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Kokua Line
Question: Is it legal for companies to call on the phone using automatic machines? I recently received a couple of these calls. One was from a solar company on Oahu. Putting a hold on
automated sales callsAnswer: If it was an unsolicited commercial call to your home, then it is not legal under the Federal Communications Commission's Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA).
Call the state Office of Consumer Protection, 587-3222, to file a complaint.
The TCPA was enacted in December, 1991, in answer to complaints about the growing number of unsolicited telemarketing calls and increasing use of automated and prerecorded telephone calls.
Although the TCPA prohibits artificial (computerized) voice or prerecorded voice calls to your home, it lists a number of exceptions. Such calls ARE permitted if they are emergency calls (relating to someone's health or safety); if you have given prior express consent; if the calls are non-commercial (e.g., from charities, polling organizations, political or government agencies); if the calls do not include any unsolicited advertisements; if they are on behalf of tax-exempt nonprofit organizations; or if they are from entities "with whom you have an established business relationship."
Also, the TCPA does NOT prohibit such calls to business numbers.
However, it does NOT allow the use of autodialers, computerized or prerecorded voice messages to call any emergency numbers, such as 911, and any emergency line of a hospital, physician, health care facility, poison control center, fire or law enforcement agency; the patient room of a hospital, health care facility or elderly home; to any pager or cellular phone number; or to any service for which the person being called would be charged for the call.
The FCC said you can take a number of actions to stop the unwanted calls, among them:
Call the company and ask that the calls stop. The TCPA requires anyone sending a computerized voice or prerecorded voice message to clearly state who is calling and to give its telephone number or address.
Call the state Office of Consumer Protection.
The states have jurisdiction to enforce the federal law on this matter, said OCP acting executive director Stephen Levins.
"If someone feels their rights have been violated, they can file a complaint with our office," he said.
Write to the FCC detailing your complaint (name, address and telephone number of caller; dates and time of calls; number called, etc.) and giving your name, address and daytime telephone number. However, the FCC tells you up front that it cannot award any monetary or other damages except under very limited circumstances, so this may be more an exercise in venting.
Send your complaint to: Federal Communications Commission, Common Carrier Bureau, Consumer Complaints, Mail Stop 1600A2, Washington, D.C. 20554.
Auwe
To East Honolulu political campaigners who wave signs in the area between Kahala Mall and Kalani High School. You are creating traffic jams that inconvenience hundreds of people in the morning and afternoon. Please campaign east of Kalani to allow the merging traffic near the mall to flow. Comply and I will vote for you. Keep sign-waving there and you lose a vote. Let's see how responsive you are to community concerns. -- No name
Need help with problems? Call Kokua Line at 525-8686,
fax 525-6711, or write to P.O. Box 3080, Honolulu 96802.
Email to kokualine@starbulletin.com