Some Tampa Bay area residents who thought they had erected a barrier against unwanted telemarketers were peeved Thursday to hear a federal judge had thrown the federal do-not-call registry in doubt.
"I'm hopping mad," said Pepper Dotson, a retired Palm Harbor resident who was among more than 3-million Floridians who signed up for the list. "That organization that went to court over this is just a bunch of crybabies. And that judge is just nitpicking."
Phyllis Miller of St. Petersburg expressed confidence that the federal registry will emerge from the courts intact.
"As soon as they overturn the ruling, we'll be right back on the list," she said.
The state of Florida maintains its own do-not-call list, and 171,200 residents have signed up, according to Terence McElroy, spokesman for the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, which oversees the registry. McElroy said he didn't expect the ruling to affect the state program.
But while the federal registry is free, the state charges each person $10 initially, and $5 to renew each year. The money goes to enforcing the restrictions on telemarketers. Florida residents can join the state list by calling 1-800-HELP-FLA or by visiting www.800helpfla.com
The ruling on the federal list was cause for celebration among some bay area telemarketers.
Doug Bastian, vice president of sales and marketing for Invincible Associates Inc., a Largo roofing company that makes many of its sales through phone solicitations, called the ruling "appreciated and not unexpected."
Bastian said he doesn't believe that those who signed up for the registry would be unhappy to get calls from his sales staff.
"I think there'll be some reluctance at first, but a lot of people are on the list just because of the ease with which they could sign up," Bastian said.
Bill Edwards, chief executive and chairman of Mortgage Investors Corp. in St. Petersburg, said his company just spent more than $500,000 redesigning its dialing system to comply with the federal registry. While Edwards said the government made a "giant mistake" in attempting to restrict telemarketing, his company is already committed to the changes.
"Sometimes if you're trying to follow the rules, you have to just quit complaining about it and go ahead and do it," Edwards said.
