donotcall.gov

A government list that lets you get off telemarketing lists. I cannot give the idea enough praise. The only problem is that so many people want in that the poor site is overloaded. Yahoo reports that they were handling 108 requests per second at midnight. They are probably getting thousands of requests per second during the day.

I've been on this since it began and maybe twice a year now get a telemarketer call which the answering machine gets anyways. Now if they only had a "bill collectors do not call" list. :)

I signed up for this registry as soon as it opened, and have a reminder to resubscribe when it's due. Telemarketer calls have diminished markedly since its inception, in my personal experience, and, when one does call, I just mention the registry and ask for identifying information. They flee in apparent terror. *dr dolphin pats the Do Not Call shark on the head* Update: A wireless company started calling, leaving messages that I needed to update my account, to keep it from closing. I never had an account with that company. I used the registry to report them, and called the wiresless company to tell them they had been reported. They begged (not exaggerating!) me to not report them, but I told them I would report each call. They stopped calling.

Ya know, it's really heartening to see that the U.S. government actually takes a listen to the people every once in a while. All of the numbers I've submitted have been nigh free of annoying midday and dinnertime interruptions for the last several months, and I couldn't be happier! As for my thoughts on telemarketers themselves: I know it's tough to get and keep a job nowadays, and some of you folks need the work to make ends meet. But there has to be some kinda line of work you can take on that's far more respectable and not quite as bothersome as the one you're doing right now. I can't stand being bothered by telemarketers myself, and therefore I could never imagine becoming one. I've even turned down a job offer pitch that promised to pay up to three times as much as I get at my present job because it was a telemarketing job. #ell, I'd rather work for slave wages in some third-world sweat shop making Nike shoes than take on such a job, THAT's how much I hate telemarketing! Okay, time to get off the soap box and describe the site's registration process, which is pretty straightforward. You can submit up to four phone numbers at a time (don't forget the area codes), and must include an e-mail address to go with the numbers. After putting in the numbers and e-mail addie, press the `submit' button, and check your inbox for the registration confirmation e-mail-- or e-mails, if you're registering more than one number (they send out one e-mail per number). Open the e-mail(s) up, click the link(s), and a page will open up announcing that your number has been registered on the Do-Not-Call roll, and will remain there for the next five years. Within three months after registering the telemarketing calls to your home/business/what-have-you should almost totally die off, which is pretty much what happened in my instance. And I'm lovin' every single freakin' moment of sweet, sweet silence at the dinner table... BTW I've heard that they're tryin' to put together an online `Do Not Spam' registry. I can hardly wait for `em to put that one up, lemme tell ya... `Late

When an univited guest shows up at your door, you can peek through the peep hole and not even open the door - but when someone calls your house and you answer, you've unwittingly let someone into your home - someone you don't know, and someone who only wants to separate you from your family and your wallet. Even though I have an unlisted phone number, I used to get random dialers all the time. I registered with the Do Not Call list the first day they opened registrations and in that time, I have received only 2 unwanted calls - instead of 10 a day. Easy & to-the-point.