Morning Brew: September 29th, 2008
Photo: "walking Shadow's" by ncollett1, member of the blogTO Flickr pool.
Your Toronto morning news roundup for Monday September 29th, 2008:
Tomorrow marks the launch of the long-awaited CRTC national "do-not-call" list. Will you be registering your phone number, in hopes of stopping aggressive salespeople from calling you during your evening/weekend personal time? How much are you currently pestered by marketers calling you? Take our poll below.
There's nothing worse than including a spelling or grammar error in your attempt to point out someone's spelling or grammar errors. 294 schools in Toronto sold annual planners to thousands of students, and the planner contains one particularly glaring and embarrassing error. A hushed settlement has been made between the board and the manufacturer.
Cyclists that take part in the monthly Critical Mass ride are confused and concerned about their relationship with police. Sometimes it seems that the police are supportive and on their side, while at other times it's clearly not the case, with dozens of tickets being issued to participants. Is this continued fallout from that one grave mistake that hurt their cause and relationship with authorities?
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All house parties are not created equal. At one this weekend, a limbo champion was crowned and the winner won't stop bragging about it at the office cooler today. At another, a knife fight broke out, at least four people were stabbed, and none of the victims want to talk about it.
Apparently the position as the city representative on the much-loathed Toronto Port Authority is a much sought-after job. Over 100 applicants are being reviewed by the board. Whoever eventually lands the job should be well-versed in fighting to no end.
Got a kid? Wondering if he/she has head lice? CityNews has a how-to on detecting and eliminating the infestation on your little one's head. Gross but useful info, I suppose.
Today's POLL:
Comments (29)
Most of the unwanted calls I get tend to be from Rogers or the two banks I do business with. I'll probably still receive them even if I put myself on the list as I imagine it's part of their terms and service of having accounts with them.
The only thing I worry about is getting more calls from other telemarketers as their pool of available numbers gets shallower.
- No landline, no spam calls.
- Maybe Critical Mass' Gardiner stunt wasn't such a good idea afterall, eh?
I finally stopped getting calls from Rogers Home Phone when I told them to make a note on my file that the next time they called I would immediately cancel my existing service and switch to Bell.
The spelling mistake article is interesting, thanks for the link. But it is annoying that thestar.com makes you go to their "parent central" website for some of the articles they have on the main page. Do they want to increase the number of hits to the site, or what? This is an article that centers more on the TDSB, and not on "parenting".
Nice poll, but what exactly is the difference between 'Never' and 'less than once a month'? lol
"Less than once a month" could be once every two months, once a year, etc. Which is more than never.
@ Ryan L:
The new guidelines from the CRTC about the no-call list provide an exemption for companies that already do business with you as well as charities. The reality of the situations is that many of the annoying phone calls canadians are getting now will continue even after tomorrow.(There's also a 30 day exemption period at the start of the no-call list's active period.)
But I'd still recommend you put your name and number down to prevent FUTURE calls from organizations.
We, and more specifically I, set myself up for these calls though, by filling out contest forms, surveys online, polls, toronto.com, etc...
If I practiced more restraint, or knew more specifically what the information was going to be used for, I probably wouldn't register for half these silly things.
"No landline, no spam calls"
Not true for me and everyone else I know that has ditched the land line. It will likely not stop either as the list of exceptions to the "do not call" list is VERY long.
In fact, I don't think any of the marketing calls I get on my mobile are covered in this list.
One of the worries I have is that if this list is easily accessable to companies so they know who NOT to call, it might also be accessable to companies who end up exempted. What better way to acquire a list of millions of potential customers?
"No landline, no spam calls"
Bullshit, i only uise my blackberry (home and phone) and i get pumped with shitty offers from Rogers/Visa
A pretty simple way to avoid those calls on your land line is to have call display. I notice that eventually certain numbers stop calling if they can't reach me after several tries. I rarely get telemarketing calls now.
"I just hang up on them as soon as I realize it's a spam. It's a great feeling."
Yeah, I tend to do the same. There is usually a short delay of silence before the dialing computer connects you to a live person. If you're quick, you can hang up before it even connects.
I get probably 4 a week...I just set the phone down and walk away. I come back in a few minutes and hang it up. Usually they are gone by then...
