Do Not Call register now working

Was slow yesterday, took me an hour to register. Site was overloaded a couple of times, and actually displayed an appropriate notice.

Is going to be popular for a while. :-) Yes, I know about the negatives, a pity they couldn't be a lot tougher.

Don...

--
Don McKenzie
E-Mail Contact Page:               http://www.dontronics.com/e-mail.html

Crystal clear, super bright OLED LCD (128x128) for your microcontroller.
Simple serial RX/TX interface. Many memory sizes.
http://www.dontronics-shop.com/product.php?productid=16460

No More Damn Spam: http://www.wizard-of-oz.com

I went through the registration process yesterday after multiple attempts to connect to the site, only to get an error message when I sent my details. All the symptoms of an overloaded server. Did it again late last night with no problems. I agree - I don't want *any* unsolicited phone calls either. We pay for our phone (and internet) services to get messages from people we know and want to hear from, not spammers of every kind. Doesn't work out in practise, does it? :-(

Bob

It would have been a better idea to set up a 'Do Call' register. I'm sure there would have not been any chance of server overloading then ...

It wouldn't matter even if it didn't exist ... no-one would use it!

Thanks for that Phil, much appreciated. Let's give 'em curry. Oops! thay probably already have enough of that :-)

LOL

Easily beaten by the major companies. Just form a company in India and spam from there. When they try to fine them, they say it was an overseas company who called. Fat chance of getting them.

I think that kind of policy is called "anti-business" - a no-no for any political party.

Note that this does not stop calls from charities & political parties, which annoys me immensly, as the current reality is that if you donate to a charity and provide details, it's highly likely they'll then sell your details to other charities, having been identified as a "payer", guaranteeing more unsolicited calls from other charities, which in turn makes me adverse to making charitable donations, which makes for a very dumb outcome.

"Two Bob"

** ;-)

** No problem there.

Because the overseas call centre is acting on behalf of an Australian supplier of goods or services - that local supplier is then LIABLE for heavy fines under the new legislation.

..... Phil

"Poxy"

** But they must not use a phone number that is blocked to Caller ID.

Haven't you got a display unit ?

You can soon work out what an organisation's number is and ignore it.

....... Phil

Agreed, its a good start but it doesn't ban calls from charities, surveys etc.

At very least it should provide people with a separate "do not call" option to allow/disallow calls from charities. Im sure it helps the charity too, as people who have stated that they dont want their calls in the first place, arent likely to donate anything therfore saving the charity time and money in the call centres.

Its also totally wrong that home based business (or any businesses) can't join the list. For them, telephone spam is an even worse nuisance as "time is money" and as well as myself, I know many in small business who are sick and tired of being interrupted several times a day by a ringing phone and some piece of filth with private caller id "wanting to speak to the owner/manager".

On the good side, it bans hiding caller ID;s. This is a pet hate of mine businesses using "private" number, and I always make sure they cop abuse from me for doing that.

Well some one had better get on to Optus, because by default the "sending number" is blocked. Many like me can't be bothered changing it, primarily because I refuse to pay the monthly charge to be able to read the CND on my incoming calls.

--
Regards

Kevin Martin

To reply - delete what is "not required" (Abbrev) from my address.

From the ABC News website:

Do Not Call Register attracts 150 people a minute

More than 250,000 people have already signed up to the Government's Do Not Call Register since it opened yesterday.

The Australian Communications and Media Authority says about 150 people are registering online every minute.

Some small business spam calls always come from the same phone number, its then easy to add it to your mobile phone contact list as "spam- phone plan" etc and assign it a different ring so you know from the ring not to bother to answer it. The most quiet ring sound that you can find in the phone is good for this !

However there was a call centre last year that was ringing us all the time selling phone plans and actually showed a caller ID each time !.

According to greypages (when it still worked) the calls originated from the Sunshine Coast in QLD (no address or subsciber details were available though). Trouble was, each time they called, the last 3 digits of the number were different (logically as each phone in the call centre would be on a different line and have a different actual phone number associated with it - or a different outside line would be used each time due to how their internal exchange system operates).

Its a lot more difficult to block a range of numbers than a single number. Its also difficult to remember a lot of these numbers to know not to answer too.

I've got Caller ID, but pretty much all telemarketing calls come up as "Private Number", which I can't really ignore, as a lot of government departments also block their number.

My trick is listening for the second or two delay between my answering the phone and the computer patching the call through to an available call centre person - generally I've hung up before they pick up the line. The other gveaway is the noise of the call centre in the background - I just hang up as soon as I hear this.

"kreed" "Phil Allison"

** The context is "charities and political parties, " - ie the exempt categories. ** They will be forced to stop calling any number on the Do Not Call register by the end of this month.

........ Phil

"kreed"

** I just told you that.

** You can us a caller ID unit to avoid them..

You can inform the charity NOT to call you again.

You do not have to do any survey and can ask them NOT to call again.

The new Industry Standard means you will know how to contact them back.

** No it is not.

The direct marketing of goods and services to businesses is part of normal commerce - has been since phones were invented. The caller already knows what sort of business it is and may well have supplied them with goods and services before - or at least has good or services that the business may well be interested in.

TOTALLY different situation to * cold calling* home phone numbers.

...... Phil

Great, registered my mothers phone with no problems & very quick. Unfortunately, this service is only for private numbers. Business numbers & FAX numbers cannot register.

I sent an email to their enquiry section regarding combined business/private numbers. Reply was as follows -

"Unfortunately this legislation does not cover business. However, if you are not satisfied an alternative would be for you to approach your local MP and lobby for a similar legislation to cover business."

So back to the drawing board. IF enough people do lobby their local MP, something may occur. IF no one does any lobbying, stuff all will be done.

Regards,

alc.

"alc"

** From the link:

---------------------------------------------------------- Which numbers can I list on the Do Not Call Register? You can list your Australian fixed line and mobile numbers on the Do Not Call Register, provided the numbers are used primarily for private or domestic purposes.

-----------------------------------------------------------

...... Phil

So what's to stop you listing a business number anyway, are they going to prove it is NOT primarily for domestic purposes? Somehow I doubt they would check any number, you would simply have no legal recourse IF someone still calls.

MrT.