This story just keeps making me said because this is the wholesome, non-shady Velveteen Rabbit I remember from the days of my youth:

I certainly do not have fond memories of some creepy Films for Family Adaption of the classic novel.

@Michael Belisle: I remember that story as well. I wouldn't call it "wholesome", though-the rabbit is a carrier of scarlet fever, after all.

Kill the cute lil' bunny, Verizon. Kill the cute lil' bunny!

@Coles_Law: Carrier of scarlet fever? There you go, ruining my selective memory of the tale, where it was best of times, it was the best of times.

I recieved the call also actually. And I'm on AT&T. It was really annoying.

@Michael Belisle:
Oh, Michael, I think I love you for that comment.

Velveteen-Rabbit-Gate unfolds!

Next it will be the Aflac duck making quack calls to my cell phone!

"The best way to send a clear message to unethical telemarketers...is to throw every resource you can at them."

How exactly do you telemarket ethically?

@Coles_Law: Oh yeah. In the sequel, once the rabbit becomes real he gives scarlet fever to all the other real rabbits. The sequel was a very short and disturbing work and was only published in Poland and, if I'm making this up correctly, parts of Hungary.

@Michael Belisle: @Chris Walters: Hey, he was awaiting the bonfire for a reason. Nobody made a kid's story out of Typhoid Mary.

@NobleCrayfish: Sadly, ethical telemarketing=unsuccessful telemarketing. Imagine daytime only calls with a valid and clear opt-out lesson. Within a week they'd be averaging 3 calls a day.

Silly Rabbit! Phone tricks aren't for kids!

"the carrier is also seeking $500 in damages for each call made to a Verizon Wireless customer, which is a punishment we like very much."

So, Verizon will be splitting that money with the customers who were inconvenienced by these calls?

FTW:

"Feature Films For Families is a company built on a cause - providing quality entertainment that strengthens the traditional values you want for your family. We are working to unite concerned people everywhere into an effective voice that will make the world a better place"

I wonder, is breaking the law is a traditional family value?

Yay for Verizon!

(I never thought I'd type that)

Can they now go after the car-warrantee-has-expired a__ wipes that keep calling me?

I got this call on Feb. 23 but from 202-747-7355. I didn't hear the guy out but he started talking about the importance of box office numbers. I cut him off when he mentioned the name of the movie, informed him I'm on the do not call list and asked him to remove me from their database, at which point he hung up on me. I'm on Alltel, which I guess means I'm a Verizon customer now? I'll definitely look into filing my own complaint.

This kind of stuff confuses me. It would seem to me that such a practice would cause more people decide NOT to see the movie, irritated at the unwanted solicitation.

But maybe that's just me (or us on Consumerist) who would react that way.

I am looking forward to seeing Watchmen. But if someone called me up to say, "Hey, go see Watchmen," I'd stay home.

@dave23: Of course not. I bet you they counted the minutes against their customers also and of course any prepaid minutes also cost the customer.

Verizon +2
Rabbit -1
Customers -2

@FuryOfFirestorm:

I have to give you a +1 for the joke, and a +1 for Fury of Firestorm.

The sad truth is that I hate to be advertised to at my home, my refuge. This includes snail mail and e-mail as well as phone intrusions. I support keeping all direct advertising out of our homes, unless it is requested, perhaps from your favorite places of business. Even then, the opt out process should be made easy.

This is an aside:
I also can't stand it when you fill out a change of address card with the post office and then you are bombarded with garbage mail. It takes a year to stop 90% of it, even if you go to the DMA's web site and fill out all the forms. My parents filled out one of those cards so I could get their mail when they moved abroad. It was a big mistake. I've called several dozen catalogs and organizations over the past 6 months and I'm still getting a ton of junk mail!

@BuddyHinton: Your dealer/car loan company sold your information. You can request to have that kept private when you purchase a car/get a car loan. It's sick and twisted.

