February 25, 1998 - Bob Bragg is a 'Call Center Consultant' with a predictive dialer manufacturer.

Question: Nuisance Calls
The incidence of nuisance [hang-up calls] is increasing. They are extremely annoying and ethically wrong. Can these calls be stopped?

Bob Bragg - Predictive dialers let firms call their present customers and find new ones.

Predictive dialers filter out many answering machines, busy signals and no-answers, while those who answer the phone 'live' are passed on to telemarketers. This helps telemarketers to be more productive The nuisance call occurs when a telemarketer is not available to take the call - the result is that the called party hears silence.

Telemarketing firms are responsible for the "nuisance" or abandon rate that they set the predictive dialer at. The higher the nuisance rate, the busier the telemarketing staff. However, there is a direct impact on quality and to their client base. Most call centers that focus on quality as a center goal will target a 5% abandon rate.

Thus:
- There are many call centers that do not focus on quality.
          Those call centers (impliedly) target a hang-up rate over 5 percent.
- Of those call centers that actually do 'focus on quality'
          many will intentionally hang up on more than 5 percent.
- Call centers that meet a 5 percent goal will still intentionally
          inturrupt our dinner, so they can hang up on us.
- A hang up rate of 5%, when making 1,000 calls/hour (common for
          telemarketing firms), will result in hanging up on one person a minute.

As a consultants we let our clients know that their abandon rates effect productivity as well as their image and public perception.

This is a tacit admission of how annoying junk calls are.
In any situation, calling people with the intent to hang up on a percentage of them is sociopathic. 
But, for the telemarketersy, where the call itself is a nuisance, adding another aspect of 'misbehavior' is 'just business'.

We help our clients in their ability to avoid hanging up on someone twice.

Nice! They have "the ability" to avoid hanging up on someone twice. How about
not hanging up on us even once? Better yet, how about not calling at all!

The technology of predictive dialers will advance and reduce these nuisance calls thus making consumer's lives less aggravating. ...

This is hyperbole for: "making junk calls less aggravating".

Good telemarketing management with technological advances can reduce nuisance calls.

Televictims (folks who get junk calls) consider the calls themselves to be "nuisance calls".
Telelemarketers consider only hang-up calls to be a nuisance. In any case, they are acknowledging
that they cannot actually stop hanging up on the innocent victims of their business practices.

June 24, 1997 - Robert Garber is Vice President of Digisoft Computors, a predictive dialer manufacturer.

Question: Nuisance Calls
Nuisance [hang up] calls are a "pain" and somewhat unethical. Can predictive dialers be used without hanging up on folks?

Robert Garber - These nuisance-hang-up calls occur when the predictive dialer gets a live person, but no agent is available to take the call. The called party hears nothing until an agent is available, or the dialer hangs up. Predictions are not always accurate, so abandoned calls are inevitable. Most predictive software let's you estimate how many calls will be abandoned and slow the dialer. The tolerable number or percentage of abandoned calls depends on company goals and legal or industry limitations.

They excluded an important criteria in determining how many 'abandon calls are tolerable'... the rights of individuals to be left alone in their homes; free of victimization by the sociopathic business practices of the telenuisance industry. The use of predictive dialers now enable these tele-intruders to hang up on you without remorse.

The junk call industry is explicit! They do not care about you, or your privacy.  All that governs them is their own goals and any legal or industry limitations that may apply*. Your right of privacy, and the annoyance they cause, is not part of the equation.