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I sued a telemarketer and got $4,000

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Re: I sued a telemarketer and got $4,000

#51

Post by pavel_lishin »

eslachance wrote: post #28
pavel_lishin wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He most certainly sued: > I wrote back giving them the dates and caller IDs of the calls, and when I didn’t hear back in a week, I filed my suit. He just settled out of court before appearing in front of a judge. > Wish I could find the nerve to do this myself. Why don't you? What do you have to lose, aside the time trying to track them down?

Oh I misread that as "I threated to sue if I didn't hear back in a week". Oops, sorry, my bad. As for trying it myself, I guess it's simply because whenever I get into such a situation, I lose my nerve, butterflies invade my stomach, and I can't think straight. Just calling Visa to try to report it gave me the same kind of jitters, I really hate it. I will, however, report the information I have in my possession to m…

I doubt the local police department will care. Why not think of this as a way to practice not being nervous?

Re: I sued a telemarketer and got $4,000

#52

Post by Karunamon »

crusso wrote: post #31
reader5000 wrote: post #19

Main culprits in this nonsense are the phone companies who profit off it at their customers' expense. It's basically like cable tv where you're expected to pay to watch commercials.

So you want the Phone Companies to get involved in policing the content of the calls that are made? When you order a phone line, should the Phone Company put you through a detailed and exhaustive screening process mandated by their lawyers because they've been sued for the contents of calls that some of their customers have made? Should they then be allowed to monitor your calls for violations of their AUP? I mean, i…

>So you want the Phone Companies to get involved in policing the content of the calls that are made?

I don't think it's beyond the pale to suggest that phone companies don't allow scammers on their network. Look what happens to ISPs who allow spambots. And there's no policing of content required, merely responding to valid third party reports.

Re: I sued a telemarketer and got $4,000

#53

Post by goatforce5 »

maxerickson wrote: post #25
xxiao wrote: post #20

like this. i was bothered by a caller so much that I had to switch my phone to a new number. yes I'm on the do-not-call list, but the calling company, or more likely some agent it contracts, does not care. the company is named italkBB and i was also getting calls from dish network for months after i ended the contract with them. there is Dell too, after i bought laptop from it i started t o get calls from them, I tol…

If it is a legit call, ask to be put on their courtesy do not call list. It is fairly non confrontational (especially to the voice on the line) and a very direct signal that you are a dead lead.

Also, when cancelling a subscription service tell them the reason why you're cancelling is because you're moving overseas.

When I did that in the UK (when I was moving overseas, as it happens) I found that it was a really effective way of bypassing all the usual retention nonsense and, i'd presume, any follow-up calls. If you're moving out of their service area, there's literally nothing they can do to keep you on their service.

Re: I sued a telemarketer and got $4,000

#54

Post by larrys »

Killswitch wrote: post #9

I like this article. I worked in telemarketing for a while, and was probably one of the shittiest jobs I ever had. Not only did the companies not give a crap about the laws, they didn't care about their supposed customers. We sold worthless stuff trying to pursued them into using it over much better and more established companies. Example: AAA tow services. I found myself trying to be the good guy in the situation an…

"Shady shit, glad I don't do that anymore."

But this also proves something. From what you've written you knew you were doing something that was wrong. As one example:

"We sold worthless stuff trying to pursued (sic) them into using it over much better and more established companies"

But you had to earn a living so you did that. Now I don't know what your particular situation was or how badly you needed the job (proverbial relative dying of cancer or you would be homeless?) but it might be the same premise that the people running the business operate under. Everybody of course draws the line at a different point in terms of the "harm" they are willing to do. They feel that what they do is ok or possibly de-minimis but what someone else is doing on a larger scale (a guy who did what you did for 20 years or owned the business) is "bad".

I'm curious (and not being judgmental that you worked there as we all have different lines) why you kept that job when you saw what they were doing?

Re: I sued a telemarketer and got $4,000

#55

Post by reader5000 »

crusso wrote: post #31
reader5000 wrote: post #19

Main culprits in this nonsense are the phone companies who profit off it at their customers' expense. It's basically like cable tv where you're expected to pay to watch commercials.

So you want the Phone Companies to get involved in policing the content of the calls that are made? When you order a phone line, should the Phone Company put you through a detailed and exhaustive screening process mandated by their lawyers because they've been sued for the contents of calls that some of their customers have made? Should they then be allowed to monitor your calls for violations of their AUP? I mean, i…

No I was thinking more non-batshit insane measures.

