Harrassment from Vendors

[calicoracing]

I have been in business 3 years now and over that time have of course gotten my share of solicitations from various vendors. However- one in particular has gotten out of hand!

STANDARD SCREENPRINTING is HORRIBLE!!!!

Over the last 2 weeks I have received 8 phones calls from them and countless emails. The emails don't bother me so much- as they are easy to delete. But the phone calls on my HOME office line at 8- 8:30am are ridiculous!! I am a night owl and am often working until 2am- so a call that early is waking me up. I have ill family members and do not want to turn off my ringer.

I let the calls go to voicemail and their message is always "My name is X and I am calling for information about the XYZ race. Please call me at 563-xxx-xxxx." So they could possibly be runners- who we of course call back. Well- they call often enough that I know their number- so I don't call back.

Last week I responded to one of the emails asking them to tell everyone in their office to never call me again. Sure enough- it continued. Every email I would respond "UNSUBSCRIBE" and it continues.

Just today I called and asked to talk to the owner. "Jeff" said he was. I said that I would like to talk to him about what has become harrassment from some of his employees (nice tone at this point). He said "I don't have time for this" and HUNG UP on me!!! Seriously??? Is this the way the guy runs his business? Isn't the point of cold calling and mass emailing to generate business??

I called back and talked to another girl there- turns out to be the one I emailed last week. Basically they don't care. They go down the event calendars and just call. With my 8 events each year and their 5+ employees who ALL call- that is a lot of calls waking me up!

QUESTION- What can I do to get them to stop and who can I contact to report them to???

Sleepless in Vegas

[JimG]

In addition to race directing, I also have a screen printing business. We never cold call people - we seem to have enough business from word of mouth.

That said, maybe feign enthusiasm and ask them to send you some designs for your races, then reject them all and ask for redos. After 2 or 3 times doing this they'll get tired and put your number on their "Do Not Call" list.

[jeff darman]

Check out the CanSpam Act and you can file a complaint and perhaps cause them some angst.

http://www.bicklaw.com/Publications/...m-spam_act.htm

one old analysis

[Cannon]

When something aggravates me to the point you are talking about, I will generally e-mail or write the Attorney General (I've found they do a whole lot more good than the BBB). You may have to correspond with the AG in Standard's home state, but that works too.