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WASHINGTON (Reuters) — It's an evening ritual Americans love to hate: the phone call during dinner, bringing fabulous offers for credit cards, vinyl siding, vacation packages and other opportunities simply too good to turn down.
Many consumers respond with a muttered curse, a polite "No, thank you" or a legally correct request to never be called again.
But as the calls continue to pour in, some consumers are bolstering their defenses with a wide variety of black boxes bearing names like the TeleZapper and the Phone Butler that allow them to screen out or easily terminate sales calls. Phone companies have stepped in with enhanced caller-ID services that keep telemarketers out as well.
As a result, the humble home telephone has become the fulcrum of a high-tech skirmish as consumers seek to block sales calls while telemarketers try to figure out ways to get through.
"It's the battle of the technologies," says Ken Chase, who sells a gaggle of anti-telemarketing gadgets at Privacycorps.com.
For telemarketers, predictive-dialing software and plunging long-distance rates have made sales campaigns more productive and more affordable over the past decade.
Telemarketers now place 104 million calls each day and take in $278 billion annually, according to government and industry figures.
Consumers looking for peace at dinnertime have a variety of options other than handing off the phone to the toddler.
Local phone companies respond
Local phone companies like Verizon Communications offer enhanced caller-ID service, which intercepts any calls that show up as "out of area," "unknown," or other frequent telemarketer aliases.
Callers are asked to record their name, then placed on hold as the recipient decides whether to take the call.
A Verizon spokeswoman said nearly 1 million out of the company's 30 million home subscribers have signed up for the service, which costs $5 per month on top of the $7.95 monthly caller-ID fee.
SBC Communications offers a similar service in some areas under the moniker Privacy Manager.
But paying a monthly fee to a phone company that engages in telemarketing and profits from telemarketers rubs privacy advocate Jason Catlett the wrong way.
"It feels like extortion," said Catlett, who provides a wealth of anti-telemarketing tips at Junkbusters.com.
Little black boxes help
Better yet are some of the little black boxes featured at Chase's Web site.
"We've gone out and found every device worth selling," says Chase, who used to work from home before incessant telemarketing calls inspired him to launch the site.
Zenith's EZ Hangup, at $17.49, and the Phone Butler by Morgan-Francis, at $49.97, allow consumers to interrupt a telemarketer's pitch with a legal notice asking them to place their phone number on a do-not-call list.
Those looking to set a higher barrier might be interested in Avinta Communications' TriVOX VN100, at $69.97, which requires callers to punch in a secret code or leave a message on an answering machine.
Spectrum Research's Screen Machine, which costs $59.97, intercepts all calls with a statement that sales pitches are not accepted.
Telemarketers are asked to place the number on their do-not-call lists, while others are invited to press the "5" button to ring through.
Telemarketers will not press "5" because they will then be legally on the hook for a $1,500 fine, Chase said.
Privacy Corps' top seller is the TeleZapper, made by Royal Appliance Manufacturing.
Designed by an engineer who worked on predictive dialer systems, the TeleZapper emits a tone that tricks the automatic dialers into thinking that the line is not in service.
The computer hangs up the call and removes the number from the telemarketers' prospect list, eventually reducing the number of calls made into the home.
"It's like jujitsu — using the telemarketers' technology against them," said Catlett of Junkbusters, who noted that consumers not wanting to spend $49.97 could download the out-of-service tone for free from his Web site and place it on their answering machines.
But the cat and mouse games continue, Chase noted, as some telemarketers have altered their predictive dialers to ignore the TeleZapper's single tone. Users can adjust their TeleZappers to send out the distinctive three-tone chime used by the phone company to denote that the line is not in service.
Calls bring in sales
A spokesman for the Direct Marketing Association, which represents telemarketers, said collection agencies might be responsible for the latest twist in the struggle, as they do not care whether a consumer wants to be called.
Then again, studies show that even those people who claim not to like telemarketers do, in fact, make purchases over the phone, said DMA spokesman Jerry Ceresale.
