If you like your peace and quiet during dinner time and want to prevent annoying interruptions from telemarketers, it is time to sign up again on Wisconsin’s No Call List.
If you are already on the list, you need to re-register by September 1, 2007. You can also register if you have never done so by filling out
this registration form. This is the easiest and fastest way to register to ensure you are on the No Call List by October 1, 2007.
You can fill out the on-line registration form I have linked for you, or call 1-866-9NO-CALL (1-866-966-2255) toll-free in Wisconsin. Consumers can sign up 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.
The no-call system, which went into effect Jan. 1, 2003, requires people to renew every two years. If you sign up after September 1, 2007 but before December 1, 2007, you won't be put on the no-call list until Jan. 1, 2008.
The updated No Call List is given to registered telemarketers quarterly, so it may take 30 to 120 days for your number to get to telemarketers.
The Wisconsin No Call List is a list of residential telephone numbers of Wisconsin residents who do not want to be called by telemarketers in their homes. The Wisconsin law prohibits telemarketers from calling households that have been added to the No Call List. You can register all your home phone numbers. The law also prohibits businesses from intentionally blocking the Caller ID feature on your telephone.
Only one adult in your household needs to register. Be sure to register any additional phone numbers at the same residence. Registering is free.
The Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection says the No Call List should stop most telemarketing calls but there are exceptions:
1. Calls made to an existing customer - for example, calls from: the bank you have a checking account with, your phone company or your credit card company.
2. Calls made in response to your written or verbal request or permission.
3. Calls encouraging you to make a donation of property, goods or services to a "nonprofit organization."
4. Calls encouraging you to purchase property, goods or services from a "nonprofit organization" unless sale proceeds are subject to Wisconsin sales tax or federal income tax.
5. Calls made for noncommercial purposes such as polls, surveys and political purposes.
6. Calls made to a business telephone number.
7. A call made by an individual acting on his or her own behalf, and not as an employee or agent of any other person.
Even if a call is exempt from this law, you can still stop many of these calls just by telling them not to call you again. Federal law requires each and every business to place your name on their "no call" list, if you request it.
The law excludes businesses and business telephone numbers. Any phone that is a business phone is not eligible to be on the Wisconsin No Call List. If your home office phone is your residential line, then it is eligible to be included on the List.
Telemarketers who call someone on the No Call List can be subject to a $100 fine per call.
If you get a telemarketing call after you have registered to be on the No Call List:
1. If you have Caller ID, write down the phone number from which they are calling. It is illegal for a telemarketer to block Caller ID.
2. Get the name of the company for which the telemarketer works. Often companies will contract with telemarketing companies to market their services for them. Make sure you get the name of the telemarketing company as well as the company for which they are selling. All telemarketers are required to state their name and their company's name at the beginning of the call. If you didn't hear it, ask them to repeat it.
3. Ask the telemarketer for their Wisconsin telemarketing license number.
Try to get their manager's phone number and an address for the telemarketing firm. Make sure you note the date and time the call was made. Then fill out a
No Call Complaint questionnaire. Remember you aren't automatically added to the List the day you sign up. Telemarketers are only required to update the List once a quarter. It may take between 30 to 120 days for your number to be added to all the telemarketers' lists.
