Is it not enough that we are inundated day after day with junk mail (even though it keeps the postal workers gainfully employed) and junk e-mail, that now our last viable means of communication has become as cluttered as our mail boxes?

Is there no recourse?

Sure, you can register with "Do Not Call" registries, but unscrupulous marketing companies see this as yet another opportunity to latch on to a list of potential consumers who feel they can not say no.

Confused? Allow me to edify. After you register with the "Do Not Call" Registry, telemarketers have 31 days from the date you register to stop calling you. How do they know to stop calling you? They receive your phone number as part of the "Do Not Call" Registry Program: INCLUDING THE DATES YOU ARE OPEN GAME.

Am I the only one who sees the flaw in this logic?

Then, of course, is the even more hideous Automated Telemarketer. This is a practice where a prerecorded sales message is left on your answering machine. Apparently, even a telemarketers time is more valuable than that of a private citizen's.

Is this practice illegal? Why yes, yes it is.

Which is why, if you pick up the phone as opposed to the answering machine, you will get hung up on. Boy, nothing gets me in the mood for "impluse buying" more than prank phone calls.

Of course you can file a complaint with the FTC; however, per their site:

"To file a complaint, you must know either the name or telephone number of the company that called you, and the date the company called you. Do not call complaints will be entered into the FTC's Consumer Sentinel system, a secure, online database available to more than 1,000 civil and criminal law enforcement agencies. While the FTC does not resolve individual consumer problems, your complaint will help us investigate the company and could lead to law enforcement action."

The operative phrase being "could lead to law enforcement action". Oddly enough, I'm not feeling all that encouraged.

Realistically, the legal verbage on what you can do would make a professor cry.

BE NOT DISCOURAGED!

During my many wanderings through the internet in search of answers, I have found a truly awesome site published, interestingly enough, by a Lawyer.:

http://www.panix.com/~eck/telemarket.html; How To Make A Telemarketer Cry, is well written, interesting, and humorous, but more importantly, fun to read, and easy to understand.

Like many people, my main source of relief from annoying telemarketing calls is verbalizing my complaints; i.e. complaining. Now I'm beginning to believe it's time to take a more proactive stance. Telemarketers beware! Perhaps if companies utilizing these annoying services where sued each time they broke the law, telemarketers might well join the Gray Wolf on the list of Endangered Species.

I don't know about you, but from now on, I'm keeping pen and paper next to my phone.