Mulling over George Pope to Steve Asher 01 Nov 2002

Hi George!

 SA> if you did complain. I have since had my services marked as "no
 SA> doorknockers" to deter these fraudsters, but the telco interpreted
 SA> this to mean that their fraudsters could still -call- my numbers to
 SA> attempt their scams, as that isn't "doorknocking".

 GP> Careful -- any attempts to set a policy of "no soliciting"(e.g. a
 GP> sign outside your gate) is automatically determined to be an
 GP> indication of an easy sale (e.g. a spouse put the sign up because,
 GP> when (s)he's at work, the other partner is far too quick to buy
 GP> crap(out of loneliness/boredom, etc.)) :P

It isn't a sign on the gate. The telcos became so umpopular, & subject
to so many complaints, that my provider setup a freecall "doorknocker
complaint line" that harassed customers could call to complain about
unethical behaviour, & have their services marked as "not to be
doorknocked". I.e., the representatives should never come to the
door again. However, the telco had a view of "no doorknocking" to
be a bit like Clinton's view of sexual intercourse - they continued
to "cold-call" the phone numbers, as that was phoning, not door
knocking. I guess they could say that they never actually "knocked"
on my door, as it is in a building with an intercom, so technically
they pressed an intercom button, rather than "knocked".

I haven't been bothered by phone calls from them recently, after I
complained about the last incident where they shared my customer
details with a telemarketing company to call & annoy me. :)

 GP> I was instructed, when I tried selling vacuums for Kirby, to make a
 GP> point of going to the door of those places, because the odds of
 GP> successfully making a sale have just skyrocketed!  :P

 GP> (I wonder, though, if such a sign, posted prominently, outside
 GP> one's property, could be used as basis to have any solicitor who
 GP> defies it criminally charged with trespassing. . . probably not,
 GP> because the N.American commercial interests OWN the courts system!)
 GP> :P

I'm not an expert on the law, but AFAIK those signs don't have much
standing, & the solicitors would have to refuse a request to leave
before any criminal charges could be laid. ?? 

 SA>  GP> Hey, it's THEIR box, soyou can't just destroy it, but it's YOUR
 SA>  GP> window, and if you want to dispose of buckets of dirty dishwater
 SA>  GP> via there, that's your business, nu?
 SA>
 SA> I've been tempted to pour some quick-setting concrete in their pit &
 SA> ducts.

 GP> Nah, that might be construed as "making structural changes"
 GP> (generally considered to be a breech of one's tenancy agreement!)

As long as no-one sees me in the dead of night.. :)

 SA> TV-Guide needs to know! As digital / interactive TV comes in, they
 SA> will need to know your "preferences" in order to serve up the 
 SA> right mix of targeted spam... er opportunities.

 GP> What of it?  They don't have any right to the ELECTIONS CANADA
 GP> information, nor to specific names/etc. from the National Census!
 GP> (demographic summaries, only)

I was being facetious. As far as I am concerned, no-one has a right
to electoral rolls, apart from the Returning Officers of the various
electorates, and the people staffing the polling places who cross
off the names of people as they vote. 

Enrollment & voting is compulsory here, so the electoral rolls are
a valuable source of info on the vast majority of people of voting
age - very handy for datawarehousers, spammers etc.

Another practice that is increasing is real estate agents getting
details of property owners' names & addresses from the lands title
office etc, & mailing out offers to inspect properties & put them
on the market etc.

As far as I can see, if land agents are forced to those tactics to
drum up business, they have too much time on their hands, and too
little success at selling property.

Cheers, Steve..

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