Should Tele Marketing Be Banned ?

[unwantedmails 0]

HAVING UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS TO ME

Today If I recieve one more SMS or phone call trying to sell something to me.. I will surely apply for a Gun's License.

I think TRAI has to take serious action on formulating a policy on banning unsolicited calls and SMS.

Lets discuss the posibilities.

Regards,

PCOGuy

[city02 63]

I fully agree.

Unlike email spam, you get to pay for junk calls when you are roaming.

A simple solution would be to enable handset to block incoming calls & SMS from certain numbers or prefixes.

[unwantedmails 0]

I think we will need to take the shape US and UK markets have taken.

BAN Unsolicited Access to Customers By Service Providers. Service Providers can add this as a Value Added Service in their menu. The Service could be like this --

NO TELEMARKETER --------- Rs. 25/- Per Month

Incase a Telemarketer Calls You Then You Can Immediately Make A Note of It On A Special HotLine Number. Then The Telco Will check neccesary records and Can Sue The Person Telemarketing You. By Signing To This Service You Fully Authorize Your Telco to Sue the Person and Take damage charges.

All People Who Sign With this Service will be Entered in a DNC (Do Not Call) List On the Telco's Website. So Telemarketers can make sure they dont dial such numbers.

Telcos can have MoUs between them to have co-operation in this Matter. Incase a Telco Reports the other telco on Breach of DNC by ther second telco's subscriber - Then its Second Telco's Responsibility to Discontinue Service to Such a Person/Company Who did not follow DNC Rules.

TRAI can be responsible for Such MoU Arrangement and Maintaining National Level (Central) DNC Lists.

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Secondly, There Should Be A Service Called

YES TELEMARKERS ----------- Rs. -100/- Per Month

People Will Gain Rs. 100 Per Month By Subscribing to the 'CALL ME LIST' Maintained By The Telco. The Telco Can Further Sell Profile Information to Telemarketers for a Price and Recover the Rs. 100/- or more.

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

This Way I have Incentive To Take These Calls or Will Simply Pay to Put it AWAY.

I can turn this into a real White Paper for TRAI - Only If I know Whom to Send to that it is used.

COMMENTS PLEASE.

-PCOGuy

[Beetle 0]

Hi Unwanted mails

This is an interesting concept. Has this been implemented in anyother country, are you citing an example here. IF not, this was very imaginative. I think it is practical. Good

[Chirag 5]

The Service could be like this --

NO TELEMARKETER --------- Rs. 25/- Per Month

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

Secondly, There Should Be A Service Called

YES TELEMARKERS -----------  Rs. -100/- Per Month

quite a smart thing!!

Wish we had such policy makers at the top levels rather than those dumb babus!

[Greens 21]

Good idea!!!!!!!

[deepu 0]

Block that pesky phone call

ADITI PRASAD

TIMESOFINDIA.COM [TUESDAY, AUGUST 24, 2004 11:27:42 AM]

NEW DELHI: Sick of receiving unwanted phone calls offering you free credit cards? Relief is on hand with Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s proposal to have a do-not-call register.

TRAI's recent consultation paper emphasising the need for directory enquiry services across different network and service areas, including mobile phone numbers, has more to it than meets the eye.

"If you read the proposal carefully, it also highlights the menace of direct marketing calls. Through this paper we will also study the need to regulate unwanted phone calls on the mobile phone. A do-not-call register, like in the US, is also a proposal that we are considering," says the TRAI Chairman, Pradeep Baijal.

For the uninitiated, in the United States consumers who signed up for the 'National Do Not Call Registry' maintained by the Federal Communications Commission, are protected from unsolicited text messages and telemarketing calls.

A telemarketer has to check this list once a month to ensure the numbers registered are not called. If they still call a listed person, they can be fined $11,000.

Some 62 million Americans have registered on the 'National Do Not Call Registry' out of a total of 160 million phones.

The silence of Indian laws on this subject has prompted gross misuse of mobile phone number databases. Since most companies outsource their customer-calling business to outside tele-calling agencies, misuse of database is rampant.