For starters they could let you block calls from unknown numbers.

Indeed, they could require some sort of licensing for numbers/entities originating large volumes of calls.

They could also disallow caller id blocking.

But the reality is abusive telemarketing tactics are a substantial revenue stream for them, so they dont give a shit.

Re: I sued a telemarketer and got $4,000

#56

Post by fffggg »

crusso wrote: post #31
reader5000 wrote: post #19

Main culprits in this nonsense are the phone companies who profit off it at their customers' expense. It's basically like cable tv where you're expected to pay to watch commercials.

So you want the Phone Companies to get involved in policing the content of the calls that are made? When you order a phone line, should the Phone Company put you through a detailed and exhaustive screening process mandated by their lawyers because they've been sued for the contents of calls that some of their customers have made? Should they then be allowed to monitor your calls for violations of their AUP? I mean, i…

What you suggest is absolutely unnecessary. Merely requiring an identifiable contact is enough to prevent this sort of behavior -- and this was how things were before voip opened things up to untraceable abuse.

The phone company doesn't need to police anything -- they just need to identify the endpoints of a call when a subpoena is issued.

Re: I sued a telemarketer and got $4,000

#57

Post by pcopley »

eli wrote: post #50

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but none of this (do not call list, TCPA) applies to a business phone line, correct? I get constant sleazy robocalls on a business line.

Correct. Business phone lines (generally) exist to get unsolicited phone calls from people with whom the owner has no existing business relationship.

Re: I sued a telemarketer and got $4,000

#58

Post by pcopley »

xxiao wrote: post #20

like this. i was bothered by a caller so much that I had to switch my phone to a new number. yes I'm on the do-not-call list, but the calling company, or more likely some agent it contracts, does not care. the company is named italkBB and i was also getting calls from dish network for months after i ended the contract with them. there is Dell too, after i bought laptop from it i started t o get calls from them, I tol…

The OP can probably clarify, but I would imagine in the case of Dish network they were allowed to call you because they had a business relationship with you as a prior customer. The same with Dell as once you purchased the laptop they had an existing relationship.

I'm not sure what the precedence is for internal DNC lists v. national DNC registry v. existing business relationships though, so they may still be at some legal fault.

Re: I sued a telemarketer and got $4,000

#59

Post by jcc80 »

larrys wrote: post #54
Killswitch wrote: post #9

I like this article. I worked in telemarketing for a while, and was probably one of the shittiest jobs I ever had. Not only did the companies not give a crap about the laws, they didn't care about their supposed customers. We sold worthless stuff trying to pursued them into using it over much better and more established companies. Example: AAA tow services. I found myself trying to be the good guy in the situation an…

"Shady shit, glad I don't do that anymore." But this also proves something. From what you've written you knew you were doing something that was wrong. As one example: "We sold worthless stuff trying to pursued (sic) them into using it over much better and more established companies" But you had to earn a living so you did that. Now I don't know what your particular situation was or how badly you needed the job (prove…

It's pretty obvious - he needed to feed & cloth himself. For some, (perhaps you?) there must be some catastrophic event to create day to day money problems. For many people, especially the often young students or mothers who work these jobs, day to day money problems are just a fact of life. Should people plan better so they don't have to compromise and do things they disagree with? Of course, but that isn't everyone's reality.

edit: Or maybe he just wanted money for Spring Break...

Re: I sued a telemarketer and got $4,000

#60

Post by randomfool »

michaelrkn wrote: post #14
alain94040 wrote: post #11

Great, but the main problem is to find out who is calling you. I wish the phone company had some kind of obligation to give me that information, so I could trace back annoying telemarketing calls. Stringing them along until they reveal who they work for just doesn't work well. Another idea would be for banks to offer special credit card numbers, that get automatically flagged as bogus purchases. Any bank offering suc…

Thanks to Voice over IP, this is pretty much impossible to regulate any more. The telephone networks were built on a trust model that VoIP destroyed. Now, you can originate a call on the internet that's nearly impossible to trace.

The current caller ID system is incredibly broken- I'm getting 3 calls a day to my personal cell phone from the same scammers and have not been able to get their real contact info. After watching all these TV shows with the 'hang up within 10secs or you'll be traced!' I expected AT&T to be able to help me out. No dice.

Unfortunately the phone #'s are always random and AT&T just wants to sell me a service that allows me to block up to 30 phone numbers. But they're calling from more than 30.

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