Telemarketing Generates Desire To Make It Go Away

Sure, telemarketers have a right to make a living just not as telemarketers. So says Richard C. Wesson of Pullman.

“Ironically,” said Wesson, “I am a union firefighter and belong to the Washington State Council of Fire Fighters, the organization that hires the Gehl Group to make the calls I absolutely despise.”

Bagpipes asked for readers’ comments following a story about Teresa Juneau, who was picketing the union’s office to protest phone solicitations.

If the law can regulate door-to-door salesmen, said Wesson, it can do the same for telephone marketing.

“I see a slim distinction between someone wandering up to my door to sell me some trinket or credit card, or ringing my phone for the same unwanted sales pitch.”

Wesson said he’s written to his congressional representatives to support legislation to ban telemarketing and he encourages others to do the same.

For now, he said, frustrated phone customers can write to: Telephone Preference Service, Direct Marketing Association, P.O. Box 9014, Farmington, NY 11735-9014, and ask to be removed from their published lists of consumers.

“Also, any telemarketers who do call are required to cease and desist if you tell them not to call again,” Wesson wrote. “But then, we see how well that worked in the Teresa Juneau case.”

Juneau said she kept getting calls even after asking to be removed.

“That just reinforces the push to outlaw the whole practice,” said Wesson. “If they want to sell you something, they can put it in the mail or an advertisement, and if you’re interested, you can respond at your leisure.

“In today’s hectic world, however, quiet time at home is too precious a commodity to be despoiled for such a one-sided and insensitive practice.”

Wesson will get no argument from Ruth Dixon of Spokane.

She said she told one telemarketer she didn’t accept solicitations over the phone but she invited the caller to send her printed material.

“I never received anything and they were rather truculent on the telephone,” said Dixon.

In California, where she came from, an ordinance prohibits the practice, Dixon said. “From what I understand, it is allowed in the state of Washington. So, I think that’s the point that needs to be hit on this.”

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