Insiders in the tele-calling industry inform that "one agency may be used by many clients. I myself have a series of clients ranging from cell phone operators, to credit cards to banks to travel agents. Often one database is exploited for another's benefit."

The result: We are inundated with unwanted and exasperating phone calls from a bank, financial institution, offering a pre-approved credit card or an attractive personal loan.

Consumer rights activist H D Shourie is completely in agreement with a do-not-call register proposal. "We must start a do-not-call registry and publicise the news through the media. A lot of consumers would sign up," he says.

"People are not very enthusiastic about a mobile directory as tele-marketers would have even more direct access to their numbers and personal information. We are planning to use this ‘mobile directory proposal' to pitch for a do-not-call register in India, so that consumers can heave a sigh of relief," another official at TRAI pointed out.

However, cellular operators in India are not too enthusiastic about this turn of events. "Let them (TRAI) first implement the proposal for a mobile directory service and then a do-not-call service. India is not yet ready for a do-not-call register. We do not still have the necessary intelligence network platform to implement it," says T V Ramachandran, Director General of the Cellular Operators Association of India.

Implementation of such a proposal may be fraught with more than one problem and sundry infrastructural bottlenecks. But as far as the consumer is concerned, an effective do-not-call register would surely make us sigh in relief.

[Beetle 0]

Guess TRAI reads Rimweb.com

I remember one of the members suggesting a similar idea. This means discussions on Rimweb.com is bang on target...!

Keep it going.

Lageee Rahoo © Ash/Vishal

[Mahidhar 3]

all this sounds interesting.... but what if inspite of registering yourself with the do-not-call lists, u still keep getting calls ? we really dont have the required system to track down these people and even if we do, they will somehow manage to get away

[unwantedmails 0]

Mahidhar Does make a point.

we really dont have the required system to track down these people

According to my suggestion above I said that your Carrier/Telco has to provide you with this service. If you can tell them what time you got the call - even if Caller ID or other features are disabled then still they can know which telco the call actually came from.

In dont think its much of a issue for Carriers to Detect which Interconnection the call came from. This is incase you inform them on time - I assume telcos erase their CDRs every 24hours. On knowing which Carrier originated the call, the complaint will go forward to that telco. And Because a Telco billed Mr. XYZ to call your number it obviously knows who made the Call from their CDRs/RADIUS/Accounting System.

Because your Telco will make money from Fining the guy who called you and PLUS from you everymonth as a service charge ("NO TELEMARKETERS") then Its very much in their interest to hunt and fine the guys.

PCOGuy

[deepu 0]

Ban unsolicited phone calls, urges PIL

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

February 07, 2005 11:15 IST

The Supreme Court on Monday issued notices to the Centre, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India and cellular operators on a public interest litigation seeking enactment of a law to stop number of unsolicited calls made by business ventures to mobile phone subscribers.

The petitioner requested the court to issue a direction to respondents to check, regulate and stop the 'endemic' invasion of privacy of the subscribers of mobile telephone services at all times and hours by such unsolicited calls.

[deepu 0]

Should telemarketing be banned?

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

February 17, 2005 - source rediff.com

Insensitive and rampant soliciting of customers on the phone may hurt the brand being marketed, but banning it altogether is not a solution either.

Harish Bijoor, CEO, Harish Bijoor Consults Inc

Neha wakes me up at 2 am in the morning in Boston.

Uma shakes me out of a deep slumber in Frankfurt at just about half past three. I wake up in a sweat both times. My mobile is never switched off -- my work is thus.

Working in different geographies means being able to stay in touch. Neha is from Stanchart (or so she claims, as most outsourced operatives do) and wants to know if I want a draft on loan. Seema is from Citibank, Chennai. She wants me to take a Diner's Card. Never mind that I have one now for the past 20 years.

I get an average of six calls every waking day. Someone either wants me to own that "absolutely amazing timeshare" in Timbuctoo, or it is my time to be "the lucky winner of an experience of a lifetime". I am tired of all this.

The Supreme Court's mention on telemarketing in response to the public interest litigation filed on the subject is the ultimate recognition of this menace. It's time to put a stop to it and get going with processes that seek to protect the privacy of the consumer. I am a marketer at heart but my soul is that of a consumer. Each of us is a marketer and a consumer at the same time. The consumer in me cries out to stop this menace.

