Waking from a mailing list nightmare

Tim Willert

NORTHWEST GLENDALE -- For longer than she cares to remember, Gloria

Sander has been besieged by calls from telemarketers pitching everything

from financial and legal services to political strategies.

“I get more calls more than junk mail,” said Sander, who added that

she has recieved up to four calls a day from telemarketers. “I’m

continually deceived by people trying to hit me up for one thing or

another.”

The Glendale resident finally grew tired of the monthly prerecorded

messages left on her answering machine by a company called Family First

Group Legal Services.

“I finally got irritated,” Sander said. “I called the number back and

said, ‘Who are you and how did you get my name?’ ”

She said she was told the Woodland Hills-based company bought a

homeowner’s list with her name on it from the Glendale Chamber of

Commerce.

Neither Sander, who described herself as in her 40s, nor her husband

are affiliated with the chamber.

“If the chamber does do this and there is some sort of private

homeowner’s list that they sell so people can make pitches, they are

doing a disservice,” she said. But Glendale Chamber of Commerce

President Judee Kendall said Thursday that lists used by telemarketers

don’t come from the chamber.

“We don’t sell lists or give them to people outside of our

membership,” Kendall said. “We don’t sell anything for the purpose of

solicitation.”

What the chamber does provide is a member directory that is

distributed throughout the city.

“Part of the benefit of chamber membership is having your name

published in the directory,” Kendall said. “It’s a way of promoting

chamber businesses.”

When reached by phone Thursday, Bill Smith, a supervisor with Family

First Group Legal Services, said that names are solicited from

homeowner’s lists, but could not say where those lists were generated.

“We tell people we are registered with the Better Business Bureau and

the Chamber of Commerce, but we never say that we purchased any lists

from them or anything of that nature,” Smith said.

Sander, meanwhile, has asked Family First and other solicitors to

remove her name off such lists.

“I’m trying to stop being bothered by these companies all the time,”

she said.