Do-not-call list | Canadians can register to keep telemarketers from calling them

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By SHAWN BERRY
berry.shawn@dailygleaner.com

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Bill Blaney knows the telltale sound of a telemarketing call the moment he picks up the phone.

"It's like the line goes dead," said the Millville resident, who's president of the capital district of the New Brunswick Seniors Federation. "They're disruptive ... They call at suppertime. It's a nuisance."

Starting today, Blaney and others tired of calls from telemarketers can register their phone numbers on the CRTC's national do-not-call list.

Telemarketers, including organizations that hire a third party to make calls for them, must register with the list. They must also buy a subscription for area codes they intend to call.

Before making any calls, they will need to make sure they're using a version of the national do-not-call list that's not older than 31 days. They aren't allowed to call home phones, cellular and fax numbers on the list.

A number of groups remain exempt.

They include registered charities seeking donations, newspapers looking for subscriptions, political parties and their candidates, organizations directing calls and faxes to businesses, and companies that have had an existing business relationship with a consumer within the previous 18 months.

All telemarketers have to maintain their own internal do-not-call lists. If a consumer asks not to be contacted, his or her name and number must be added to the telemarketer's own internal list within 31 days.

New Brunswick's call centre industry employs more than 20,000 people and is worth $1 billion to the province's economy.

Mike Bacon, executive director for ContactNB, the organization representing the industry in the province, said he doesn't expect the change to impact New Brunswick's call centre business.

That's because most of the call centre operations in the province are in-bound - answering calls from customers, not making calls to prospective clients.

"No one is going to lose a job to this," Bacon said Monday.

"The sun's going to rise (today) and there will be no major change to the industry in New Brunswick."

If anything, he said, it might require call centres to hire more employees to manage their do-not-call lists.

"This is going to stop those carpet-cleaning calls. Someone you've done business with before can still call you."

Mel Fruitman, vice-president of the Consumers Association of Canada, has his doubts about the list.

"We don't think it's going to work, certainly not the way people hope it will," he said.

"First of all you've got all the exemptions, and then the set-up is such that we, the customers, have to register, and we become the police officer. If there's a problem we have to get the name and the number of the company and report it to the CRTC."

He said a lot of companies are going to ignore the requirement that they check the list, especially given the cost. It can cost 50 cents to check one number, he said, or thousands of

dollars a month for an entire area code.

"A lot of organizations are going to ignore the whole thing until they realize someone is on their trail."

But Blaney said he'll still add his name to the list.

In the meantime, he's keeping in mind the advice others have given him. "They just hang up."