Let's remember that marketers who think like the consumer does are more in touch with reality than the ones who get carried away by the potential of the medium of telemarketing altogether. Let's look at some of the issues. Marketing evolves. But it must evolve with the consumer's want and need.

Just as the consumer have wants and needs in the realm of products and services that they want to use and partake of, they are also are capable of expressing their needs, wants, desires and aspirations of how they want to be communicated to.

Ask the savvy consumer in the marketplace. If the marketer can be a savvy entity by the process of his education in the realm of marketing and his diverse experiences, the consumer is savvy as well. She has been marketed-to for a long time.

The savvy consumer is fed up of the way she is spoken to. The communication has been top-down for far too long and the marketer is just about waking up to communicating at level terms with the consumer.

A time will come when the marketer will communicate bottom-up and the consumer is really begged to, to buy. Today, however, the consumer is tired of the calls that pester than placate a need and want.

We started in the good old days by marketing 1:1. Selling, marketing and advertising happened one-on-one. When this became difficult, marketing assumed the easier and more practicable route of going 1: many. Here, mass media like television played a big role.

While branding seems to work here, nothing else does. Mass marketing is too mass-driven. Wanting to solve this problem, direct marketing of the 1:1 kind happened in many markets of the developed world. Direct marketing such as the mailer kind happened. And so did telemarketing. And both killed the goose that had the potential of laying the golden egg, by insensitive and rampant use.

Telemarketing is an excellent tool if used sensitively and with caution. Marketing is, however, a democracy. It is exploited by everyone till consumers cry out in pain to stop. Direct marketing of the insensitive-mailer kind had the US market scream in pain. And telemarketing had the US, Europe, the UK and Japan scream in anger.

The kind of telemarketing we practice in India is insensitive and intolerable. I believe this is the time to put an end to it. We need a national register of "Do not call" numbers. And if Sneha still calls, it's time to claim that $11,000 compensation from the insensitive company she represents.

Let's remember, the onus to find out which is a DNC number lies with the court of the telemarketer.

From the marketer's perspective, it would be wise to remember that the equity of your brand is exposed to the risk of being sullied if your ill-trained, insensitive and mechanical readers of the telemarketing script continue to irritate the high-net worth consumer in the market.

H N Sinor, Chief Executive, Indian Banks' Association

The Supreme Court has recently admitted a PIL that seeks the Court's intervention against calls made by telemarketing agencies claiming that these calls invade the customers' privacy.

While the PIL hearing process will take its due course, the attention seems to be focusing on the telemarketing agencies/ direct sales agents.

Before we pass any judgement against these agencies, their role needs to be seen from a different perspective, particularly in relation to the evolution of the consumption-driven economic growth of the country.

The current economic boom has resulted in higher spending by the usually-conservative Indian consumers. According to the ministry of statistics, the private final consumption expenditure has risen by 8.3 per cent during 2003-04 in comparison with the previous year, and this is the highest growth rate in 23 years.

A rise in PFCE growth rate also suggests a rise in the income in the hands of the customer. Considering that this component forms 60 per cent of the GDP measured by the expenditure or demand method (as compared with the GDP by economic activity, which divides the GDP into agriculture, industry and services), it suggests that most of the rise in the GDP is coming from PFCE growth.

One of the main reasons for the PFCE growth has been the banks' ability to extend their retail services at the consumer's doorstep. The banks have achieved this through the services of the direct sales agents or the direct marketing agents. The DSAs are entrepreneurs who employ agents and have ability to offer personalised service to the end customers.

These agents provide scale and cost efficiency that gets passed on to the end consumer. The growth of these intermediaries has also created new employment opportunities and has further fuelled consumerism.

Currently, about 15-20,000 young men and women are employed by direct sales agents of banks as telemarketing agents and field sales personnel.

The agents bring convenience, comfort and speed in today's fast-paced life of the customers by offering door-to-door services. The customer gets personalised services and the service providers are able to offer this service only because of the efficiency that the agents bring to the delivery channel.

