Michael emailed to tell me about his problems with Marketlink, Inc., which I mentioned previously (see Grr, More Information?, Dirty, and The End, Hopefully).
He writes:
I have been receiving a call from 515-309-9027 for two years every Tuesday am at about 1:37 am […].
He also points to a document (PDF) which Marketlink filed with the Federal Trade Commission when the National Do Not Call Registry was first proposed.
There are some really choice quotes in the document, for example, the claim that Marketlink provides "highly ethical, cost-effective sales and customer care calling programs". Then on page 2:
While we detest the unprofessional and fradulent practices of some companies engaged in so-called "telemarketing," we believe it would be extremeley unfair to put companies like Marketlink - who conduct their businesses professionally and with the utmost integrity - at a severe economic disadvantage [&hellip].
I'm sorry, but calling people at 1:37 in the morning is simply not professional. At that point, you really have crossed the line. If your predictive dialer is to blame, fix it.
Even more troubling is what Michael writes about calling his cable company. According to his email, they initially claimed they had no relationship with Marketlink. But when he pointed them to the document above, he got a different response:
Charter Communications took a very different tone with me and will now be looking "into the matter". They offered me a free month's worth of cable, I said they have woken me up once a week every Tuesday night/morning for two years and a month's worth of free cable wasn't going to cut it.
I hate cable companies as it is, but this is too much. Maybe it's time for me to switch back to DSL from a local provider.
Posted by dwc in Personal at 12:54 PM