Day: November 4, 2005

Tired of telemarketers trying to work their way around “no call” lists?

Yeh, well, so am I. And as far as I’m concerned, this is a Civil Liberties issue: I feel perfect at liberty to do everything within my power to spike these scammers, liars and cheats (Oh! My!) any old way I can.

Recently, we’ve gotten several calls from a Caller ID-blocked number, an obvious machine-generated voice message, “informing” us that the call “is not a telemarketing call” and “the head of household needs” to call a certain number.

Riiiiight.

Soooo, from a Caller ID blocked phone of my own, I called the number and discovered that it was a company trying to sell debt consolidation.

I tried to warn ‘em… really, I tried.

After a few calls attempting to escalate things to some manager to warn I gave up and called our State Attorney General’s office. Now, ya have to understand, this guy made his bones taking down telemarketers. It’s his main claim to fame. The consumer complaint rep I talked to promised fast action (and from the office’s record, that’s one of the few government bureaucratic pledges I give a little weight) and thanked me for reporting the scam.

Then… heh, then I called the scammers back. Told the person that answered the phone that I had gotten a call telling me to call that number. (True) She asked me what the number where I received the call was (caller ID blocking on the phone I was using).

I gave her our State Attorney General’s consumer complaint number. (OK, a small, wee, teen-eintsy fib)

*click-click-clickety-click* “Oh… “ CLICK, BUZZZZZZ

“Wha-fo’ the dialtone, Boopsy?” thought I.

Heh

“Submitted” at Cao’s Friday Open Trackback Party, Adam’s Blog’s Open Trackbacks,  Stop the ACLU’s Open Trackback Weekend and Open Trackbacks at Big Dog’s Weblog.

Oxymoron of the day: Corporate Creativity. A mini-rant

First we have this: Grandfather sued for $600,000 for 12-year-okd grandson’s downloads. Yep. The kid downloaded copies of DVDs he already owned and the MPAA is suing his grandfather for owning the computer they were downloaded to, then deleted from.

Kinda makes ya wanna go right out and watch another crappy movie made by Hollyweird, doesn’t it?

Then there’s this: Sony institutes crippling anti-use software on CDs. But here’s the kicker: it’s done so on the recordings of at least one group that it does not “own” (just distributes their independently-produced stuff), a group that has said it does not want the crippling “feature”.

Yeh, that’ll encourage sales (and artist creativity thereby, all right. Make it darned near impossible (or damnably difficult) to use a legally purchased CD for legally-allowed uses. Consumers’ll love that!

But this loon takes the cake: 1st Story Line Patent Published. Words fail me. (But that’s probably a good thing, cos someone, somewhere is probably going to patent the thought processes I’d use to comment and then I’d end up being sued outa house and home… oops! There I go… )

Come the revolution (heh, riiiiight), lawyers first in line for the guillotine, followed by the RIAA, MPAA, and all their partners in crime like Fritz Holling (the wholly-owned Senator from Disney) and his ilk.