartford, CT 06106; phone, 800/842-2649; or fax, 860/713-7239. The quickest way to sign up, however, is by visiting the DCP Web site at www.state.ct.us/dcp/ and filling out the online form.