p2pnet news view | Advertising:- Today is the first day day Canadians can register up to three phone numbers on the national Don’t Call List set up to theoretically prevent those infuriating marketing calls.

And it’s no accident many of them arrive just when you’re in the middle of dinner: marketeers know that’s the best time to catch you.

We say ‘theoretically’ because still free to call you whenever they want are:

• Registered charities seeking donations
• Newspapers looking for subscriptions
• Political parties and their candidates, and
• Companies with whom you have an existing commercial relationship; for example, if you have done business with a company in the previous 18 months, it can call you.

And, “You will continue to receive calls from organizations conducting market research, polls or surveys even though you are registered on the National DNCL,” says the FAQ.

“These are not considered telemarketing calls because they are not selling a product or service, or requesting donations.”

In other words, the door is still wide open and, “some estimates indicate that 85 percent of telemarketing calls will be exempt under the DNCL,” says Michael Geist.

If you want to bother with it, sign up online at http://www.LNNTE-DNCL.gc.ca or call the toll-free numbers 1-866-580-DNCL (1-866-580-3625) or 1-888-DNCL-TTY (1-888-362-5889).

Once you’ve signed up, “many telemarketers can no longer call you starting 31 days after your registration”.

You have to re-register every three years to stay on the National DNCL.

Adds Geist:

“Notwithstanding the exceptions, the law includes a crucially important requirement on exempt organizations.  With the exception of survey companies, all other exempt organizations must maintain their own internal DNCL.  That means that Canadians can specifically opt-out of exempt organization telemarketing calls and the organization will be required to abide by the request (failure to do so brings the same potential penalties).

“If you don’t want further calls, register on the National DNCL and take the opportunity to ask that your number be placed on the internal DNCL for exempt organizations.  Alternatively, iOptOut.ca, which I launched earlier this year and which the CRTC has ruled is enforceable, makes it easy to opt-out of many exempt organizations with a few clicks.

“In the coming days, iOptOut, which has been used by more than 50,000 people, will be expanding the database of included organizations and will be launching a French language version.”

Michael Geist - Canadian Do-Not-Call List, September 29, 2008

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 30th, 2008 at 8:33 am and is filed under Advertising. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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