I don t know about you, but I d estimate that 99.9 percent of the phone calls I now receive on my home phone are robocalls, product pitches, fundraisers or automated come-ons from Ray s Carpet Cleaning, asking me for the billionth time if I d like to have my rugs spiffed up. I even wrote about it here.
I don t know what irks me more: getting calls from Ray or knowing that our government s National Do Not Call Registry is, to put it mildly, completely useless.
And I m not the only one who feels this way: According to a blogpost this week from the BBC, there have been 215,000 complaints to the FCC about the scourge of annoying and unsolicited telephone calls.
Well, says the BBC, get ready for a new barrage:
PayPal is changing its terms and conditions to state users must accept automated marketing calls, emails and text messages.
The changes – which come into force in July – will only apply to its US customers.
The eBay-owned company told the BBC that it would honour any customers requests to decline marketing outreach .
But no such opt-out is included in the terms and conditions.
Instead customers are invited to either accept or decline.
If you do not agree to the amended user agreement, privacy policy or acceptable use policy, you may close your account before July 1, 2015 and you will not be bound by the amended terms, the document states.
I asked PayPal for comment and was told by a spokesman:
Our policy is to honor customers requests to decline to receive auto-dialed or prerecorded calls.
That s encouraging. But it s a bit more complicated than that.
A PayPal spokesman told the BBC that customers wanting to opt out of receiving marketing materials could do so by unsubscribing notifications in their settings.
Which means even more work for the poor sucker seeking a life without robocalls.
The user agreement goes on to state: You consent to receive autodialed or pre-recorded calls and text messages from PayPal at any telephone number that you have provided us or that we have otherwise obtained.
See how slippery this slope is? If PayPal somehow obtains your grandma s home phone, grandma might also start getting unwanted calls because, as the agreement goes on to say, PayPal may share your phone numbers with our affiliates.
PayPal does say that its robocalls would be used to help customers with account issues or resolve disputes. But it also states that they could be for offers and promotions, perhaps the two most dreaded words these days among consumers burned out by a nonstop onslaught of in-your-face advertising for things we never wanted in the first place.
Credit: SiliconBeat
