• Recommend:
• 0 Comments

You%squotve Got Voice Mail: AOL Considers Telemarketing

AOL says it won%squott sell subscribers%squot numbers to direct marketers, but you may get dinnertime calls from the service itself.

By Paul Heltzel, PCWorld   

Despite a letter from CEO Steve Case saying the company will not sell lists of member phone numbers and e-mail addresses, AOL subscribers can still expect phone calls hawking products--from the company itself.

%dquotWe do plan to try telemarketing,%dquot Case%squots letter says. %dquotWe will not provide lists of our members%squot telephone numbers even to our partners. The only calls you might receive will be from us.%dquot

The online service originally planned to sell home phone numbers of its subscribers through two deals made earlier this year with telemarketers--one with CUC International for $50 million and another with Tel-Save Holdings for $100 million.

Users and privacy experts angrily criticized AOL, since the selling of phone numbers to AOL partners was not made widely known.

%dquotI don%squott need a place that I%squotm spending perfectly good money calling me and selling junk,%dquot said Kathryn Ford, an AOL user in Concord, New Hampshire. %dquotI%squotm feeling skeptical that they thought of going through with this in the first place. If they had sold the numbers to telemarketers I would have canceled my account immediately.%dquot

Case%squots letter goes on to say, %dquotThe only calls you get will be from AOL offering products or services that we genuinely believe will be of interest to you. We%squotll post details in the fall about how these programs work.%dquot

Asked how AOL would satisfy contracts with the telemarketers without renting names, an AOL spokesman referred to Case%squots statement: %dquotPhone calls will be coming from us, when we feel we are able to offer a unique offering to our members,%dquot the spokesman said. %dquotWe think we are acting in the spirit of the contract by offering subscribers the ability to opt out.%dquot

Users who do not want to receive such offers can go to the Marketing Preferences (Keyword: Marketing Prefs) section of AOL and let the service know they do not want any %dquotspecial member benefit offers by telephone.%dquot

%dquotIt sounds like sort of a PR retraction,%dquot said Jim Balderston, industry analyst at Zona Research, in Redwood City, California. %dquotIt just means AOL employees will make the annoying phone calls. AOL is the gated community, the safe place for people%squots first step on the Internet. When they turn around and say we%squotll sell your phone numbers, that%squots AOL violating one of the fundamental trusts. That%squots one reason people go to AOL: because you don%squott think you%squotll be subjected to this kind of treatment.%dquot