This is evidenced from the fact that 40 to 50 per cent of cards and upto 25 per cent of retail loans are sold through telemarketing, which translates into at least 300,000 cards a month.

Pro-active sales initiatives by banks have improved consumer awareness and knowledge of products exponentially over the past five years. This has benefited consumers by way of lower annual fees, lower rates of interest on retail loans, improved service, and so on.

Telemarketing enables banks to significantly reduce sales-related expenditure that is being passed on to the consumers, which may not be possible under a direct sales approach. As a measure of cost dynamics, tele-sales is at least 40 to 50 per cent more economical than other sales options.

The advent of mobile technology has further enabled the banks widen the net of "anywhere banking". What is, however, needed is an urgent need on the part of the banks to put in place a self-regulatory mechanism that is designed to protect customer privacy.

The Indian Banks' Association is highly sensitised towards this need and, in conjunction with the Reserve Bank of India and the constituent banks, is taking concrete steps to put in place a self-regulatory mechanism in the form of a fair practice code to be followed by the banks, a model code of conduct for the DSAs involved in the banks' business, and an effective consumer redressal mechanism to address consumer grievances.

Several measures are being considered to handle unsolicited calls from telemarketers. One such proposed solution is the institution of a "Do not call" registry mechanism, which will help the customer avoid unwanted telephonic solicitation calls by placing their contact details on this common registry.

Another measure could be the setting up of a ring-tone that will advise the caller that it is a sales call. This service can be activated by the consumer when he does not want to be disturbed. These methods are technically possible and our telecom service providers should offer them to customers.

Any approach to ban promotional and marketing calls will deprive the customers of the benefits and be a severe hindrance to those who are open to receiving information about various products and services. The solution is to empower the consumer and give him the choice of receiving a call rather than banning the activity altogether.

source - rediff.com

[chandramauli 0]

why only tele-marketing ... even spam should be stoped ... (by spam i mean adult spam mails should stop....)

[emjay 0]

totally agree!! but how would this come about?

so many countries consider putting the legislation in place, so then the SPAMMERs can operate from another country

[Greens 21]

Another alternate is TRAI should come with DO NOT CALL directory as in US.

[Chirag 5]

This is a recent email that an Orange Customer got by subscribing to regular Updates!

ORANGE PROTECTS PRIVACY

Dear Customer, 

At Orange we take great care to protect your privacy, by ensuring your number and personal details do not fall into undesirable hands. We only call you to recommend a tariff or service that might benefit you. You can avoid these calls too. Just send DND as an SMS to 123 to stop receiving such calls.

Avoid printing your mobile number on visiting cards or feedback forms. Send STOP (number of the caller) as an SMS to 123 and we will take up the matter with the caller organizations.

Orange respects your privacy and will ensure that you are not disturbed in the future.

[Arun 795]

Yes, I even saw a half page advertisement by Orange with the same stuff, in Business Line newspaper recently.

[imvikky 0]

I've recieved these calls most of the times when I've been outstation(on roaming)... It should be banned or there should be an option for the user to get it turned off....

There was a brilliant idea by one of the members which I don't remember I read under which topic It says that the option should be available with the user to turn it off and there should be some rewards for the users who recieve such calls may be they can also have some nominal fee for turning this off....

[Chirag 5]

Finally, relief for credit card users

Rediff.com

Niranjan Krishnan | July 02, 2005 14:59 IST

In a welcome move that will wipe the frown off the face of many credit card holders, the Reserve Bank of India has proposed a set of guidelines to regulate credit card operations in the country.

The draft of the guidelines is presently placed in public view for feedback from various stakeholders. They will be finalised in the next few months and come into force for implementation by the end of August.

The scope of the proposed guidelines spans a whole gamut of credit card operations, touching upon card issuance, interest assessments, billing, customer rights, information-privacy and confidentiality, debt collection practices, outsourcing activities and redressal of customer grievances.

Some of the creditable and consumer-friendly features of the proposal are:

The terms and conditions of the credit agreement should be disclosed in clear and simple language in all important communications to the customers. A listing of key items to include in those communications is also provided in the guidelines.

