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I sued a telemarketer and got $4,000

impactdialing.com

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

#21

Post by latch »

pavel_lishin wrote: post #16
latch wrote: post #4

The first call after he goes on the DNC is clearly a violation. The calls thereafter, when he's stringing them along...not so sure. Once you start saying "I'm interested, tell me more"...I think the company has a fairly solid claim of having a business relationship...if not legally, certainly ethically.

What about the very first call? That's certainly a violation as well.

I agree that 1 or more calls were improper. And threatening to sue for that and getting money is fine. Maybe it doesn't matter that the last X calls weren't if the first Y calls were...still seemed worth pointing it out.

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

#22

Post by thesis »

michaelrkn wrote: post #13
_sentient wrote: post #7

It would be nice if the author had laid out some examples of how telemarketing can be done correctly, without breaking any laws and risking this sort of response. Hopefully we will see a followup post that explains how Impact Dialing gets away with it, but I suspect that they benefit from all the fear and uncertainty.

Hi Sentient. We actually mainly work with political campaigns, which are exempt from the regulations. I don't think we benefit from the uncertainty; it makes it difficult to explain to potential customers what is and isn't legal, and we turn away clients sometimes because they aren't familiar enough with the laws to know what's legal and what's not.

Political robocall campaigns are absolutely NOT exempt in every state.

It's kind of odd that you'd make the initial post about how people need to do robocalls right and then you make a blanket statement how political campaigns are exempt.

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

#23

Post by Monotoko »

corin_ wrote: post #8

> Although manually dialing is very rare, many of these regulations do not apply to manually dialing. Followed by > I already had three violations on my hand, but I knew I could get two more pretty easily. The next day, I called the alarm company and asked to be put on their internal Do Not Call list, and asked for a copy of their Do Not Call policy. A few days later, David called me again – violation number four. So…

I don't understand why people are voting this guy down. That certainly wasn't a violation, ethically at least. You told him to call you back!

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

#24

Post by ianferrel »

latch wrote: post #4

The first call after he goes on the DNC is clearly a violation. The calls thereafter, when he's stringing them along...not so sure. Once you start saying "I'm interested, tell me more"...I think the company has a fairly solid claim of having a business relationship...if not legally, certainly ethically.

In my opinion, the fact that there's no way to figure out who is calling you and hold them accountable without stringing them along makes this an ethical thing to do.

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

#25

Post by maxerickson »

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.

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

#26

Post by lrs »

michaelrkn wrote: post #13
_sentient wrote: post #7

It would be nice if the author had laid out some examples of how telemarketing can be done correctly, without breaking any laws and risking this sort of response. Hopefully we will see a followup post that explains how Impact Dialing gets away with it, but I suspect that they benefit from all the fear and uncertainty.

Hi Sentient. We actually mainly work with political campaigns, which are exempt from the regulations. I don't think we benefit from the uncertainty; it makes it difficult to explain to potential customers what is and isn't legal, and we turn away clients sometimes because they aren't familiar enough with the laws to know what's legal and what's not.

What sorts of policies and practices, if any, do you have in place to prevent your company or clients from engaging in the kind of behavior that you yourself found so personally objectionable that you sued for it?

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

#27

Post by gwillen »

I'd really like to make this work if I could, but I suspect it's impossible in my specific case: all the robocalls I get are scam calls, trying to sell me credit-score services which presumably don't exist. Is it likely that I can get a company name out of them, or that there is even a company to sue?

(And since they are criminals anyway, they have no incentive to settle with me, since even if I win I'd never be able to collect.)

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

#28

Post by eslachance »

pavel_lishin wrote: post #17
eslachance wrote: post #6

(Edit: please ignore the following line, I misread. Kept for posterity.) The title is incorrect. He threatened to sue but didn't actually do it. Which I'm all for. (/Edit) I received, just yesterday, a call from a company claiming they could reduce my credit card interest rate to "up to 0%", but it was obviously a scam as he said he worked both for Visa and Mastercard, claiming it was "the same company and they both…

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 my local police department. That way perhaps I'll lead them to something, if I'm lucky. Nervous or not, I can try to do my part.

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

#29

Post by thesis »

michaelrkn wrote: post #10
corin_ wrote: post #8

> Although manually dialing is very rare, many of these regulations do not apply to manually dialing. Followed by > I already had three violations on my hand, but I knew I could get two more pretty easily. The next day, I called the alarm company and asked to be put on their internal Do Not Call list, and asked for a copy of their Do Not Call policy. A few days later, David called me again – violation number four. So…

Hi Corin. I asked to be on their internal DNC list, and several days later, they called me again. That's illegal. Don't you think companies should have to respect your requests to be put on their DNC lists? I mean, if you unsubscribed from an email list and kept getting emails, wouldn't you be upset?

I unsubscribe from email occasionally, and every once in a while it'll say something along the lines of: "You will be opt'd out of our list within 1-2 weeks."

When I receive another email I just delete it. I'd rather go on with my day and do productive things then getting all bent of of shape about it.

BUT! I agree some telephone marketing campaigns can be down right harassing. But 4 calls over 2 months? I would have just sent them to voicemail and deleted them without listening. To each his own, I suppose.

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

#30

Post by bbrtyth »

latch wrote: post #4

The first call after he goes on the DNC is clearly a violation. The calls thereafter, when he's stringing them along...not so sure. Once you start saying "I'm interested, tell me more"...I think the company has a fairly solid claim of having a business relationship...if not legally, certainly ethically.

I read there were some calls inbetween that he didn't count. After that, he asked to be put on their Do Not Call list, and they still called a few more times. So violations for the first few and the last few.
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