No.. I called all their numbers to inquire about my investments. Thankfully its not too much..however I still have to put it all up as a loss since all their phone numbers are disconnected without any further details. Their website is still up..Hoboken where the firm is located was hit very hard by the flooding... However I figure that they just closed up shop...took everyone's investments and open up under a different name or perhaps opened up shop in another country...
Maybe, but nothing in what you say shows that YOU know. I've run into a lot of folk, when I tried to teach them how to get on the list, had no idea about the exceptions to it (like surveys), nor how long after you go on the list before a company can be penalized.
And, beyond that, a company like Bentley doesn't create their own leads. A small percentage of them, OK. But most of them are leads they purchased from lead brokers. The lead brokers are SUPPOSED to sweep their data bases periodically, to remover the Do Not Call numbers. Sometimes they don't. Sometimes they do but miss a few - they haven't hit the Government data bases yet, or some1 screwed up in data entry.
So your complaint - to some1 who has been involved in Investment Marketing rooms in the past - doesn't sound very substantive.
Carlos: For-profit companies are required to honor the do not call registry. You are making excuses for someone who is violating the do-not-call laws. It is the responsibility of the CALLER to check the do-not-call database prior to making the call, regardless of whether the number was obtained from a list that alleges to only sell numbers of those who wish to be contacted by telemarketers. The database updates daily. All that Bentley needs to do is register with the website that provides these restricted numbers, and then select which area codes it wishes to confirm. The first five area codes are free. With Bentley's wealth, it wouldn't have any trouble affording the subscription fees for the remaing area codes. Once registered, verifying a number is easy. You open the file with the respective area code, type in the phone number that you wish to check, and wait to see whether it displays in the file. If it shows up, it is a number that is on the do not call list. If it doesn't show up, you re permitted to call it.
Of course, large companies know that it is cheaper to pay the fines that come fro complaints by consumers that the law isn't being followed than it is to subscribe to all of thse area codes, which brings me back to what I stated originally. If a rep from a company show disregard of complaince to the do not call registry, then he is a pushy salesman with only self-serving interests in mind versus a sales professional.
Squig - the last time I set up an LLC to raise money for a client's project was when the Do Not Call list was 1st set up. Your description of how the law is COMPLETELY is NOT how it was back then. I bought my leads, back then, from a top lead broker, one who publishes 1 of the top 3 reverse phone directories in the country (again, this was true back then. Market rankings change.)
Many companies that do surveys are for-profit companies. Are you claiming that surveys lost their exemption from the list? Or are you just talking generalities? Parties who have had prior contacts with you, business contacts, are NOT covered under Do Not Call. If you gave an OK for calls to an associated firm - what is called a opt in including related firms - they are not covered.
My last point - I find it hard to believe there isn't a time lag from when you register on the list to when it takes effect. If there was, that would be blown out of the water in court, as it would be an unreasonable requirement and therefore a violation of due process, in my unprofessional opinion.
And none of this is making EXCUSES! It is me, talking from personal experience DEALING with setting up investment marketing operations, with great care to make SURE they comp[lied with ALL Federal and State laws, trying to tell you why I don't believe it happened the way you think it did. Don't get me wrong, I am NOT saying you are lying. I don't believe you are. Yet I AM sure your understanding of the situation is... off, just a little.
Oh, by the way, do you have any idea what would be involved in sweeping a data base daily? With the influence REALLY big firms have in Congress, that make Bentley look like a minnow, like Morgan Stanley or UBS Financial Services, that hire new guys to cold call for the established Brokers at $2,000, $3,000 per month plus a portion of the commissions there Brokers close - the List would NOT have been set up in a way that hurt them. C'mon!
There is no relevance bringing up how the DNC laws used to be "back then." I wasn't being called "back then." I'm being called now. Moreover, Bentley isn't performing "surveys." It is soliciting for business. I personally have never heard of Bentley, nor do I invest in any precious metals. How they have my number is unknown to me--which drives my point even more. Even with those who had a prior relationship with a company, the length of time that the company has permission to call someone expires when 18 months after the last transaction has occurred. Also, I've been on the DNC list since the inception of the DNC call registry in 2003; and the requirement to check the registry was implemented in 2005. There is no "lag" of an updated database to influence what is happening with me.
The registry updates daily--automation allows this to occur. If there is something that will prevent this, an e-mail is sent to the subscriber to tell them so. In order for the solicitor to be protected, s/he needs to prove that the DNC list was checked prior to making the call. The solicitor only needs to update its last list obtained from the registry every 31 days, so it can go off of the last list that it updated until 31 days has passed. It's simple both to document as well as perform. This has nothing to do with sweeping databases. It also has nothing to do with a company providing a list to specific employees to cold call. It's solely about verifying that the number the solicitor is about to call is not on the list prior to making the call, which can only happen from the caller...and not a list that was provided to him.
Finally, your experience in business, and your diligence to it, is not relevant to this thread. The thread is about all of us recieving unwanted calls from Bentley, and some of us have been talked to in a rude manner in the process when challenging the reason for the call--and you are defending the very person who is doing this to us by trying to tell us how great of a person your friend at Bentley is, and that Bentley is a great company.