Telemarketing Fact Sheet for Canada residents

Not sure if you are a victim of telemarketing? The telemarketers are so annoying that they call you at home, usually in the evening from 6pm to 9pm. I used to have this lawn care company (Weedman) kept calling us every 2 months, even though I specifically asked them every time not to call us again, but they just call back anyway. (The reason they call me back is because I did not follow the rules of the telemarketing games.)

The number of telemarketing calls to our home used to be at a reasonable level in the past, but it jumped to 4-7 times a week in recent months. It was once that we were so afraid to pick up our incoming calls during our dinner time, that most of the calls are telemarketing calls. We further emailed to our friends to ask them to leave a voice mail for us so that we can call them back.

My battle to this telemarketing war has changed after my colleague tips me this telemarketing rules from Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunication Commission (CRTC). Three months after using this technique, the number of telemarketing calls to my home has now dropped to on average one call every 2 weeks. Here are the tips:

• They will be looking for Mr. X, do not identify yourself, instead ask the callers to identify themselves and the company they works for.
• Do not talk to much, promptly ask them to add this phone number onto their DO NOT CALL list.
• The do not call request must be processed without requiring you to do anything further.
• As of October 1st, 2004, the caller must give a unique registration number to you to be added to the do not call list. Most of them do not have the registration number, but ask for it anyway.
• The whole conversation should take less than a minute.
  

Click here to read the full CRTC fact sheet.