- Mar 31, 2010
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[HEADING=1]JoJo Proudly Presents:[/HEADING]
[HEADING=2]Should unsolicited door-to-door sales and telemarketing be made illegal?[/HEADING]
Yeah, so this is something I've been thinking about recently. I'm sure most of us could share stories of cold callers ringing us up at inconvenient times, or answering the door in your dressing gown to find some bloke who wants to sell you a new greenhouse. I'll admit, living in a cul-de-sac and being on the Telephone Preference Service I'm not exactly blighted by these but even so, on the rare occasions they do occur they're an annoying breach of privacy. If I'm on the street, it's fair enough to be marketed to but my home is my own space, I hate being disrupted by unsolicited callers.
So, my question today is: should these practices be made illegal? I suggest this because the impression I get is that almost everyone despises unsolicited marketing and the practice annoys a great deal of people for every one sale made. I personally would not buy anything from such a seller on principle, by doing so you are only encouraging them to exist. It seems to me therefore it would be a popular move to ban them completely, with punitive fines for any business or individual that defies the law.
So, do you agree? Are there any benefits to unsolicited marketing which I'm missing? I guess a lot of charities collect donations this way but there's always other ways of collecting, like selling on the street to passersby rather than invading their privacy. Perhaps the TPS could be changed from opt-in to opt-out, so all numbers are automatically signed up to not be cold-called unless specified otherwise. What do you think?