Stop marketers from endlessly calling your cell phone!

Stop marketers from endlessly calling your cell phone!

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A bill being considered by the House Energy and Commerce Committee would end 20 years of consumer protection preventing marketers from endlessly calling your cell phone — and using up minutes that you pay for.

This proposed legislation is so far-reaching that Sen. Chuck Schumer said that if it passes, "The floodgates would be open to telemarketers, who could call you on your cell phone during breakfast, lunch, dinner, no matter if you're at home, at school, at the office."¹

Our best chance to stop the bill is in the House Energy and Commerce Committee. If we can prevent the bill from coming to a full House vote, we can effectively kill it and preserve the traditional protections consumers enjoy from intrusive and unwanted robocalls to their cell phone.

It's unsurprising that this bill is being pushed by corporate interests like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the American Bankers Association.

And since big business already has lobbyists on Capitol Hill whipping support for this legislation, it is even more important that the members of the Energy and Commerce Committee hear from consumers that this harmful legislation should not even be brought up for a vote.

This overreach by corporations has to be stopped. It is unreasonable and unfair to expect consumers to pay when telemarketers make unwanted calls to their cell phones. But if the Energy and Commerce Committee doesn't stop this bill from coming to a vote, it will be harder to stop this harmful legislation.

If this infringement of privacy and abolishment of consumer protection wasn't enough, the way the bill is written, you may opt-in to receive calls from marketers and bill collectors without even realizing it.
Although telemarketers have to have "express consent" before they can call your cell phone, this bill would mean that if you ever give your phone number when buying anything, you will have given businesses the ability to call you endlessly — and use up minutes you paid for.

This bill is anti-consumer and constitutes serious infringement on the rights and privacy of cell phone users — and it has to be stopped.

Petition @: https://act.credoaction.com/campaign/robocalling/

The following is what I wrote in the comment box:

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All non work related calls on cell phones are a distraction and lower worker production and are more of a nuisance than anything else.
Allowing more venues to distract people by allowing telemarketers to call cell phones without the option to have the cell phone number to opt out is bordering on the invasion of privacy.

Furthermore, if such a thing is allowed; 1- there must be an option for the cell phone number to opt out of the telemarketing system, and there must be stiff and diligently enforced penalties to those telemarketers and any or all of the advertising parties and anyone else that have a contract with the telemarketer that violates the opt out law that may benefit whom the call represented.

2- All identification and/or actual phone numbers of the telemarketing calls must be displayed on caller ID at all times and all phone carriers must have available to all customers received calls records to be on a single call based on time and date of the call accessible to them so the customer can have a way to track the telemarketer’s call effectively enough to press charges on violations of the opt out rule.

3- All cell phone charged as "Air Time" calls made by telemarketers must be required to be paid to the cell phone company by the telemarketing firm immediately with real time automatic billing and not charged to the cell phone customers and no Air Time shall be deducted from the cell customers time contract.

If the telemarketers must call cell phones that have not chosen to opt out, than they should pay the bill for their calls; 100% of it including the Air Time of the cell phone being called.

Telemarketing calls are mostly a disruption in the first place, the least the telemarketing industry should be required to do is
1- Never call any phone; cell or land based that has opted out and;
2- On cellular calls that are charged to the cell customer based on the "Air Time", (to) pay 100% of the cost by using a system of contract with the cell providers so that the cell customers do not get charged Air Time to have time in their working or private lives interrupted with that telemarketing.

I specifically registered my cell phone as a do not call number because I do not want to be disturbed and I don't want my limited voice mail box to be spammed with junk messages like the e mail spam I get all of the time in my spam folder that endlessly try to sell me Viagra and penis enlargement pills, devices etc... that I NEVER asked for.

I expect that all the penalties for misconduct by telemarketers will remain effect indefinitely and the currently registered opt out phone numbers will continue be honored without any sneaky loop holes inserted at the behest of lobbyists’ lawyers that would in essence kill the current opt out system regardless of what the final decision on this matter is.