Do Not Call Registry
Posted Nov 12, 2011 05:14:13 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The Do Not Call Registry was made three years ago in hopes of stopping unwanted calls from telemarketers. Simply add your number to the list, we were told, and the calls will stop. But have they? The short answer is no.
Mel Fruitman, is the Vice President of the Consumer Association of Canada and he tells Michelle Dyer, guest hosting on 570’s Gary Doyle Show the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) receives about 12,000 complaints a month.
“The onus is all on us, the offended party to try and come up with a solution. So somebody calls you, if it’s a recording you’re finished, you can’t do anything, if you have a real live person on the phone sometimes you can’t interrupt them any easier than you can interrupt the recording.”
Fruitman says that one way to deal with the telemarketers is to try to get their information and file a complaint with the CRTC.
“You’ve got to find out what their name is, what their company name is the phone number they’re calling from, you’ve got to get all of this information to be able to give it to the CRTC for them to take action.”
Fruitman adds however, the main problem with filing a complaint with the CRTC is that since the registry was made, the CRTC has received over 460,000 complaints, and only 31 telemarketers have been penalized.
So what is the solution? Fruitman says, there really isn’t one.
“I’ve tried pressing 999 which supposedly cuts them off. I haven’t found a technological way to get back at them and put a stick in their eye or something.”
Fruitman says that clearly the registry is not working, in fact since the registry was made the CRTC has received over 12,000 complaints per month. He says to file a complaint with the CRTC you should get the persons name, number and the company name they work for, which can be a lot of effort, and says sometimes the best thing to do is to simply hang up.
