Two articles from the Consumerist showing what a prick of a company DirecTV really is:
My phone just rang. Caller ID reads: Out Of Area… do I pick up? I did.
It was an automated DirecTv call. “You have asked us not to call you. Because you are on our Do Not Call List, we can’t call you with all of our super-awesome special promotions…” The recording goes on to ask me to hit a button to opt-out of their Do Not Call List.
Dear sir. I say what the fuck? I specifically told them not to call so they call to see if its okay to call.
DirecTV is defending automated sales calls to Do Not Call List subscribers as “informational,” and “not telemarketing.” The satellite TV provider recently called customers to say: “Because you are on our Do Not Call List, we can’t call you with all of our super-awesome special promotions.”
“The purpose of our calls was not to sell you anything or change your do-not-call status without your consent. They were purely informational calls intended to remind you of your status and give you an opportunity to change your do-not-call preference.”
Sounds like desperation to me. If the only list of people they can find to call are the people on their do not call list – they may be in more trouble than they have been letting on.
I’m on the do not call list, but still got all kinds of telemarketing – all they did was block their caller ID and I had no way to complain. The phone company didn’t want to get involved (too lazy), so I just activated the no caller ID block on my phone. Haven’t gotten but one since, and I was able to file an FCC complaint on them because I had their caller ID.
The few people who we know who block their caller ID understand/deal with it.
Get used to it. All the “do not call” registrations we did a while back expire by mid-2008.
DirecTV is just the first of many who anticipate the expiration and get your permission one way or the other. Personally – as a DirecTV subscriber – I haven’t received such a call. But, I’d rather get the option – than get larruped by the companies who are just waiting for expiration to open the floodgates, again.
#1 – yup. I sure would hate to own a business with such “problems”. Making money is such a drag.
http://tinyurl.com/2l4v7w
4. Ok, if it’s not “desperation” then it must be pure arrogance to flout the law like this. Thanks for clearing it up. The people who run DirecTV are nothing but a bunch of a-holes.
#4, #5
It’s perhaps an attempt to actually grow? They’ve not done that lately… ❗
Perhaps works a little bit better with the protocol added to the link… 😉
#6,7 – cripes – you provide links more boring than mine.
#5 – profound as ever.
BTW – I know it’s a strain for folks to get their facts straight on a Sunday morning; but, the National Do Not Call Registry makes it quite clear that calls from a firm with whom you have an existing business relationship are exempt from the regulation. Always has been.
Which is why – twice a year, when I change my newspaper delivery – I always get a call from the newspaper publisher.
#8
but perhaps more insightful than just “hey guys, look… they’re making money… they’re not desperate…”
[Duplicate post. – ed.]
I’m with #9 here. If you read the article, it seems this refers to directv’s internal do-not-call list, not the national registry.Still pretty crappy, though.
On a related note, I wish that they would add political calls to the do-not call registry. Really looking forward to ’08…. not.
If their business model depends on calling us to tell us how much they want to call us and be a part of our lives, then I wish them a spectacular lack of success so that the DNA of this business plan doesn’t get replicated.
ahh, the joys of having no land-line.
oh, and did anyone else notice the ‘Call Fire’ ad in the sidebar?
cripes, JCD …..
I’ve one wire line telephone in the house, it runs off the DSL modem, it’s an unlisted number and it rings a couple times a week. The ringer is turned down nearly all the way to inaudibility, the answering machine is turned off, and the only reason I have it is my telco gives me a hundred free minutes along with the DSL package. And yeah, it helps activating credit card renewals/activation when they say call from your home phone. Anybody knows me knows to call my cell number.
It’s been nearly a year since I’ve tossed the DirectTv system, hooked up an internal, amplified set of rabbit ears and became content with my one clear channel (ETV) and a couple of scratchy UHF channels. That move has been a good thing for me, as I read more, work in my studio a lot more, and although I did buy an X-Box 360, I haven’t networked it yet. I’m still having fun with the trial versions of the arcade games.
So whether the do not call list expires, or is violated, or becomes the basis for another hundred or so urban myths is irrelevant to me.
“Do Not Call”‘s implementation does little except hamper the small telemarketer. (Like the idiots who called me the other night to see if I’d found the “packet” they’d left on my door about lawn work.)
A complaint will get nowhere….
There are enough exemptions to consider Caller-ID a good idea….
So I use it…. If I see something I don’t recognize, the voice mail gets it…. Better than nothing….
Regards,
Stu.
I’m getting realy close to not watching TV. Except for DVD’s and my Apple TV. Does it really take so many comercials to pay for programming or are the ‘netwoks’ just being greedy? I do enjoy the ‘Cranky Geeks’ but I can get JD via podcast.
#18: That’s why DVRs are great. Skip over the commercials. Watch when you want.
Do you guys in the US get calls from calls centers based in India? Its become my latest sport, when they call up and ask for “Mr.” (anyone calling me Mr is up to no good….) to which I reply things like “Sorry, he is out with the sheep, he won’t be back until the rainy season over” (the joke being it never actually stops raining the UK) or just making up words like “I am sorry he is anticarpolating, if you call back at the end of shindigfanny you can probably reach them”.
Still, the classic has to be that soundbyte that has been making the rounds where someone pretends to be police officer investigating a murder scene and tells the sales guy he is a suspect….
They’re calling to tell you if you want to be on the list. Its only apply to current customers, they’re giving everybody a chance to opt/out, Every subscriber will get a call, if you opt-in you will get calls about your bills/ppv and new offer like the one I just got Show Time Is having FREE Preview this week, tune into channel ### etc.
#18 – 19. I am getting close to being entirely commercial-free. DVR on the cable TV, iTunes and DVDs for the stuff I missed. I decided to take a chance on ‘Heroes Season One’ on HDDVD. (The only thing better than FFing through the commercials is not having to.)
Every once in a while, I think that someone needs to put a comprehensive guide out there to opting out of the whole ad-based media economy. video as above, ad and spam-blockers for the internet, and so on. In other words, basically a big list of ‘If you like X, here’s how you can get it without being bombarded by ads.’
Used to be I did not mind commercials so much. It was the promos for Fox’s ‘reality’ TV shows that pushed me over the edge, I think.
Feel powerless to over-reaching corporations that do not respect boundaries?
Blow up DirectTV satellite stations so they understand you.
Terrorism works.
23. Blow up DirectTV satellite stations so they understand you.
Or, failing that, try a strongly worded letter…..
I stopped getting telemarketing calls when I changed my last name to Thunderpussy…
No one wants to say, “May I speak with Mr. OhForTheLoveOf Thunderpussy?”
I think the real problem is that DIRECTV has so many affiliates and they try their best to control them, but some companies don’t follow the rules, they are just out to try to get that sweet commission check!