Also, when you close on a mortgage or refi, they give you a form to send in to request privacy, but you have to do it after the closing date or it won't work. So you have to keep this form you get with your mortgage/refi app and remember to mail it 6 weeks later! IT'S INSANE. Privacy should be the DEFAULT mode!!

@BuddyHinton: AT&T is on it.

These people need to be shut down, why is no one acting? They are blatantly violating state and federal laws, and the regulators are sitting there with their thumbs up their butts like nothing is going on. I know they aren't killing anybody, but you might as well say the laws don't matter if you don't enforce them.

@NobleCrayfish: question isn't really ethics, so much as legal and within regulation.

Yea for Verizon.

Just this once.

The under on their next screw-the-customer move that evaporates the good will generated by this is 3 days.

@Chris Walters: My god. You're full of stars. Why is only one visible?

@zentec: You didn't spend Saturdays helping mom and pop program the family autodialer? Telemarketing is as traditional a family value as any I know. The family that spams together, stays together.

@Murph1908: Elmer, is that you? Speech thewapy is going well?

Look, this company was doing all this for a BUCK, not because they gave a damn about families. They were willing to break the law for some extra coins. Typical example of how people who claim to believe in "Family Values" operate.

as a Verizon Wireless customer I appreciate them taking on these teleturds. Not only are these telespam turds obnoxious and distracting, they use up my minutes that I pay for. I would NEVER buy anything offered by some hosebag outfit that telespammed by cellphone. I hope Verizon sends these assclowns into bankruptcy. How rude and inconsiderate these cretins are spamming us on our cellphones. All I have to say is enjoy being taken to the cleaners in court teletards. FOAD.

Does anyone know where I can buy a good used auto-dialer?

@ElizabethD: A most win comment, there.

@Chris Walters: I gotta truckload of Internets here, the home office says you won 'em. You want I should unload 'em around back or what?

@Blueskylaw: Yes! Try useddialers.com (no, i'm not kidding)

@NobleCrayfish: Opt-In-Only telemarketing is perfectly ethical.

Question: I bought a GM car back in October. (I know. I was shocked, too.) And now that the 90-day XM trial is up, they won't stop calling me. My only phone is a cell phone. Illegal, or just annoying?

@Blueskylaw:

[cgi.ebay.com]

@Chris Walters: hee hee hee

@BuddyHinton: My solution to these guys was actually to just stop answering the phone. Ever. See, you CAN make a mode of communication so unpleasant that people simply stop using it!

The other way to fight back for us, as consumers, is to boycott the movie. Don't go. Let the numbers, or lack thereof, prove to them the value of their telemarketing. Now that I've read this, I don't intend to take my 4-yr old to this movie.

@dave23: I was wondering that as well. I imagine when the recipients of these 500,000 calls come looking for their money, Verizon will inform them that the damages recovered from the film company are actually meant for the company, as it was their service that was overloaded by these automated calls.

my girlfriend actually received a call from a real live human being who tried to convince her to go to a screening of this. I guess the guy rambled on about the budget and the talent attached to the movie ... but he just sounded a bit creepy as well. She hung up fairly quickly in.

For the record, she has AT&T, so they weren't picky about which cellphone customers they called.

@Leksi Wit: not true. I don't own a car. I've never owned a car or even had auto insurance, still get called.

I proceed to ask which of my cars it is in regards to. I was then asked for my SSN, which I told them I'm not going to just hand out to whomever calls me on the phone and that they were the ones who called me about this, so shouldn't *they* know?

Kept it up until I made the telemarketer frustrated and then I just let them know I've never owned a car and that they need to stop calling me.

I still get calls, I still badger their employees, though now I've switched to new material like offering to share the warmth of the flying spaghetti monster with them and how they too may be blessed by his noodley appendage.

That reminds me, what did I do with my air horn? I know it's around here somewhere...

@Ajh: Alltel here, and I got called. I think I WILL complain.

@zentec: But they were breaking the law for a Higher Cause!

@Eyebrows McGee: That's what I do, although now that I've been giving out the home number for unemployment and job applications... :/