Cell Phone Retailer Prosecuted for Illegal Calling

Pennsylvania's Attorney General Jerry Pappert has announced that his Bureau of Consumer Protection has filed a legal action against a Texas-based cellular telephone company and its telemarketer accused of illegally contacting consumers across 11 Pennsylvania counties to promote and sell cellular service plans. Pappert said an "Assurance of Voluntary Compliance" agreement was reached with QiTel Communications of Richardson, Texas, and Advance Promotions, a telemarketer located in St. Ann, Missouri. Both businesses are accused of violating Pennsylvania's Telemarketer Registration Act and Consumer Protection Law.

According to investigators, Advance Promotions from its call center in Missouri contacted Pennsylvania consumers between November 2002 through May 2003 to promote and sell QiTel's cellular telephone services. The telemarketer through a third party allegedly failed to properly implement the list to avoid calling consumers whose names, addresses and telephone numbers are on the Commonwealth's "no call" registry. More than a dozen Pennsylvanians on the "no call" list said they were contacted illegally by QiTel representatives.

Pennsylvania's "Do Not Call" law went into effect for telemarketers on November 1, 2002.

Advance Promotions is also accused of failing to register as a telemarketer with the Office of Attorney General at least 30 days before engaging in telemarketing activities. In addition, the telemarketer failed to end the solicitation calls at consumers' requests.

"Many Pennsylvanians on the 'no call' list said they continued to receive calls from the company's telemarketers up until the time my office notified the business that it was in violation of the law," Pappert said. "QiTel cooperated with our investigation and ceased its telemarketing activities until it was able to properly implement the list and come into compliance." Under the terms of the agreement, QiTel and Advance Promotions admit no wrongdoing and agree to share the payment of US$5,600 in civil penalties for violations of the state's "Do Not Call" law and share the payment of $1,400 in civil penalties for violations of the state's Consumer Protection Law.

Under the law, consumers who filed complaints are entitled to share 10% of the civil penalties obtained in a legal action. In this case, 14 consumers will each receive US$40."

Posted to the site on 12th February 2004