• * The interest calculations must be explained with illustrations in each billing statement dispatched to customers.
  * The credit card companies should send their billing statements without delay and customers must be given at least 10 days for settling their bills before interest assessments can kick in.
  * Personal information of customers should be held confidential and cannot be shared with third parties.
  * An Internet-enabled "Do not call registry" must be maintained by credit card companies to give consumers the choice of opting out of unsolicited phone calls and SMS messages.
  * Debt collectors should not resort to verbal or physical intimidation or harassment of cardholders, their friends and family.
  * The credit card companies are liable for the actions of third parties hired by them for sales or collections.
  * Customer complaints should be resolved within 60 days.
  

The RBI guidelines, though covering a lot of ground, however, are not free from their baggage of controversies, limitations and omissions.

For full article click here

[Chirag 5]

Spam calls and Citibank

Rediff.com | August 23, 2005

Spam or junk mail is ubiquitous. But, so far as e-mail is concerned, you can at least set filters. Spam snail mail is also easy to handle.

A byproduct of liberalisation is that everything useful seems to come through courier services, while everything that comes through regular post is invariably junk.

Therefore, you can safely tear up the latter, without even bothering to read it. But I still don't know how to handle spam phone calls.

Caller IDs or contact lists aren't good enough, because there are always non-spam calls from people who aren't on such lists. Some variation of Murphy's or Sod's Law seems to apply to such spam calls. They always occur at the most inconvenient time possible.

For instance, on a landline, at three in the afternoon on a Sunday. And on a mobile, when you are in a meeting. Or worse, when you are in the bathroom. Mobile phones are more personal and less anonymous.

It therefore irritates me all the more when such spam calls occur on my cell phone. There are no mobile phone directories.

Therefore, you must have given your mobile phone number to someone, ignored the fine print that says that this information can be passed on, and that database has subsequently been sold to someone interested in tele-marketing.

I wonder how much marketing success such spam callers have. And I wonder whether companies realise how much irritation such unsolicited calls cause and turn off existing or prospective customers.

I have no idea whether the limited sample survey of unsolicited calls in our household is representative. But if you take a vote in our household today, the consensus will be that banks offering credit cards (or personal loans) are the worst culprits.

Three years ago, hotels offering assorted memberships were a close second. Such calls are rarer now, implying that they have finally given up on us or that the hotel industry is doing better.

And if you again take a vote in our household about which bank is the worst offender, the consensus will be Citibank. Standard Chartered, HDFC and ICICI will be a distant second. It has taken me two years to get out of Citibank's clutches.

I have learnt, the hard way, that it is best to have a credit card issued by the bank with which you have an account. That way, if there is a problem, the bank sorts it out for you. But, as I said, I learnt this the hard way.

I dispensed with pure Citibank cards a long time ago. But Citibank also has co-branded cards. And the last one that caused me several months of problems was a co-branded card with the India Habitat Centre. I didn't want the card.

This was also before the RBI issued guidelines saying that unsolicited cards shouldn't be sent. Although I didn't want the card, because the IHC was involved, I accepted the card when it was sent to me, but changed my mind later.

And my problems started. The card wouldn't get cancelled. I wasn't using the card. But I was being billed for annual charges and because I never got any bills, was defaulting on these charges.

Even when I finally cleared these charges, I was defaulting on interest. As a defaulter, there were several calls from Citibank. In particular, a lady named Shalini. Everyone in the household got to recognise Shalini's voice.

Not that Shalini could solve your problem. Because she was not from Customer Care. Not that anyone in Customer Care could solve your problem, either.

Because every time, you talked to a different person and each such person ended up feeding your cancellation request into the computer and nothing changed. You ended up paying Citibank even though you didn't use the card.

Eventually, the problem was solved and I was delighted when RBI guidelines surfaced. No more unwanted cards, no more unsolicited phone calls. I celebrated too soon. After these RBI guidelines were issued, I have now been sent a Citibank card, co-branded with Hutch.

True, the card wasn't activated and wouldn't be, unless you wanted it to. But why was I sent an unwanted card? I rung up CitiPhone. Not to activate the card, but to complain. And spoke to someone named Vaishali, who promised a letter of apology, which never materialised.

