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American Morning

Minding Your Business: Do Not Call Me, I Work for You

Aired October 01, 2003 - 07:46   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Despite the legal twists and turns, the national do-not-call list kicks in today, and you may be surprised who is among the millions who signed up.
Andy Serwer names names, and he is "Minding Your Business."

I love this story.

ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Yes, this is the best story I've heard in a long time, months, weeks. Hats off to "The Hartford Courant" up there in Connecticut for this story, great reporting.

What they have done is they went through the do-not-call list. And guess who they found who is on the list? Direct marketers, the telemarketer executives themselves. I mean, it doesn't get any better than this.

So, they went through, and they found a bunch of senior executives, senior vice presidents, directors -- 11 of them in fact. And then, they started calling them up and asking them for comment.

The first guy said I didn't do it. I don't think my wife put me on the list. Maybe someone put me on to embarrass me. Yes, right.

The second person said I did it, but please don't identify me. I'm scared of losing my job.

BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Right.

SERWER: Yes. And then, the third person said yes, it's me. Go ahead and identify me. I don't care. I don't like getting the annoying calls.

Well, but that's what you guys do for a living.

HEMMER: And with a capital "A", by the way.

SERWER: Yes.

HEMMER: Annoying.

SERWER: Annoying. Anyway, pretty interesting. Of course, some of the -- most of the calls should go away today if you signed up for the list. It's a complicated thing. Bill Hemmer will explain it in full later on, and it is complicated.

COLLINS: He's done an essay, I understand. HEMMER: You might need two days for me to get through my explanation.

SERWER: Yes, I think you're right.

HEMMER: I'm still trying to figure it out.

COLLINS: I have a lot of friends now who have actually gotten rid of their landline phones and only using the cell phones. It sounds like more people are doing this now?

SERWER: It's a big trend, and it's really increasing dramatically. A new study by Telethia (ph), I think is the name of the company -- that's how you pronounce it at least -- says that 6 percent of all Americans surveyed got rid of a landline at some point. That's up from 3.4 percent last year.

And really, this is a big trend amongst young people. They're saying that 22 percent of folks between the ages of 18 and 36 have gotten rid of a landline at some point. If you're married, you have kids, you have, you know, an online service, it's kind of harder to do. But younger people definitely are doing it.

HEMMER: A quick check of the markets. A down day yesterday, huh?

SERWER: Yes, yesterday a sour day. You know what's happening, you guys...

HEMMER: What's that?

SERWER: ... is that we're starting to see bad economic news creeping in. Remember? It looked like the recovery was taking full force, and now people are starting to doubt it a little bit. The market slipping back a little bit here. You can see a lot of bit actually; 105 points. For the quarter, though, we were still up 3 percent on the Dow, which is kind of nice. The Nasdaq continuing to rock and roll now as we head into the first trading day of Q4, the fourth quarter as they say on Wall Street.

HEMMER: Good deal. Thank you.

SERWER: OK.

HEMMER: Redskins, No. 1.

SERWER: Still.

COLLINS: Thanks, Andy.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.







Aired October 1, 2003 - 07:46   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Despite the legal twists and turns, the national do-not-call list kicks in today, and you may be surprised who is among the millions who signed up.
Andy Serwer names names, and he is "Minding Your Business."

I love this story.

ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Yes, this is the best story I've heard in a long time, months, weeks. Hats off to "The Hartford Courant" up there in Connecticut for this story, great reporting.

What they have done is they went through the do-not-call list. And guess who they found who is on the list? Direct marketers, the telemarketer executives themselves. I mean, it doesn't get any better than this.

So, they went through, and they found a bunch of senior executives, senior vice presidents, directors -- 11 of them in fact. And then, they started calling them up and asking them for comment.

The first guy said I didn't do it. I don't think my wife put me on the list. Maybe someone put me on to embarrass me. Yes, right.

The second person said I did it, but please don't identify me. I'm scared of losing my job.

BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Right.

SERWER: Yes. And then, the third person said yes, it's me. Go ahead and identify me. I don't care. I don't like getting the annoying calls.

Well, but that's what you guys do for a living.

HEMMER: And with a capital "A", by the way.

SERWER: Yes.

HEMMER: Annoying.

SERWER: Annoying. Anyway, pretty interesting. Of course, some of the -- most of the calls should go away today if you signed up for the list. It's a complicated thing. Bill Hemmer will explain it in full later on, and it is complicated.

COLLINS: He's done an essay, I understand. HEMMER: You might need two days for me to get through my explanation.

SERWER: Yes, I think you're right.

HEMMER: I'm still trying to figure it out.

COLLINS: I have a lot of friends now who have actually gotten rid of their landline phones and only using the cell phones. It sounds like more people are doing this now?

SERWER: It's a big trend, and it's really increasing dramatically. A new study by Telethia (ph), I think is the name of the company -- that's how you pronounce it at least -- says that 6 percent of all Americans surveyed got rid of a landline at some point. That's up from 3.4 percent last year.

And really, this is a big trend amongst young people. They're saying that 22 percent of folks between the ages of 18 and 36 have gotten rid of a landline at some point. If you're married, you have kids, you have, you know, an online service, it's kind of harder to do. But younger people definitely are doing it.

HEMMER: A quick check of the markets. A down day yesterday, huh?

SERWER: Yes, yesterday a sour day. You know what's happening, you guys...

HEMMER: What's that?

SERWER: ... is that we're starting to see bad economic news creeping in. Remember? It looked like the recovery was taking full force, and now people are starting to doubt it a little bit. The market slipping back a little bit here. You can see a lot of bit actually; 105 points. For the quarter, though, we were still up 3 percent on the Dow, which is kind of nice. The Nasdaq continuing to rock and roll now as we head into the first trading day of Q4, the fourth quarter as they say on Wall Street.

HEMMER: Good deal. Thank you.

SERWER: OK.

HEMMER: Redskins, No. 1.

SERWER: Still.

COLLINS: Thanks, Andy.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.