Wednesday, July 05, 2006
The American Dream!
Early Monday evening the EIC did something every American dreams of doing but few get the chance to do. That was when he received a telephone call, mysteriously identified on the Caller-ID as "Illinois Call." With so many friends out and about for early holiday celebrations, he decided to pick-up. What he heard shook him to the core: it was an automated call asking that he participate in a five minute survey -- actually it demanded it, because the EIC was shocked into silence and soon after requesting participation the automated call launched into the questions. The EIC shook himself out of his trance and hit the "0" key or somesuch. No human being came on the phone, rather, a message anounced the name of the company - The Survey Center LLC - and assured him that all applicable laws were followed, with a particular note that the National Do Not Call List did not apply to survey calls. Still, the EIC recalled a state law requiring accurate names on the caller ID for commercial phone calls, plus he was overwhelmed with the nerve, the affront, of a massive, inhuman disruption of holiday cheer. Nor was he confident that the survey was indeed non-comercial and not a "push poll" type thing. Nor did it sound like the "add to our private do not call list" was working, or at least it seemed uncertain. So the EIC launched into a little research and found the Survey Center LLC Web site, complete with metatag spamming so blatant and sloppy that they didn't bother to hide it. More research turned up related/similar companies...
...and an ubiquitous contact name of a woman who, it turns out, has a unique and non-unlisted (or at least findable on public web sites) phone number. Two in fact. The first turned out to be a fax. Monz-inspired persistance paid off: the second number hit paydirt -- person up from the dinnertable, sound of a young child in the background paydirt. Why yes, the uncertain voice answered, this is the contact person for this group. Why no, she was not aware of the caller-id law. Why yes, she could imagine that people who are on the Do Not Call list probably don't want their holiday evenings disrupted with their dinnertime phone calls regardless of the legality of such calls.
Monz celebrates this revenge of the overmarketed with a trip to
"Lake County's Favorite Mexican Restaurant for the spicy pork tomale/beef burrito special. Con agua!
Early Monday evening the EIC did something every American dreams of doing but few get the chance to do. That was when he received a telephone call, mysteriously identified on the Caller-ID as "Illinois Call." With so many friends out and about for early holiday celebrations, he decided to pick-up. What he heard shook him to the core: it was an automated call asking that he participate in a five minute survey -- actually it demanded it, because the EIC was shocked into silence and soon after requesting participation the automated call launched into the questions. The EIC shook himself out of his trance and hit the "0" key or somesuch. No human being came on the phone, rather, a message anounced the name of the company - The Survey Center LLC - and assured him that all applicable laws were followed, with a particular note that the National Do Not Call List did not apply to survey calls. Still, the EIC recalled a state law requiring accurate names on the caller ID for commercial phone calls, plus he was overwhelmed with the nerve, the affront, of a massive, inhuman disruption of holiday cheer. Nor was he confident that the survey was indeed non-comercial and not a "push poll" type thing. Nor did it sound like the "add to our private do not call list" was working, or at least it seemed uncertain. So the EIC launched into a little research and found the Survey Center LLC Web site, complete with metatag spamming so blatant and sloppy that they didn't bother to hide it. More research turned up related/similar companies...
...and an ubiquitous contact name of a woman who, it turns out, has a unique and non-unlisted (or at least findable on public web sites) phone number. Two in fact. The first turned out to be a fax. Monz-inspired persistance paid off: the second number hit paydirt -- person up from the dinnertable, sound of a young child in the background paydirt. Why yes, the uncertain voice answered, this is the contact person for this group. Why no, she was not aware of the caller-id law. Why yes, she could imagine that people who are on the Do Not Call list probably don't want their holiday evenings disrupted with their dinnertime phone calls regardless of the legality of such calls.
Monz celebrates this revenge of the overmarketed with a trip to
"Lake County's Favorite Mexican Restaurant for the spicy pork tomale/beef burrito special. Con agua!
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