QUOTE
Phone service cut to building
Unusual PSC order silences sales calls
By MARK BALLARD
Advocate Capitol News Bureau
Published: Jan 20, 2007
Frustrated by phone solicitors ducking their orders to stop calling people at home, state utility regulators disconnected the phone service for an entire Baton Rouge building Friday.
The rare move was necessary because the owners of Southern Siding Co. Inc. repeatedly changed the company’s name whenever the Louisiana Public Service Commission tried to enforce its April 2003 order, Commissioner Jimmy Field of Baton Rouge said.
When the PSC ordered the phone company to cut off service to Southern Siding — or one of the company’s subsequent names — the phone company replied it no longer had a customer by the name listed in the directive.
Southern Siding produced offspring companies that continued making sales calls, usually around dinnertime, according to PSC documents.
In the new order, signed Thursday, the five commissioners directed that all phone service to 11636 Industriplex Blvd. be disconnected.
Commissioners also told the phone company to refuse services to any company connected to Southern Siding.
The companies all peddled vinyl siding and metal windows to homeowners, many of whom had signed up on the state’s “Do Not Call” list specifically to avoid such calls, according to PSC filings.
Solicitation calls to households on the list is against the law except in limited circumstances.
Merlin Villar, director of external affairs for AT&T, which now owns BellSouth, said he could not remember ever being ordered to shut off phone service to an entire building. PSC lawyers said they had no record either.
Disconnecting service to the building, which is a few blocks south of Siegen Lane, required reprogramming a computer, Villar said. Service was shut down by noon.
PSC records show about a dozen phone lines operating out of the building.
The Secretary of State’s Office showed 14 businesses operate in the building, including a real estate firm and investment agency. All the companies are owned or managed by someone with the same last name as the president of Southern Siding, Tanweer A. Bhatti of Baton Rouge.
Calls seeking comment from Bhatti were returned by Michael B. Cupit, a Denham Springs lawyer. Cupit said he tried to negotiate a settlement with the PSC in January and August 2005.
“They were not interested at all. They wouldn’t even sit down at the table to talk about it,” Cupit said.
During a January 2003 hearing, Bhatti and other company officials testified that Southern Siding made about 5,000 calls per day offering potential customers free in-home estimates.
About 70 percent of Southern Siding’s business came from phone solicitations, according to the testimony.
The “Do Not Call” program began in 2001.
Telemarketers doing business in Louisiana must sign up for the program and buy a list of households that don’t want telephone solicitation. Salesmen are forbidden, in most cases, from hawking their wares to households on the list.
The law calls for a fine of up to $10,000 for telemarketers who do not sign up for the program and fines of up to $1,500 for each person on the list called. That fine doubles to up to $3,000 for calls to somebody 65 or older.
Southern Siding had been accused in 2003 of not registering for the program and making 189 calls to people on the list — about half the calls after PSC staff told the company it was violating the law.
With some of those calls going to elderly people, the fine could have been $311,500.
The PSC suspended $147,500 of the fine and allowed Bhatti to pay $75,000 in two installments. The commissioners at the time noted that Bhatti pleaded for mercy, acknowledged his mistakes and said the company would henceforth “fully comply with the law.”
David J. Gianelloni, 50, said a salesman pitching vinyl siding interrupted his dinner on Jan. 27, 2005. It was the third or fourth time in a week they had called despite his being on the “Do Not Call” list, he said Friday.
“I was angry, so I filed a complaint” with the PSC, Gianelloni said.
His phone’s caller ID showed the company calling was Naveed Inc. Phone records showed that it was the third call that day made by Naveed to Gianelloni’s home.
PSC investigators documented 42 calls from Naveed in early 2005, which they learned was owned by Bhatti and operated out of the same office as Southern Siding, according to PSC filings.
The PSC in March ordered the telephone company to disconnect Naveed and pay the fine.
PSC investigators then started receiving complaints about solicitors calling from Jamil Inc., a company at the same Industriplex address for which Bhatti is the registered agent.
