Answering Machine Provides Easy Relief

Supper time. End of a busy day. You sit down with your family. Just as that first forkful approaches your watering mouth …

Brrrrinnnng!

The telephone demands your attention.

Something tells you it’s probably not a call you have to take, but then, you never know. So you answer.

Sure enough, it’s a telemarketer.

Many people don’t mind these calls. If the tactic didn’t pay, it would have been abandoned long ago.

Nevertheless, enough people find telemarketers annoying that state governments are trying to intervene.

Modeled after laws on the books in Florida and Oregon, proposals in both the Idaho and Washington legislatures would allow residents to place themselves on a do-not-call list.

Telemarketers who do call someone on a state do-not-call list incur fines for violating consumer protection laws. State agencies maintain the lists and make them available to telemarketing firms.

The cost of this exercise can be assessed in various ways. Oregon and Florida charge consumers an annual fee; Oregon’s fee is $6.50 the first year, $3 in subsequent years. A proposal taking shape in Washington would cover costs by making telemarketers pay in order to get the list.

Unfortunately, this tactic won’t end all annoying calls. No law can stop the worst calls - from con artists and fly-by-night operations in distant states, which ignore do-not-call lists and are difficult to catch and penalize.

So, as legislators shape these programs, they need to be asking whether the effort actually will help.

In fact, there already is a program to stop calls from responsible firms, and it’s free. This program’s chief shortcoming is that average consumers don’t know it exists. It’s a voluntary effort operated by the Direct Marketing Association. For information, point your web browser to www.the-dma.org. Inclusion in the industry’s “do-not-call file” is simple to achieve. Mail a signed request with your name, home address and phone number to: Telephone Preference Service, Direct Marketing Association, P.O. Box 9014, Farmingdale, NY 11735-9014.

State do-not-call lists are fed to this association’s members.

State programs will represent an improvement only if they are promoted on a regular basis so consumers know they exist.

In order to be reasonable, though, state do-not-call laws must make exceptions for callers who have a recent, established relationship with the person being called. For example, if you gave money to your college’s alumni association last year, they could call you this year even if you’re on the don’t-call list.

Responsible organizations don’t want to annoy prospective customers - it’s bad for business. If people who hate telemarketing calls could make themselves known by means other than slamming down the phone, it could leave everyone happier. In this way, a well-publicized state-run system could be a step forward. But let’s be honest. It wouldn’t end the calls.

There is only one sure way to stop the phone from interrupting dinner. Ignore it. Let the answering machine take the call, instead. The best remedy for our go-go, always-on, cellular-phone culture is one that requires no help from the government. Relax. Pass the potatoes. Focus on the people you’re with and let the rest of the clamoring world wait until you’re good and ready.