I just got a phone call from 250-649-7428. The lady went right into a spiel about insurance. Some kind of stupid survey. I asked her who the sponsor of the study was. She didn’t know, so I asked for her supervisor. A few minutes later Eric came on the line. The name of the company was Synovate. He didn’t know who the sponsoring company of the survey was either. Supposedly telling me that would bias the results I give. Yeah, because if it was the insurance company I use, I’d be switching companies! Eric agreed with me that they should run their list through the DNC list, but they don’t. He then said he would remove my phone number from their list for all clients.
I’ve been on the Do-Not-Call List since the first day I could sign up. According to Eric, Congress exempted “surveys.” I’m sorry, but a marketing survey is a commercial call, so marketing companies should be required to follow the Do Not Call list. I am disappointed by Congress allowing such a large loophole to exist. A survey that could be exempt would be true non-profit organizations (not the fake ones like the one in Georgia that rips you off by soliciting money for the state police.) Actually, I think there should be two Do Not Call lists: one for commercial entities (which would be broader than our current list), and one for the currently “exempted” groups (political organizations, charities, and telephone surveyors). If I don’t want to be bugged by political candidates recording looong messages on my answering machine, I should be able to choose that up-front. But I do realize the futility of getting any politican to make it easy for citizens (you know, the ones paying their salary) to not receive unsolicited political phone calls.
I have a filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission about the survey call I got.