I swear, I’ve spent the entire week answering telemarketing calls.

The sad part is that I am not even joking.

Every day, I get an average ten phone calls from various numbers ranging from local to international to toll-free. It makes it very difficult to know which one is a real business call and which one isn’t.
Initially, I was avoiding answering 800 numbers, but I soon realised that many not for profits such as the Cancer Society, are displaying an 800 number when calling. Therefore, I can’t generalise without risking missing important calls.

So I answer 800 numbers now.

More often than not, the people calling me are pitching Google optimisation, listings, facebook marketing or web design.

It kills me because THAT IS WHAT I DO! They are pitching me my own product! Clearly, they don’t even do their homework before wasting not only other people’s time but also their own.

Being self-employed, the only landline number I have is my commercial line, and well, that doesn’t qualify for the “Do Not Call” list.

Why?

Because apparently, it’s ok to get business to business calls. A free flow, free communication needs to be kept between businesses.

There is only one BIG problem with that rationale. Those business to business calls are costing me money.

Let me explain.

I estimate that I waste about $40 of my daily time answering bogus calls. Sure, ten calls do not amount to an hour of my time, but here is how I come to this amount.

Let’s say I’m writing an article, and I’m deep in my thoughts. The phone Rings. I answer and get a recording telling me my business is not on Google. I get angry and hang up. It takes me an average of 6 minutes to get back into the swing of things. At ten calls a day, that amounts to 60 minutes of my time being wasted. At $40 an hour, at the end of the month, I have spent $800 in wasted energy. That is 1200 minutes of unproductive time.

The National Do Not Call List Website stipulates that “Business to business telemarketing calls are exempt from the National DNCL. Therefore, business numbers are not to be registered on the National DNCL, including personal telephone lines that are also used for business purposes.”

This needsx to change.

As a consumer, one who actually pays more for the service BECAUSE it is a commercial service, I should be entitled to select if I do want to receive telemarketing calls or not. There is absolutely no logic behind this rule.
The government, in recent years, has gotten really tough on spam emails. The same needs to happen with spam phone calls.

Want things to change? Call 1-866-580-DNCL(3625) and express your concerns and grievances.