> This past January I got a call from Peruzzi, a local car dealership
>> here in Bucks County PA (suburban Philadelphia), wishing me a Happy >> Holiday.
> I think people are going around telling each other -- quite falsely --
> that if the message doesn't explicitly announce things for sale, it's
> not an advertisement and therefore not a violation.
> A few weeks ago, a jeweler in my town used an autodialer to invite
> people for a free ring cleaning. He told me it wasn't an
> advertisement but an invitation. Worse, he made no attempt to avoid
> dialing hospitals, fire stations, large PBXes, etc. ... my first
> encounter with it was when my secretary got about 8 copies of the
> message via other phones rolling over to hers.
> I don't know, but I suspect someone is aggressively selling
> autodialers by telling people falsehoods about the law.
> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: What may be a bit more tricky, IMO is
> when the purported message is to 'wish happy holidays' as our
> original writer noted. When such a message is conveyed, is it still
> in fact a 'sales call' or an advertising pitch? PAT]
What does it not being a sales call have to do with it? The DNC list isn't only for sales/advertising, it's for any kind of mass calling except political and surveys.
I presumed the "way around" that the original caller was referring to was the fact that he had once done some business with this dealership, so they used the exception for calls when there's an existing business relationship with the recipient.
Barry Margolin, snipped-for-privacy@alum.mit.edu Arlington, MA
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