JACKSON - While telemarketers and their clients await the fate of the national do-not-call registry, some say they're still struggling to comply with 33 different state laws already in effect.
"We only want to call customers who are interested in us and our services, but it's a complicated process to ensure we are complying," said AT&T Corp. spokeswoman Janet Wyles.
Some companies have simply stopped telemarketing altogether rather than deal with the complexities.
The day before Mississippi's no-call law went into effect Oct. 1, the Greenwood Commonwealth newspaper stopped calling residents in the town of 18,425 to sell them subscriptions.
It wasn't because the newspaper's publisher and editor, Tim Kalich, feared breaking the state's new law. Mississippi, like most other states with active no-call laws, exempts newspapers.
But Kalich fears consumers who put their phone numbers on the national registry or their state's no-call list will be angry at any telemarketers who call them.
"If the national list isn't invalidated and that reduces the number of calls, there may not be that antagonism out there that there is right now," he said. "For now, we're going to see if we can do without telemarketing."
Businesses also say consumers who added their numbers to the national registry might think that means their phone won't ring even though court challenges prevented the Federal Trade Commission from enforcing the list.
The Federal Communications Commission promises it will enforce the list, but has been blocked by the court from getting the FTC list. And, while top industry trade groups encouraged members to honor the national registry, some telemarketers didn't get a copy before the FTC had to shut down the registry last week.
Adding to what telemarketers say is mass confusion among consumers is that state laws don't mirror each other, and most don't mirror the national no-call law.
"Given all the confusion out there, and what seems to be overwhelming public resentment to telemarketers, it's just not worth it to us right now to do telemarketing," said Kalich, whose newspaper carriers have been given incentives to go out and find new subscribers.
Businesses exempted under a state's law or those with a prior business relationship with a consumer that falls within the time frame set by state law can rightfully call that consumer.
"But we decided to just not call any customer that is on the list," said Michael L. Walker, a regional manager for BellSouth Telecommunications Inc. - which like AT&T Corp., MCI Group, Time Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc. - stopped calling customers on either the national registry or a state's no-call list.
H&R Block Eastern Tax Services Inc. - which operates out of Kansas City, Mo. and leads the nation in fines against telemarketers - has created data bases to track differences in state laws.
One provision in no-call laws that gives the tax preparer and other companies fits is the one dealing with prior business relationships.
Kentucky - while its no-call law is among the toughest and it allows no industry-specific exemptions - doesn't put an expiration date on business relationships.
On the other hand, the national registry lets companies call former customers for 18 months. But some states - including Mississippi, Missouri and Louisiana - limit the window to six months. Louisiana doesn't extend the prior business relationship to telemarketers making calls on behalf of a business.
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