Most of mine are from the Star and Best Buy Windows...I ignore those numbers when they call, but a few still slip through.
I travel to the US often for work, and every now and then a number I don't recognize comes up, and I feel obliged to answer. Once I got a "courtesy call" from Rogers mobile while roaming, and it ended quickly with me asking them to access my account and undo the charges for that very call we were having.
If you don't pay for your minutes/phone time, put them on hold. This is the only way I have ever gotten my name off calling lists, including Rogers and Bell customer service calls.
I've told my friends that my Call Answer won't kick in until
9 rings. If they want to leave a message, press the number key and record.
It's really quiet around here. I guess the solicitations people realise that after 5 or 6 rings that nobody's ever home.
Speaking of call centre tricks, if you find yourself trying to call one to speak to someone, I recently discovered a way to get your call answered much quicker AND by someone of Canadian citizenship (who also likely works for the company)
When it asks if you want English or French, just say French. No company that I'm aware of outsources its billingual call centre operators overseas as people from those areas speak English, but not French. The calls are usually answered quicker and often the call goes straight to a person instead of an automated system due to the lack of a French automated system set up.
You risk the operator refusing to speak English or take your call, but I've never had it happen. I just feign ignorance and say I must have pressed the wrong button. Most of the operators I've gotten have clearly had English as their first language (but this would likely depend on where the company is based. A Montreal based company would likely set you up with someone who speaks French as their first language)
I get the most calls from the Toronto Star subscription office. Sometimes more than once a month! But newspapers are not on the dncl. That doesn't make sense to me.
Riding in Critical Mass does not and SHOULD NOT give cyclists a free pass to be a moron and run red lights or go down one way streets the wrong way, or, in cases I've witnessed, stop traffic and ACT LIKE A TRAFFIC COP. If this is really activism, they should wear their tickets like a badge of honour or something and quit whining.
If a cyclist (riding in Critical Mass or not) commits a traffic violation, they should receive a ticket. They wouldn't expect anything less of a motorist.
I know that my bike is in several violations of Toronto law. I don't have a bell or horn (My last two were stolen. $90 fine). On many streets I don't come to a -complete- stop at a stop sign (momentum you see. $90) I don't always use arm signals ($90). If I was on a quiet side street that happened to be one way (such as Markham st where I used to live), I doubt I would ride around the block to get to my destination. ($90 for going the wrong way).
It's also doubtful I'd get fined for these (well...maybe going the wrong way on a one way street, but in my defense, my house was 2 houses down from the intersection), much the same as it would be doubtful a person driving a car would get stopped for coming to a rolling stop or going 110 km/h on a 100km/h highway.
I'm not defending the cyclists who were in clear violations of the law (such as those stopping traffic), but it's not fair if the cops were out looking for cyclists to fine (I haven't seen a list of infractions, so I don't know what the scenario was). If they were picking people off for not having a bell or failing to ride in a single file, then yes, they should do the same for motorists and hand out violations for equally trivial infractions.
Now that I have my Devil's advocate stance out of the way, I'm betting the cyclists charged deserved it for thinking they could get away with doing things they normally wouldn't because they happen to be in a large group.
This Do not call list does not cover/stop all phone calls.
It doesn't cover,
-Any company or business that you've had a relationship/services with withing the last 1.5 years
-Polling Companies
-Political Parties
The no land-line used to work. Not anymore. Get a cell phone which rings only for contacts in your phone. Marketers don't leave messages.
Call display... easily rectifies my DNC wishes. I see an 1-8xx number and I know it's a telemarketer, RBC, Rogers, TO Star, Visa, etc. and sometimes it's a blocked number, which I don't answer ever anyway.
As for the Critical Mass Cyclist thing... if it's THAT important to you and your cause, how about paying for all the permits/licensing to ALL the streets you wanna ride along? Be it the Gardiner, DVP, Yonge St, whatever, at least then you can have free reign on those arteries... rather than spontaneously and arbitrarily cycling there.
"Marketers don't leave messages."
^^^ . hahahhaaa.funniest thing I hear all day. Btw James, CONGRATULATIONS ! >> you have won a free trip to Hawaii, as you had the 10 millionth post !!! , please call rogers to claim your prize.
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