More importantly than people finding the calls a nuisance, what about older/disabled people who rush to the phone and injure themselves by, for example, falling down a flight of stairs. I would ban the calls. However, if the government insists on keeping them, they should leave a message saying something along the lines of "if you do not want to receive any more of these calls, ring 0800xxxxxxxxxx"
Tony
-----Original Message-----
From: Simon Howarth (WSL) [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 19 August 2005 10:10
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Silent Calls - are the DMA's new rules right?
>Another personal opinion is that if the DMA is supporting wider use of
>autodiallers then they ought to change their name to the Direct Nuisance
>Association
I agree entirely with this! The DMA should be ashamed of itself if this is
the case, and rest assured if I meet any DMA representatives, they are going
to have to answer a lot of questions on this subject from me.
About a year ago we had a run of silent calls (every evening for about two
weeks), and this started to frighten my wife as I work away sometimes and
she was alone when some of these calls came in. Whoever was doing this had
very poor systems, and I quickly fathomed what was going on, to the great
relief of the family. We still get occasional silent ones, but now know to
just put the phone down. Also if I answer the phone and there is a
perceptible silence before someone speaks to me, I state straight away, that
I believe they are using systems that promote silent calls and as such I do
not wish to speak them any further; I did used to ask to talk to a manager,
but this usually blew the operators minds....
I understand the need for marketing of products and services, but
unfortunately my experience of the professionalism of this bunch of people
has been very mixed; from ultra professional to downright childish.
The DMA should be ensuring that at least for those organizations it can
influence, they stay within the bounds of decency - it's not so much about
the law, but as someone said earlier, it's about respect for people.
Simon Howarth.
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