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Bucks Blog: Your Rights in Dealing With Telemarketers

March 7, 2013 by Leave a Comment

We have all had the urge to hurl the phone across the room when a telemarketer calls in the middle of dinner.

But there are other ways to deal with the problem. And the Consumer Federation of America has published a new guide to help people understand their rights, and hopefully to avoid getting tricked by scammers.

The federation found in a recent survey that consumers are generally confused about their rights when it comes to telemarketing calls. For instance, when asked about the impact of placing their phone number on the national “Do Not Call” registry, only 34 percent answered correctly that putting your number on the list means that telemarketers can still call you, if you have recently done business with them.

Further, only a fourth of those surveyed knew that prerecorded sales “robocalls” may only be made to your home or cellphone if you gave the telemarketer written permission to make such calls to you.

Legitimate telemarketers generally follow the rules and don’t call before 8 a.m. or after 9 p.m., said Susan Grant, director of consumer protection at the federation. But if you get a call outside of those hours, or if the caller pressures you for financial or personal information, or asks you to wire money, it may be a fraud — and you should end the call and report it to the Federal Trade Commission, Ms. Grant said.

“We want consumers to hang up if they think something is wrong,” she said.

The F.T.C. has been trying to crack down on illegal robocalling, but new technology used by companies to circumvent the rules has made it difficult to halt the calls.

The survey of 1,008 adults was conducted using landlines and cellphones for the federation’s Consumer Protection Institute by ORC International from Feb. 21 to 24. The margin of sampling error is plus or minus 3 percentage points.

The federation’s new consumer guide walks though basic consumer rights about the do-not-call registry, telemarketing, robocalls and caller identification. The guide was financed with a grant from Western Union.

For instance, even if you haven’t put your number on the do-not-call list, or you have previously given permission for calls, you can always tell the marketer to stop calling. “You always have the right to tell companies not to call again,” Ms. Grant said.

Have you taken steps to stop unwanted telemarketing calls? Were they effective?

Article source: http://bucks.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/03/07/your-rights-in-dealing-with-telemarketers/?partner=rss&emc=rss

Filed Under: Your Money Tagged With: , ,

Media Decoder: Pew Survey Finds Reliance on Libraries for Computers and Internet

January 22, 2013 by Leave a Comment

Free access to computers and the Internet is now nearly as important to library patrons as borrowing books, according to a new survey.

The survey, released Tuesday by the Pew Research Center’s Internet American Life Project, found that 80 percent of Americans said book borrowing was a “very important” library service, but 77 percent said the same thing about computers and the Internet.

The study also found that library patrons were open to having even more technological options.

“In the past generation, public libraries have reinvented themselves to become technology hubs in order to help their communities access information in all its new forms,” Kathryn Zickuhr, a research analyst with Pew and a co-author of a report on the survey’s findings, said in a written statement.

Pew questioned 2,252 Americans ages 16 and older via cellphones and landlines from Oct. 15 to Nov. 10 last year, in both English and Spanish. More than half of those surveyed said that they wanted more e-book selections in their public libraries, and would be likely to check out e-readers already loaded with books — a significant increase from a survey a year ago.

Roughly 69 percent said they would like to be able to try new technology devices through libraries, and 63 percent said they would like to receive customized book and music recommendations from their libraries as they do from online retailers like Amazon.com.

Some library users seemed willing to support even more changes. When asked whether libraries “should move some printed books and stacks out of public locations to free up space for tech centers, reading rooms, meeting rooms, and cultural events,” 20 percent of respondents said yes and 39 percent said maybe.

Still, of the 53 percent of respondents who had actually visited a library or mobile book location in the last year, 73 percent said they went in order to borrow print books, and only 49 percent said they visit libraries “to sit, read, and study, or watch or listen to media.”

As a result of these conflicting messages, Ms. Zickuhr said, “Many libraries are torn between expanding their digital offerings on the latest platforms and still providing quality resources for patrons who may lack experience with technology or the means to own the latest devices.”

Article source: http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/01/22/pew-survey-finds-reliance-on-libraries-for-computers-and-internet/?partner=rss&emc=rss

Filed Under: Media Business Tagged With: , ,

Economix Blog: Who Counts as ‘Rich’?

December 9, 2011 by Leave a Comment

We’ve written plenty of times about how little Americans know about the distribution of income in the United States, and how many rich people don’t realize they’re rich, at least relative to the rest of the country.

CATHERINE RAMPELL

CATHERINE RAMPELL

Dollars to doughnuts.

Now Gallup has surveyed Americans to ask what they believe the cutoff for being “rich” should be. The median response was that a person would need to make at least $150,000 to be considered rich. Here’s a breakdown of the responses:

DESCRIPTION(The national poll was based on telephone interviews, using landlines and cellphones, with about 500 adults and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus five percentage points.)

 
According to the Tax Policy Center’s calculations on income distribution, a household earning cash income of $150,000 would fall somewhere between the 89th and 90th percentiles. In other words, the typical American believes anyone in about the top tenth of the income distribution counts as “rich.”

President Obama and others, on the other hand, have set the cutoff around $250,000 when discussing “raising taxes on the rich.” Households earning cash income of $250,000 are somewhere between the 96th and 97th percentiles.

As you might expect, answers to Gallup’s survey question on the threshold for being “rich” varied tremendously by demographics and geography. For example, men cited a higher bar than women did — $150,000 versus $100,000, respectively:

DESCRIPTION

 
Note that respondents with children under 18 said they would require $200,000 before considering themselves rich, whereas the childless were satisfied with a $100,000 benchmark. (That reminds me of this xkcd cartoon.)

As you might expect, those who live in urban areas — like New York City, where the cost of living is very high — or in suburbs had higher standards for being “rich” than did Americans who live in towns or rural settings.

Readers, I’m curious: What’s your definition for who counts as “rich”?

Article source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=c4f1f90f969c36613bcec8c441403062

Filed Under: Economy News Tagged With: , ,