More than one million New Yorkers have registered to prevent telemarketers from calling them under the state’s new do-not-call registry law. There could have been more. But some of them reached the wrong number.
After the law was passed in October, consumers began registering by calling the state’s consumer complaint line — an 800 number that was published on state legislators’ direct mail to constituents advertising the law. On April 1 when the law went into effect, the state changed the number to another toll-free number: 1-86-nocallny (866-622-5569).
Confusion ensued. Some callers kept calling the 800 number. Others got confused and dialed an extra six. Some reportedly reached a New York hotel, while a couple mistakenly rang “a lady upstate,” according to Jon Sorensen, a spokesman for the state’s Consumer Protection Board, which administers the law.
“It is confusing,” Sorensen admitted, but more important is that up to 3,000 New Yorkers are still registering by phone each day. And, the registry hit the one-million mark even before the law went into effect. Citizens sign up by phone or through the Web site (www.consumer.state.ny.us/prereg.htm).
Ten other states have enacted do-not-call laws, but New York’s registry has the most consumers signed up. Under the law, telemarketers must buy the list. They have until May 1 before they must comply with the law. Those who call a consumer registered face a fine of up to $2,000 per call.
Telemarketers across the country must comply. Exemptions to the law are charities, companies that already have a business relationship with the consumer and companies calling to arrange a meeting to sell the consumer something.
“New Yorkers are particularly targeted by telemarketers because of our large and wealthy population,” said State Assemblyman Jeffrey Klein, a Democrat from the Bronx who authored the bill.
His constituents think the law “is the greatest thing from sliced bread, he said, adding that he had received no complaints about the law from businesses.
Network
