It's time to redial Do Not Call registry (Set to expire)

[onehandle]

Source: San Francisco Chronicle

Consumers who fail to reregister for the national Do Not Call list may start getting interrupted again by telemarketers next year. Millions of phone numbers will be dropped from the popular program starting in June, when the registry reaches its five-year anniversary.

As part of the rules behind the Do Not Call program, enrollments are valid for five years. However, people can avoid being jettisoned by re-enrolling, ensuring quiet dinners without pitches for credit cards, mortgages and carpet cleaning.

"Consumers love Do Not Call and it's extremely effective," said Mitch Katz, a spokesman for the Federal Trade Commission, which manages the Do Not Call registry. "This idea that millions of people are going to start getting calls after the five years isn't quite accurate. It's like a driver's license - you just renew it, and it only takes a few seconds."

Still, Rep. Mike Doyle, D-Pa., considers reregistering too much trouble. This week, he proposed legislation that would make enrollment in the registry permanent.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/09/22/BUB2SBT8F.DTL&feed=rss.business

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People in most cases will not know that the registration has expired. This stinks. It's the one good thing that the worst President in history ever signed into law.

[mcscajun]

1. You can check the status of your registration (and when it expires) here.

https://www.donotcall.gov/confirm/Conf.aspx

Expirations are based on when you registered your numbers.

[gateley]

8. Thanks for the link! nt

[nilram]

13. And if you don't want to give them your email

address, you can call the do-not-call registry at 888-382-1222 to check your phone number's status or to register on the list. You have to call from the phone you're registering though.

I haven't used the online registry, since I haven't wanted to give them my email address. Yeah, the TSA/NSA/CIA/FBI probably already have it, but not the do-not-call registry, dangit!

[NYC]

16. Thanks for the 888-382-1222 number.

Welcome to DU. :hi:

[aquart]

15. Thank you!

[Demeter]

2. Thanks for the Post! I Put It on My calendar!

[3waygeek]

3. Is it just me or is the registry worthless?

I find myself getting as many if not more telemarketing calls now than before I got on the registry. Thank God for caller ID.

[MaineDem]

5. I think it's excellent

It truly works for us.

[pushycat]

9. I registered by 10:00 a.m. on the first day. Calls kept coming

even one @ 2:30 a.m. from a satellite TV company. It did not change anything for me. Still get several every day, more on weekends.

[MilesColtrane]

4. "It's the one good thing that the worst President in history ever signed into law."

It's useless...not unlike Bush.

[Auntie Bush]

6. Thanks! I just put my name on the list. I had just been procrastinating. It was easy!

[bikebloke]

7. Re-registered.

Recently, I started getting those calls again. Then I read somewhere (maybe here) that teh registration expired. So I re-registered.


**At work the other day, I answered a call from a bloke with a very thick South Asian accent - "My name is Kevin Costner, calling from India."

[MiddleRiverRefugee]

10. I have the perfect opener for people calling in the early evenings:

HELLO?? WHO ARE YOU AND WHY IS MY DINNER GETTING COLD!!!???

[THUNDER HANDS]

11. the law doesn't apply to charities, which it should

becacuse some charities are just as weasily as telemarketing scams.

They prey on the old and confused.

[bluestateguy]

12. It should be opt in, not opt out

All phone numbers should be considered, do-not-call, unless they opt in. Then there would be a list of people who would be fair game for being called.

That should be enough to put the telemarketing industry out of business.

[DramaOnHwy61]

14. I don't get it. Mine expires in january 2011

...according to donotcall.gov. That would be ~eight years, not five.
:wtf:

[NYC]

17. Mine says 2012.

Eight years and 10 months from the date of registration to the date of expiration.

[mcscajun]

18. Hmmm...Interesting. I wonder if there's some state law that

lengthens the term in some places.