Dear Charitable Phone Solicitor

[hrj]

Yes, I am on the national "do not call" list. Yes, you are legally exempt from the restrictions of the national "do not call" list. But why in the world would you want to waste your time trying to solicit money from someone who has already expressed hostility to phone solicitation? Just because you can? If the ethics don't bother you, at least pay attention to the economics!

No love,
HRJ

Comments

[julesjones]

I don't normally shout at the people doing the phoning, though I'd cheerfully pour hot lead down the gullets of the people employing them. The only time I have ever sworn at one was when I pointed out that I was on the Do Not Call register *and* had already told them at least twice before that I didn't want any more phone calls from them asking about my radio listening habits, and he said that that was all right, he wasn't trying to get money out of me, so the DNR didn't apply to him.

It was my tenth wedding anniversary and I was waiting for a phone call from my husband, who had had to go to a conference on the other side of the country. I was waiting on a number of other calls that were important to me. I'd also not long previously been in a situation where phone calls at that time of the evening were likely to be news about a sick relative. I was *not* happy about an arrogant jerk telling me that he had the right to repeatedly clog up my phone line and interrupt whatever I happened to be doing, regardless of my expressly stated wishes on the subject. And told him so, with the use of the FOAD phrase.

[madfilkentist]

Makes sense. When they're being paid to call and they're polite, that's one thing. But when they tell you you can't do a damn thing to stop them, they'e no longer entitled to any courtesy.

[julesjones]

It wasn't exactly telling me that I couldn't stop him. I got the feeling he genuinely thought that once I knew he wasn't trying to get money out of me, there wasn't any reason to be annoyed by the call. He didn't seem to grasp that the call itself is an intrusion and a significant nuisance regardless of whether it's an attempt to get money.