I probably shouldn’t complain as on a whole I get almost no solicitation calls. The Do Not Call lists really do seem to work pretty well. But every now and again I get a call from some organization who is not “selling” anything, but they sure would like a donation. Most of these groups have worthy cause sounding names, but honestly I’ve never heard of them.

As a practice, I inform them politely that I am on the Do Not Call list and that I don’t take solicitation calls of any kind. That deters very few of them. Some keep right on going with their pitch. One woman latched onto the word “solicitation” and informed me indignantly that she was not offering that. But increasingly, many will argue that because they are not selling anything that legally they can call me. Maybe so, but given that I asked not to be called, and when they did anyway, I asked again to be left alone, do they really think their chances of getting my credit card number out of me are all that high?

I have to believe this approach works on at least some people. There must be those who say to themselves, “Oh, he’s allowed to do this. I guess I better listen.” Those people exist in number large enough to sustain this marketplace of annoying hawkers. And more disturbingly, they are allowed to vote.