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Tuesday, July 01, 2003
Now that the initial registration flood has receeded a bit, the brand-spankin' new National Do Not Call Registry website is fully accessible and ready to receive yo numbah. The servers were just plain overwhelmed (unsurprisingly so) for the first few days, and any attempt to surf there had me pulled down by the undertow. Well, no longer.
The sign-up process is remarkably easy. Enter your number, enter your email addy, click a link in the confirmation email, and away you go. If you register before the end of August, then telemarketers can't call you after the 1st of October. If you wait until after that, it's three months from your sign-up date. Not bad at all. The site even has a complaint form if you're wrongly violated. Finally, the targets strike back. There's no small sense of satisfaction in that final mouse click. Telemarketers have single-handedly turned me into a call-screener. I never was before the ever-increasing wave of sneak attacks ... I'd just answer for any old number that came up on the caller ID. Now, if it's "unavailable", "private caller", or a number I don't recognize... I back away slowly and go on about my bizness. It's gotten so bad that sometimes I don't even look at the ID box... I've been tuning out the ring and figuring if it's important, they'll leave a message. Thing is, my folks use a calling card, and it always comes up "unavailable", so I'm missing out on the occasional parent-funded family updates. Sure, turn me into a paranoid call-screener, but don't go getting between me and my 'rents, ya lousy phone-whores! I'm very curious to see if this actually works, and if cold-call telemarketers even pay attention. According to the NDNCR site, "you may still receive calls from political organizations, charities, telephone surveyors or companies with which you have an existing business relationship," so perhaps the flood will just turn into a steady stream. Hey, I'll take it. So long as the Watertown Tab stops calling me. How many times am I going to have to say ... "I live in Allston, you fools!"  |
 neil halstead live in cambridge, ma on november 14th, 2008 previously: joy formidable - boston 2011 recent posts on the 'nac...
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