Bob's Do-Not-Call Protection Blog

Has the owner of the cell number you’re about to call changed? As a call center manager of permission-based communications, you can’t be entirely sure! About 25% of cell phone owners located in densely populated areas change their number each year. About a quarter of CFPB debt collector consumer complaints are for “no debt owed,” and most of those seem to be to the wrong party. And the  FCC’s Declaratory Ruling of July 10^th, 2015 confirmed: If a phone number has been reassigned, companies must stop calling the number after one attempt. 

Seems B2B callers are getting the word on just how much pain previous TCPA litigants can cause - Just by saying they are going to sue you. Even if you are calling cell phones by hand (although that’s extremely rare in the B2B world –) And you've probably chosen not to register with the National DNC List as a free B2B exemption - because you're exempt anyway, right? Ahhh kind of. 

One in five U.S. adults—an estimated 51 million people—will be contacted about medical bills by a collection agency in 2014, according to a study by NerdWallet Health and reported on by Collections&Credit Risk. Americans pay three times more in medical debt to collection agencies than they pay for credit card and bank debt combined, the study found.

Like most call centers and phone marketers, you’re probably calling previous TCPA, FDCPA, Do Not Call and FCRA litigants without even knowing it. These are the professional plaintiffs and their attorneys that have made a business of suing anyone that calls their cell phone. These are the folks that dominate the world of TCPA and Do Not Call Court Actions. And of course, the source of most class action lawsuits in the millions of dollars.

Direct-to-Voicemail (or Ringless Voicemail) cell messaging allows you to send a voicemail message directly to a wireless phone voicemail server – without ringing the phone or interrupting the recipient, and without charging the recipient. The cell owner retrieves their voicemail as they normally would. The program creates lots of callbacks from consumers for your call center associates. Direct-To-Voicemail has been around about three years now, with over 10 million certified deliveries.

As you know, small businesses and “grey area” business-consumers are becoming more educated and sensitive to incoming cell communications, solicitations, and updates—especially when generated through Automatic Telephone Dialing Systems. Many times, it’s not worth the risk or hassle of potential litigation in defending these potential class action cell phone suits.

I just spent an hour with a top home security provider's CEO – listening to why he doesn’t need to register with the National Registry and doesn’t have to check numbers before calling. Eight agents in a room serving over 1000 accounts and growing like gangbusters, but they don’t use the phone for “cold calling”, so don't need compliance protection. My friend is in one of the biggest lawsuit prone industries but doesn't care about the millions in fines for potential wrong number violations or class action suits.  Most of his major competitors: Devcon, ADT, and Millennium Security have all been sued for big money in call compliance-related violations. Yet he has no State calling checks, no cell checking system, no compliance procedures. Not good.

I’ll never forget the blank stares on the faces of call center directors, chief marketing officers, lead generators, dialing companies, and Do Not Call service providers as they leave the seminar rooms after talk after talk on handling Do Not Call regulations for their businesses and customers.

Think you know how to stay compliant with the latest call prohibitions? Try doing it without scrubbing your calling lists every 30 days for landlines and 15 for cells. Imagine the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau auditing your call center without those records handy.  Imagine surviving the Telephone Consumer Protection Act without scrubbing your wireless inventory against both Federal and State lists before each campaign. After over ten years of Telephone Sales Rule domination, Do-Not-Call list scrubbing is still the basis of individual and call center compliance. Here are a few tips to make sure you’ve got things buttoned up.

As FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler has passed his proposal to strengthen consumer protections and enforce the TCPA even further, thereby combining the 40 or so TCPA related proposals on his desk over the last couple of years, it makes sense to just not call previous litigators, plaintiffs and their attorneys. These are the professionals most experienced in causing call litigation and lawsuits against you. [Click Video]