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The number of prerecorded sales calls you receive may be about to drop dramatically.
The Federal Trade Commission announced Tuesday that it had rejected a petition asking it to create a "safe harbor" in telemarketing law that would allow companies to use prerecorded messages when they make sales calls to established customers - even those listed on the Do Not Call Registry.
Voice Mail Broadcasting Corp. had argued in the petition that allowing prerecorded sales messages would prevent consumers from getting "dead air" calls - that silence that reigns when an automatic dialer calls more homes than the company has sales reps on hand to talk to.
Besides, the company argued, the FTC's sister agency, the FCC, had allowed the practice for those telemarketing calls it regulates - for example, those from telephone companies.
But the FTC wound up saying no - largely because more than 13,000 consumers wrote to object when they heard of the plan.
The FTC said consumers "overwhelmingly find prerecorded telemarketing messages more intrusive and invasive of the privacy they enjoy in their homes than live telemarketing calls," because they are powerless to tell the callers they're not interested or instruct them not to call again.
One consumer complained to the commission that he couldn't make an emergency call because a telemarketer's prerecorded message wouldn't disconnect.
"Enough commenters said, 'We hate these,' that the commission said maybe we should go ahead and ban this," said FTC at torney Allen Hile. "The rule now implies it's banned but doesn't come right out and say it."
So the FTC proposes adding a specific prohibition against making prerecorded sales calls to consumers - any consumer, even one with whom a company has an established business relationship - without first getting that consumer's written permission.
If a company uses an automatic dialer and doesn't have a sales rep available, it can comply with the law by playing a short recording that contains only the name of the company and a phone number that consumers can call to opt out of future calls - no sales message.
The FTC had suspended enforcement actions against companies that made these calls to established customers while it considered the petition, but now the agency says it will resume enforcement starting Jan. 2.
The rule addresses only sales calls, not other prerecorded calls. For example, a prerecorded call from your doctor to remind you about an appointment would be exempt.
It also doesn't apply to calls regulated by the FCC.
Also, the FTC's new language may apply only to calls answered by a consumer - not to calls answered by voicemail or an answering machine.
The FTC is asking the public to comment on the proposed changes, as well as a proposed change in the way the percentage of abandoned calls is calculated. The FTC used to make companies have a 3 percent cap per day. It is proposing a 3 percent cap per sales campaign - a method it believes will be easier for smaller companies to manage.
If you want to weigh in, you must write to the FTC by Nov. 6. Comments can be sent to the Federal Trade Commission, Office of the Secretary, Room H-159 (Annex K), 600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, Washington, D.C. 20580. Or e-mail a comment to secure.commentworks.com/ftc-tsr. (Comments are public records.) To read the proposed changes in their entirety, go to www.ftc.gov.
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