"There are some telemarketers that think, 'I am good enough and I have a great enough product that if I reach people they will want to purchase it,' " Ceresale said, noting that his organization has no official position on call-screening products.
Many consumers respond with a muttered curse, a polite "No, thank you" or a legally correct request to never be called again.
But as the calls continue to pour in, some consumers are bolstering their defenses with a wide variety of black boxes bearing names like the TeleZapper and the Phone Butler that allow them to screen out or easily terminate sales calls. Phone companies have stepped in with enhanced caller-ID services that keep telemarketers out as well.
As a result, the humble home telephone has become the fulcrum of a high-tech skirmish as consumers seek to block sales calls while telemarketers try to figure out ways to get through.
"It's the battle of the technologies," says Ken Chase, who sells a gaggle of anti-telemarketing gadgets at Privacycorps.com.
For telemarketers, predictive-dialing software and plunging long-distance rates have made sales campaigns more productive and more affordable over the past decade.
Telemarketers now place 104 million calls each day and take in $278 billion annually, according to government and industry figures.
Consumers looking for peace at dinnertime have a variety of options other than handing off the phone to the toddler.
Local phone companies respond
Local phone companies like Verizon Communications offer enhanced caller-ID service, which intercepts any calls that show up as "out of area," "unknown," or other frequent telemarketer aliases.
Callers are asked to record their name, then placed on hold as the recipient decides whether to take the call.
A Verizon spokeswoman said nearly 1 million out of the company's 30 million home subscribers have signed up for the service, which costs $5 per month on top of the $7.95 monthly caller-ID fee.
SBC Communications offers a similar service in some areas under the moniker Privacy Manager.
But paying a monthly fee to a phone company that engages in telemarketing and profits from telemarketers rubs privacy advocate Jason Catlett the wrong way.
"It feels like extortion," said Catlett, who provides a wealth of anti-telemarketing tips at Junkbusters.com.
Little black boxes help
Better yet are some of the little black boxes featured at Chase's Web site.
"We've gone out and found every device worth selling," says Chase, who used to work from home before incessant telemarketing calls inspired him to launch the site.
Zenith's EZ Hangup, at $17.49, and the Phone Butler by Morgan-Francis, at $49.97, allow consumers to interrupt a telemarketer's pitch with a legal notice asking them to place their phone number on a do-not-call list.
Those looking to set a higher barrier might be interested in Avinta Communications' TriVOX VN100, at $69.97, which requires callers to punch in a secret code or leave a message on an answering machine.
Spectrum Research's Screen Machine, which costs $59.97, intercepts all calls with a statement that sales pitches are not accepted.
Telemarketers are asked to place the number on their do-not-call lists, while others are invited to press the "5" button to ring through.
Telemarketers will not press "5" because they will then be legally on the hook for a $1,500 fine, Chase said.
Privacy Corps' top seller is the TeleZapper, made by Royal Appliance Manufacturing.
Designed by an engineer who worked on predictive dialer systems, the TeleZapper emits a tone that tricks the automatic dialers into thinking that the line is not in service.
The computer hangs up the call and removes the number from the telemarketers' prospect list, eventually reducing the number of calls made into the home.
"It's like jujitsu — using the telemarketers' technology against them," said Catlett of Junkbusters, who noted that consumers not wanting to spend $49.97 could download the out-of-service tone for free from his Web site and place it on their answering machines.
But the cat and mouse games continue, Chase noted, as some telemarketers have altered their predictive dialers to ignore the TeleZapper's single tone. Users can adjust their TeleZappers to send out the distinctive three-tone chime used by the phone company to denote that the line is not in service.
Calls bring in sales
A spokesman for the Direct Marketing Association, which represents telemarketers, said collection agencies might be responsible for the latest twist in the struggle, as they do not care whether a consumer wants to be called.
Then again, studies show that even those people who claim not to like telemarketers do, in fact, make purchases over the phone, said DMA spokesman Jerry Ceresale.
"There are some telemarketers that think, 'I am good enough and I have a great enough product that if I reach people they will want to purchase it,' " Ceresale said, noting that his organization has no official position on call-screening products.
