TheBakersfieldCalifornian.com

Editor’s note: Action Line is a weekly column from the Better Business Bureau answering consumers’ questions and concerns about money and business issues.

Dear Action Line:

I am at my wit’s end. I signed up for the Do Not Call list the moment I heard about it several years ago. For several months, my evenings were uninterrupted. Then, the calls started again and I don’t know what to do. I can hang up on them, but my elderly mother also receives these calls and is easily talked into making purchases she doesn’t really want or need.

She is also supposedly on the Do Not Call list. I’ve tried to tell her to restrict her purchases to the Internet, where we can review the return policies and check out their reliability, but the calls keep coming and she keeps buying because the callers are “so nice and friendly.” What do I do?

Dear Reader:

If Alexander Graham Bell had received telemarketing calls, I wonder if he would have patented his invention. Once they get past the introduction without a hang-up, these callers are very good at knowing what to say and how to say it. Older people are especially susceptible to these calls because the telemarketers are, in your mother’s words, “friendly.” That’s one of the main reasons the Do Not Call list was created.

I have received several inquiries similar to yours and, at first, I couldn’t figure out what was happening. Then, a few weeks ago as I was finishing an online purchase, I noticed a little box for me to check if I wanted to receive free (free is always a word I can appreciate) offers from the company and their partners. I started wondering if I was giving them permission to call me.

I checked with the Federal Trade Commission and, yes, there are loopholes to the Do Not Call list. It turns out that, by purchasing something from the company, you established a business relationship with them. As a result, even if your number is on the Do Not Call Registry, that company may call you for up to 18 months after your last purchase or delivery from it, or your last payment to it, unless you ask the company not to call again. In that case, the company must honor your request not to call. If they subsequently call you again, they may be subject to a fine of up to $11,000.

An established business relationship with a company also is created if you make an inquiry to the company, or submit an application to it. This kind of established business relationship exists for three months after the inquiry or application. During this time, the company can call you without penalty.

If you make a specific request to that company not to call you, however, then the company may not call you, even if you have an established business relationship with that company.

By checking the box saying that you want to receive offers from the company's “partners,” you are also giving them permission to contact you.

For more information, contact the FTC at (877) 382-4357 or at www.ftc.gov. You can add your name to the DNC list by calling (888) 382-1222 or online at www.donotcall.gov.

Vickie Sanders is assistant director of business services for the Better Business Bureau serving Central California. Send your consumer concerns, questions and problems to Action Line at the Better Business Bureau, 1601 H St., Suite 101, Bakersfield, CA 93301 or vickie@bbbcencal.org.