This is a followup to my notes posted on July 2, see page 2:   http://800notes.com/Phone.aspx/1-360-474-3944/2#p416436109650085107 .

I received another call, on July 16, 2012, from “Political Opinions.”

Same questions as asked on July 2.  I would make a selection but then question would repeat.  Eventually, I was successful in the selections...I think the questions are unclear as to what is being asked.  In the first case, premiers are supposedly pushing federal govt for more health care funding and have formed a committee to encourage committees in other regions.  First of, what committee?  Which provinces?  

This time around though, the answer options weren’t agree/disagree.  They were on a sliding scale of 1 to 5.

At the end, I WAS connected with someone at Caribbean Cruise Lines (about my free trip to the Bahamas. That carrot, I am very sure, is simply a sales pitch.)  I tried to find out from the woman I spoke with who contracted them to do the survey.  She said she didn’t know, I could get more info from www.independentsurveygroup.org.  After some time of reframing my questions to her, it appeared that no one hires Caribbean, that the calls are very likely a joint venture between Caribbean and Independent Survey Group.

There might be two reasons for that (in my opinion):

1.    they may be pooling telemarketing resources; saves $;

2.    Caribbean gets to talk to an unlimited number of people, INCLUDING people who may have put their numbers on “do not call” lists, but because the DNC registry doesn’t apply to political calls (in Canada I believe political parties are exempt though I don’t know how it works with a telemarketer hired by a political party).

I have emailed Independent Survey Group to ask who their client is.  I doubt they will provide the name of their client, however.  It am not convinced that the three political questions asked are going to get meaningful results and hence I worry about how the data will be manipulated and how it will be used.

I understand there is a U.S. political survey as well as this Canadian survey, which makes sense if this is really a way to get around the DNC list.  In fact, perhaps the political questions are not used at all and are simply the means of getting around the DNC requirements.