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This is Fred Ball for Zions Bank, speaking on business.
Jack Ashinhurst was furious and decided he wasn’t going to take it anymore. After being bombarded with annoying telemarketing phone calls, this construction company owner set out to build a device that could eliminate the constant, unwanted solicitations that kept tying up his phone lines. Now, two years after Jack came up with the idea, the CallmeNot Call Screener is being introduced to the public.
Despite 20 years of success in the construction industry, this Utah entrepreneur is now devoting his full energies to putting a dent in the telemarketing industry. Jack first thought of the concept after he was on the verge of ordering a call-blocking service from his phone company when he saw a news report that showed how phone companies were actually helping the telemarketing industry.
So for the next two years, Jack worked with several engineering firms to create CallmeNot. He also spent hundreds of hours researching the telemarketing industry and consumer rights. Prior to that, Jack had never done any kind of new product development.
Jack’s CallmeNot device works like this: it automatically answers a ringing phone and plays a pre-recorded message. The message says, “This number does not accept solicitation or survey calls of any kind. Place this number on your do-not-call list and hang up. All others, press “one” to ring through.” Thus, non-telemarketers can press “one” and immediately bypass the message. And owners can easily turn the CallmeNot call screener on or off.
Jack believes there is a big market for CallmeNot. He said Americans receive an average of two or three marketing calls a day, and most Americans don’t want sales calls directed to their homes. In testing CallmeNot prototypes, Jack said the number of calls he received dropped from about four a day to about one every two months.
Jack sells his device for a one-time cost of around $50. He says that compares favorably to the ongoing monthly fee of $7 that most telephone companies are charging for their anti-telemarketing services.
Well, it certainly sounds like a solution to unwanted calls, and more information about CallmeNot can be found at callmenot.com
For Zions Bank, I’m Fred Ball. I’m speaking on business.
