Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

France to ban unsolicited telemarketing calls

lemonde.fr

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

151–160 of 525 posts

Re: France to ban unsolicited telemarketing calls

#151

Post by 72deluxe »

amelius wrote: post #134
72deluxe wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes of course. But I was saying of the people I've had at my door, only some have been trying to sell things, which is what a "salesman" is. The guy from the local baptist church gave me a some book about being saved by Jesus (it had instructions on how to pray I think? dunno threw it away) but he didn't ask me for any money. By contrast, the Lithuanian girl who was trying to sell religious books (no idea who they we…

> The article is about sales calls, not general nuisances. So someone calling you to "make you aware of $X" does not count as sales? And they would be permitted to call you? I hope they fix this loophole quickly!

In the UK the Telephone Preference Service (TPS) is the register for saying "I don't want unsolicited live sales or marketing calls". "Making you aware of" on behalf of a business is a marketing call, so there is no "loophole" to fix.

If the business ignores the rules, there is little that can be done legally.

UK law differentiates between businesses, charities and individuals. I do not know how it is done in other countries, but in the UK you can't pretend that a lone individual ringing you is a "marketing" call, no matter how much you dislike the other person or their topic. If it is a person ringing on behalf of a business, it's a business or marketing call, and therefore subject to TPS.

I do not know how registered charities (not businesses) relate to TPS. I haven't received a call from a charity that I can remember, but my grandma once did get a call from the RSPB whose telehandler seemed oblivious to her having suffered a stroke with speech difficulties, and subsequently arranged for a boatload of bird seed and pamphlets for her to distribute (which would be impossible!).

TPS also does not apply to individuals, which is why any individual can lawfully ring someone else, unless the calls are repeated (harassment), but again that doesn't fall under TPS.

You can become "ex-directory" to stop your number being listed, but this doesn't stop organisations just iterating phone numbers incrementally hoping to find someone.

I do not know if you're in the UK, but you can see the definitions of problematic calls and what you can do according to OFCOM here: https://www.ofcom.org.uk/phones-and-broadband/scam-calls-and...

For visitors to your door, you can put a sign up. I have. It stops all visitors. I also have a video doorbell so I can decide whether I bother answering the door.

Re: France to ban unsolicited telemarketing calls

#153

Post by corford »

nehal3m wrote: post #87
Kon5ole wrote: post #11

Great idea! Telemarketers have ruined the phone network for me. I haven't answered an unknown call for the past 10 years, which sometimes means I miss important ones. 99.9% of all calls are an attempt to get money, and the 0.1% that's a dentist appointment, a friend that changed numbers or whatever become collateral damage. A ban is the right idea but I wonder how they can handle it, logistically. I think there needs…

Marketing ruins everything it touches, from the public square to the internet and from the phone network to radio. I don’t know what the alternative is, but I don’t need one to see this is shit.

These would all help: well funded public broadcasting (for TV & radio); strongly enforced regulations for public advertising (public square); encouragement of open source & open standards; real anti-trust enforcement.

Most of the above exists - the problem is political & regulatory capture constantly undermines and weakens a lot of it.

Re: France to ban unsolicited telemarketing calls

#154

Post by mcv »

Fnoord wrote: post #111
mcv wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From the same company? That's crazy. You'd think they'd get the message, but they're really stubborn. Most Dutch companies seem to obey the rules, but this one (and it's a big one) clearly does not. I still don't understand why they weren't fined into oblivion.

Were you a former customer of Vodafone-Ziggo? If yes, did you delete your account?

Even if, they shouldn't call me again after I tell them not to.

Re: France to ban unsolicited telemarketing calls

#155

Post by embedding-shape »

Gigachad wrote: post #39
Kon5ole wrote: post #11

Great idea! Telemarketers have ruined the phone network for me. I haven't answered an unknown call for the past 10 years, which sometimes means I miss important ones. 99.9% of all calls are an attempt to get money, and the 0.1% that's a dentist appointment, a friend that changed numbers or whatever become collateral damage. A ban is the right idea but I wonder how they can handle it, logistically. I think there needs…

I wonder how much we even need international calls from unknown numbers. In my life I have literally never legitimately had a call from an unknown number outside of the country. I guess it could be different if you have many connections or business deals internationally. But I feel like the average person could restrict inbound international calls to contacts only and be better off for it.

> In my life I have literally never legitimately had a call from an unknown number outside of the country. I guess it could be different if you have many connections or business deals internationally.

There are a ton of us who are from one country, but moved to another, maybe more in EU than other places (not sure), but I really wouldn't say it's uncommon or even out of the ordinary. And I think most of us in this situation, have received/made international calls at least once in our life.

Re: France to ban unsolicited telemarketing calls

#156

Post by rdmuser »

I had a bit of a funny situation happen where putting myself on the do not call list stopped calls from more reputable sources but also caused an even bigger increase in sketchy calls. I switched to using a free service tied to my phone company that makes callers enter a number before being forwarded. Turns out nearly 100% of these remaining calls were automated and got dropped. Turns out sometimes you need two fences to make good neighbors.

Re: France to ban unsolicited telemarketing calls

#158

Post by Schiendelman »

dd8601fn wrote: post #54
Schiendelman wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I found a good solution for that - just remove the "phone" app from the home screen.

Yeah… I’m an old. I still make and receive phone calls pretty regularly.

I do too. You don't need to have the phone app on your home screen to do either of those.
Post reply on HN