How do I eliminate telemarketing calls to my business?

I run a business and I get daily calls, even though I put my numbers on the national do not call list. How do I eliminate telemarketing calls to my business?

Another way to reduce mail and telephone solicitations is to contact the Direct Marketing Association to request that your name be placed on its "do not call," "do not mail" and "do not email" lists. Association members agree not to solicit consumers who have requested that they not be contacted.

To have your name removed from telemarketing lists, write: Direct Marketing Association, Preference Service Manager, 1120 Avenue of the Americas, New York, New York 10036-6700.


To "opt out" of receiving unsolicited commercial email, use the DMA's form at www.e-mps.org.

Aside from what the above poster mentioned, there's really no legal way to stop a business line from getting telemarketing calls.

The National Do-Not-Call list protects residents, but any call to a business is considered business-to-business and is exempt from any protection under the DNC.

Depending on how a certain company organizes and scrubs their calling list, putting your business' phone number on the DNC list can get it removed from a number of systems. This would be the case if they lumped both their residential and business numbers into a single list and scrubbed that entire list against the DNC.

If the company separates out business and residential numbers, then they only need to scrub the residential numbers, leaving your business number as fair game. However, you are permitted to request to be taken off their list. Business or residential, the company will be required by law to add your number to their internal do-not-call list if you specifically ask them to not call that number.

Unfortunately, some organizations may have multiple calling centers and the request to be taken off the list might take a day or two to propagate to the other calling centers. You might hear from them one or two more times, depending on how aggressive their campaign is. This also becomes a pain if you find yourself under siege by multiple companies. Having to tell each one to take you off will get on your nerves after awhile, but you'll see results in a month or so.

I have a question for this forum.  We use our DNA home phone for our little tiny home business.  Our home phone was used as the contact when we registered our business with the state and the feds for legal purposes.  Our home phone number has been published with our business name on various web sites without our consent and businesses just ASSUME they can call us because we are a "business".  We do not advertise.  Our client base is so small and specialized, WE DON"T HAVE TOO!  I do not take a tax deduction for our home phone for business purposes.  We hardly ever do business calls.  90% of our business is conducted via email.  So is my home phone a home phone or a business phone?  I think it is a home phone.
Please comment

I recall years ago I started a small business out of my home when I was a student.  I wanted to advertise in the local phone book (remember those archaic things?! ;-) ).  I had to change the categorization of my number from residential to business to do that.  I got to keep the same actual number but it was categorized differently at the phone company.  Then when I moved out on my own and no longer had the business my dad didn't want any residual calls for the business.  He asked the phone company to change the category back to a residential number but they somehow couldn't do that.  So he changed the phone # to a new one, and classified it as a resedential one.  So if you haven't specifically talked to your phone provider about using the number for a business, then maybe they still classify it as a resedential one.

I just got a new line from Time Warner for my home business, I didn't plug the line in for a good month or two, as soon as I did the calls started rolling in from telemarketers. I logged in to my Time Warner Account, hit live chat and asked that they classify my number as a business and they did. No charge, no fees... So far so good! Thank you for the advice here!!!

I sent a certified letter to a couple of companies who relentlessly called our company with the telephone numbers we wanted removed from their call list and then sent a copy of that letter to the FCC Do Not Call registry, Attorney General & BBB of the state they were located in... guess what, it becomes a legal issue after you have made that type of request and they refuse to stop calling.  So, there is a way that is legal you just have to take the time to do the "leg work."

Send a certified letter to any company who calls you with a list of phone numbers you want removed from their call list and send a copy of that letter to the FCC Do Not Call registry, the Attorney General and BBB of the state where the business is located.  If they continue to call after that it becomes a legal issue!!

Cameron S, why do you use stock photos for the "people" in your team? It couldn't be that you're a one man scam?

Last week I had the unnerving feeling I've seen those ridiculous "arms folded" portraits elsewhere. The clumsy promo copy smells of curry besides. Cheers to Admin, taking out the trash as predicted.

I had to look up the cached version on Google to see what you were referring to.  I was not surprised to see that they operate out of Henderson NV.  It seems to be one of the telephonic spam & scam centers of the US.  So much so, that I have blocked the area codes serving it in my PTF program.

I would definitely support the one-man operation theory.  The address their website gives (sans suite #) matches that of an Outpost Mail & Copy Center which (surprise) offers mailbox services.
There are 6 smiling faces in the picture on the home page, but the Team page only shows 3 people.
Their “Attorney at Law” does not show up in a search of the Nevada Bar’s website.

I would not be at all surprised to find that the real “Cameron Smith” (or whatever his true name is) is a middle-aged, overweight, balding dude working out of an “office” in the back of his garage.

Unfortunately, at this point the Do-not-call registry seems to have no regulatory teeth, and some telemarketers have chosen to completely disregard it. That said, since you took the time and effort to sign up, when you do get an unwanted call, THE CALLER IS FAIR GAME. Waste as much of their time as possible (talk slow, ask questions, feign interest in the product or service...), give phony info such as your CC number and address, make them mail you something, set up an appointment and then don't be home, etc. Be creative and have fun! Ultimately, the goal is to make the whole telemarketing cold-call "business" model unprofitable, and if enough folks use fight-back tactics, eventually they will just go away...

Ever stop to think the caller might be from overseas and they're using something like MagicJack? Here's some basic info on the DNC: http://www.fcc.gov/encyclopedia/do-not-call-list

If you registered your home number as a business contact number, I suspect that telemarketers will bring that out in court if you go after them for TCPA violations. It would be more than sufficient evidence to argue that any calls were not willful, but you may still be able to get a basic ($500 / violation) charge to stick.

I would never register my personal number as a business contact. If you can't leave the field blank, put in a Google Voice number that you can have selectively forwarded.

If you do ask to be added to an internal do-not-call list, make sure you keep a recording of the call.

Also, while there is no recourse in court if a telemarketer has called you on your business line, the burden falls on them to prove that they're calling a business line. If you can convince the caller that they're calling a residential number on the DNC list, that will usually be enough to frighten them into adding you to their internal DNC list. Of course, if you answer the phone by saying your business name, that's a bit hard to pull off.