Unusual PSC order silences sales calls
By MARK BALLARD
Advocate Capitol News Bureau
Published: Jan 20, 2007
Frustrated by phone solicitors ducking their orders to stop calling people at home, state utility regulators disconnected the phone service for an entire Baton Rouge building Friday.
The rare move was necessary because the owners of Southern Siding Co. Inc. repeatedly changed the company’s name whenever the Louisiana Public Service Commission tried to enforce its April 2003 order, Commissioner Jimmy Field of Baton Rouge said.
When the PSC ordered the phone company to cut off service to Southern Siding — or one of the company’s subsequent names — the phone company replied it no longer had a customer by the name listed in the directive.
Southern Siding produced offspring companies that continued making sales calls, usually around dinnertime, according to PSC documents.
In the new order, signed Thursday, the five commissioners directed that all phone service to 11636 Industriplex Blvd. be disconnected.
Commissioners also told the phone company to refuse services to any company connected to Southern Siding.
The companies all peddled vinyl siding and metal windows to homeowners, many of whom had signed up on the state’s “Do Not Call” list specifically to avoid such calls, according to PSC filings.
Solicitation calls to households on the list is against the law except in limited circumstances.
Merlin Villar, director of external affairs for AT&T, which now owns BellSouth, said he could not remember ever being ordered to shut off phone service to an entire building. PSC lawyers said they had no record either.
Disconnecting service to the building, which is a few blocks south of Siegen Lane, required reprogramming a computer, Villar said. Service was shut down by noon.
PSC records show about a dozen phone lines operating out of the building.
The Secretary of State’s Office showed 14 businesses operate in the building, including a real estate firm and investment agency. All the companies are owned or managed by someone with the same last name as the president of Southern Siding, Tanweer A. Bhatti of Baton Rouge.
Calls seeking comment from Bhatti were returned by Michael B. Cupit, a Denham Springs lawyer. Cupit said he tried to negotiate a settlement with the PSC in January and August 2005.
“They were not interested at all. They wouldn’t even sit down at the table to talk about it,” Cupit said.
During a January 2003 hearing, Bhatti and other company officials testified that Southern Siding made about 5,000 calls per day offering potential customers free in-home estimates.
About 70 percent of Southern Siding’s business came from phone solicitations, according to the testimony.
The “Do Not Call” program began in 2001.
Telemarketers doing business in Louisiana must sign up for the program and buy a list of households that don’t want telephone solicitation. Salesmen are forbidden, in most cases, from hawking their wares to households on the list.
The law calls for a fine of up to $10,000 for telemarketers who do not sign up for the program and fines of up to $1,500 for each person on the list called. That fine doubles to up to $3,000 for calls to somebody 65 or older.
Southern Siding had been accused in 2003 of not registering for the program and making 189 calls to people on the list — about half the calls after PSC staff told the company it was violating the law.
With some of those calls going to elderly people, the fine could have been $311,500.
The PSC suspended $147,500 of the fine and allowed Bhatti to pay $75,000 in two installments. The commissioners at the time noted that Bhatti pleaded for mercy, acknowledged his mistakes and said the company would henceforth “fully comply with the law.”
David J. Gianelloni, 50, said a salesman pitching vinyl siding interrupted his dinner on Jan. 27, 2005. It was the third or fourth time in a week they had called despite his being on the “Do Not Call” list, he said Friday.
“I was angry, so I filed a complaint” with the PSC, Gianelloni said.
His phone’s caller ID showed the company calling was Naveed Inc. Phone records showed that it was the third call that day made by Naveed to Gianelloni’s home.
PSC investigators documented 42 calls from Naveed in early 2005, which they learned was owned by Bhatti and operated out of the same office as Southern Siding, according to PSC filings.
The PSC in March ordered the telephone company to disconnect Naveed and pay the fine.
PSC investigators then started receiving complaints about solicitors calling from Jamil Inc., a company at the same Industriplex address for which Bhatti is the registered agent.
Direct Link:
http://www.2theadvocate.com/news/5275086.html
Sounds like a plan to me........