[Scan-DC] New telemarketer tool trumps TeleZapper

[Steve Rigby]

Marcel wrote:

 > New telemarketer tool trumps TeleZapper

   It has gotten to the point with me that I do not even answer the
phone anymore.  I let the answering  machine take every call.  This
includes, unfortunately, my work number as well.  To do otherwise
results in most calls that I would pick up for being from
telemarketers, a waste of my time.  My home phone receives at least
6 to 7 telemarketing calls every day, often ten or more.  My office
phone gets about three or four a day.

   I accepted an offer for a "no obligation" trial for a service a
few months ago, and did not opt to continue beyong the "free" trial
period of thirty days.  Lo and behold, charges began appearing on my
phone bill, at which point I called the phone company to complain
and got the number of the firm that was involved in this scam.  Upon
calling them, they played back to me, as I suspected they would, a
recording of the original conversation I had with them, wherein at
the very end of the conversation I heard the salesperson, who was
speaking very fast and softly, say that I had to contact them to
cancel the thirty day trial.

   Upon hearing this recording, I first informed the person I was
speaking with that they never told me that the conversation
would be recorded, and no tones were used to indicate a recording
was taking place.  I told him that was a violation of Virginia law.
Then, after hearing the recording say that I had to contact them to
cancel the trial period, I told them that requirement was, in fact,
an obligation on my part, yet the recording clearly proved that I
was told there was "no obligation" on my part whatsoever.

   To sum up, the company said they would remove two months worth of
the $29.95 per month charges, but that was as far as they would go.
I hung up and called the phone company again, and they said they
would send back to the company the other two months of charges, and
then pleaded with me to report the company to the FCC, which I am in
the process of doing.  I was supposed to be faxed a confirmation of
my credits by the company, but that has not happened, so I am fairly
sure this battle is not over.

   To hell with these low-life telemarketers and their pernicious
schemes.  If, as the article you supplied stated, 3 million such
jobs will be lost, who cares?  Three million fewer scam artists is
fine with me!

   Steve