| Omaha Steaks Responds to Privacy Complaint
Last week, I raked Omaha Steaks over the coals as a particularly annoying example of the continuing poor privacy practices of many Web sites. Well, I have to give the company credit for listening at least a little. A few hours ago, I got a letter via UPS to my doorstep from Omaha Steaks CEO Bruce Simon. He apologized for my receiving repeated, unwanted telemarketing calls and apparently took me off the company's list. (He also said the company is sending me a complimentary box of filet mignon. While I appreciate the sentiment, journalistic scruples will require me to decline the shipment. So if it hasn't been sent out, Mr. Simon, please hold the steaks.) Still, while it's good that the company at least offers an opt-out alternative for emails and removes customers from telemarketing lists on request, I don't think that's good enough in this day and age of relentless marketing pitches.
Firms to pay $56,000 to settle calling suit
Two out-of-state corporations have agreed to pay $ 56, 000 into the Arkansas Attorney General's Consumer Education and Enforcement Fund to settle a lawsuit accusing them of telemarketing vacations to Arkansans on the national Do Not Call registry. A consent agreement signed by assistant Arkansas attorney general Jean Block and Kelly McNulty, local counsel for Richard King, who owns Berkshire Getaways of Massachusetts and Data King Corp. of New York, was filed Wednesday in federal court in Little Rock. U. S. District Judge James Moody signed the order Thursday, making it official. The attorney general's office, then led by Mike Beebe, the current governor, filed the lawsuit in November 2006. It alleged that since Jan. 1, 2005, Berkshire had placed more than 100, 000 telephone calls to Arkansas consumers, at least 500 of whom had listed their numbers on the national registry.
Wisconsin Sues Firm Over Telemarketing, Advertising Violations
MADISON, Wis. -- The Wisconsin Department of Justice is accusing an Arizona company of violating the state's telemarketing and deceptive advertising laws. The agency has filed a lawsuit against Preferred Readers Service Inc. after the state received numerous complaints from Wisconsin customers about the company's tactics. Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen said that the company called homes several times a day for weeks at a time and hung up when customers asked for caller identification. He said that some of those customers were on the state's Do-Not-Call registry. Van Hollen also said that the company received payments to authorize renewals for magazines but didn't have the authority to do so. A phone listing for the company in Glendale, Ariz., was disconnected.
CRTC outsourcing investigation of telemarketing complaints
Canada's telecommunications regulator is outsourcing the investigation of telemarketing complaints to a third party, a month after turning over the administration of the do-not-call list to Bell Canada. The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission on Monday said it will issue a request for proposals before the end of February that will solicit bids from parties interested in investigating violations of the do-not-call list and other telemarketing complaints. The winner will work closely with Bell to ensure that complaints are dealt with consistently and in a timely manner, the CRTC said in a statement. All telemarketers, including those exempt from the do-not-call list, will pay an annual fee of $100 to cover the costs of the investigator.
U.S. Theoretical Physicists Organize To Stem 'Outsourcing'
BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Mention "outsourcing" and people tend to think of fields like manufacturing or telemarketing; theoretical physics isn't even on the list. Yet the scientists who develop theoretical predictions for high-energy particle physics experiments say "outsourcing" in their field has allowed the U.S. to lag behind in this area of high-profile, global science. "This is the wrong kind of outsourcing," says Ulrich Baur, Ph.D., professor of physics in the University at Buffalo College of Arts and Sciences and a co-founder of the Large Hadron Collider-Theory Initiative (http://www.lhc-ti.org). LHC-TI is a consortium of theoretical physicists whose goal is to train more U.S. graduate students in theoretical high-energy particle physics calculations relevant to the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) being built near Geneva, Switzerland.
Directory of Top Computer Executives - Canada Edition
The Canada Edition of the Directory includes information on more than 8,000 key executives in over 4,500 companies in all of the Canadian provinces. Because the Directory lists vital information for each listed installation, you can zero in on your best prospects. The availability of multiple target marketing methods will make your marketing program more efficient and effective. Names and titles - complete names, titles, and department names of key decision makers: the top computer executives and managers who oversee operations, application programming, technical support, data communications, and microcomputers. Contact information - company name, division or subsidiary name, complete mailing address, mail stops, and telephone numbers will make your direct mail campaigns and telemarketing efforts more successful than ever before.
Cell phone numbers up for sale
Three U.S. senators are pushing a bill to protect more than 250 million consumers from having their cell phone numbers listed in a 411 directory similar to directories available for residential phone numbers.Prospects of a cellular phone directory have raised fears about a flood of telemarketing via wireless calls and text messaging. While the Federal Communications Commission says those fears are unfounded, there are other privacy concerns at stake.The wireless industry says it has no intention of creating such a directory, although it once did plan to do so.But the bipartisan authors of the Wireless 411 Privacy Act say they dont want to take any chances, and they note that numbers are already available in at least one online directory service that has 90 million cell phone records.I think this is something we want to nip in the bud and say, You wanted to do this, and now you dont.
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