Jun 25, 2016
It is a computer program calling you and it is what is known as a "dropped call". They dial 2, 3, 4 times as many numbers as they have CSR's to answer because they want to keep them busy. Not everyone answers or is home. This way they are sure to get someone on the line for their CSR to talk to. Unfortunately for the rest of us we have to put up with what happened to you.
https://www.ftc.gov/tips-advice/business-cent ... ting-sales-rule
Quote:Call Abandonment (and Safe Harbor)
The TSR expressly prohibits telemarketers from abandoning any outbound telephone call, but has an alternative that allows some flexibility while enabling you to avoid liability under this provision.
Abandoned calls often result from telemarketers’ use of predictive dialers to call consumers. Predictive dialers promote telemarketers’ efficiency by simultaneously calling multiple consumers for every available sales representative. This maximizes the amount of time telemarketing sales representatives spend talking to consumers and minimizes representatives’ “downtime.” But it also means some calls are abandoned: consumers are either hung up on or kept waiting for long periods until a representative is available.
Under the TSR’s definition, an outbound telephone call is “abandoned” if a person answers it and the telemarketer does not connect the call to a sales representative within two seconds of the person’s completed greeting. The use of prerecorded message telemarketing, where a sales pitch begins with or is made entirely by a prerecorded message, violates the TSR because the telemarketer is not connecting the call to a sales representative within two seconds of the person’s completed greeting.
The abandoned call safe harbor provides that a telemarketer will not face enforcement action for violating the call abandonment prohibition if the telemarketer:
uses technology that ensures abandonment of no more than three percent of all calls answered by a live person, measured over the duration of a single calling campaign, if less than 30 days, or separately over each successive 30-day period or portion thereof that the campaign continues.
allows the telephone to ring for 15 seconds or four rings before disconnecting an unanswered call.
plays a recorded message stating the name and telephone number of the seller on whose behalf the call was placed whenever a live sales representative is unavailable within two seconds of a live person answering the call.
maintains records documenting adherence to the three requirements above.
To take advantage of the safe harbor, a telemarketer must first ensure that a live representative takes the call in at least 97 percent of the calls answered by consumers. Calls answered by machine, calls that are not answered at all, and calls to non-working numbers do not count in this calculation. (Note that calls that are answered by machine and that deliver prerecorded messages raise other concerns. See “Telemarketing Calls That Deliver Prerecorded Messages.”)