Quite independent of this card, I continue to get calls from Citibank, invariably on my mobile, offering assorted other cards. Reflecting the RBI guidelines, a brochure titled "Important Terms and Conditions" came with the Hutch co-branded card and states, "If you do not wish to receive any direct marketing or telecalling/telesales call from Citibank, please call 24-Hour CitiPhone and inform us."

I have tried that as well, but it doesn't work. I have visited Citibank's website, to try and seek if I can be taken off the tele-calling database. No such option. So much for the RBI's guidelines.

Personal grievances apart, the more important point is the one I mentioned earlier. Even if I want a financial product, thanks to these spam calls, I am unlikely to ever go to Citibank.

[Shabz 8]

Why did you have to pay for the card which you did not use I had also got an ICICI credit card and was told it was free but i got a statement with the yearly charges mentioned in the first month itseld I got it cancelled but still receive the statements I have burnt the card and have not paid a single penny to the bank and every month I just tear their letter and throw it away

[anujit 0]

Stop bugging me

DNC from RIM!

http://www.relianceinfo.com/Infocomm/Rim/rim_index.html

Looks like they've launched a DNC too. But it only applies for "sales" calls/sms from RIC. How many of us have received such calls anyways? The only calls I've received from RIM are "why havent you paid your bill. do you want me to send a bhaiya to collect it" or "Sir you complained to RIM chairman's office. I wanted to know to get some feedback on that. On a scale of 1-5 how would you rate them"!

Strange but a good move in the right direction!

[Chirag 5]

Unsolicited calls on mobile? Solution soon

Rediff.com | March 06, 2006 19:06 IST

The Centre on Monday informed the Supreme Court that it will come out with a solution within two weeks to prevent unsolicited calls on mobile phones relating to tele-marketing, which amounts to invasion of privacy.

A statement to this effect was given by additional solicitor general Gopal Subramanian before a Bench comprising Justice Ruma Pal and Justice Dalveer Bhandari.

The Bench accepted the Centre's request for two weeks on the issue after recording the ASG's submission that steps have been taken to prevent the menace of unsolicited calls from tele-marketers.

The Bench was informed that authorities had discussion with telecom service providers and they were cooperating to evolve a solution.

The court was hearing a public interest litigation filed by Harsh Pathak seeking a law to ban unsolicited calls on mobile phones from various banks for loans or credit cards.

The court had sought response from the law and justice ministry, MTNL, cellular operators -- Hutch, Reliance Infocomm, Idea Cellular, Bharti -- and multi-national banks like Citibank, HSBC, Standard Chartered, HDFC and ICICI.

The PIL had contended that these unsolicited calls for a loan, credit card or even a new connection amounted to "endemic invasion of privacy of the subscribers of mobile telephony at all times and hours" and seriously impaired the fundamental rights of citizens.

The PIL had said the mobile telephony service and tele-marketers were using the personal data of the subscribers for their business purposes as a product for sales promotion at the subscribers' personal and financial cost.

Citing a law in the United States to ban such unsolicited calls, the petitioner, through advocate Vivek Tankha, had requested the court to direct the government to enact an appropriate law, scheme or regulation to protect the mobile phone users "from this constant harassment and invasion of privacy" by such calls.

The PIL had said personal data given by a subscriber to a cellular service provider should be treated as confidential and there should be a law prohibiting service providers from transferring such personal data to other companies for commercial purposes.

"The government should formulate a scheme to safeguard privacy of the subscribers and to compensate for the loss incurred by them due to such unethical actions of the respondents," Pathak said in the petition.

He has also sought a direction for government to create a helpline and a forum to register complaints from mobile phone subscribers who have been harassed by unsolicited calls.

[basant_jp 0]

Reliance has added a new section on the website - Don't disturb...

"Reliance Infocomm communicates various features, products and promotional offers from time to time, that offer significant benefits to you.

If you do not wish to be informed about such benefits through telephone calls/SMSs, you can unsubscribe from such communication by filling up the form given below. Your request will be implemented within 30 days from the date of submission.

Edited March 21, 2006 by basant_jp

[jusmail 0]

Let's see if this works--but gotta wait 30 days eh?