Canada's Do Not Call List officially launched Tuesday with a bit of a rocky start.
You might say it's a victim of its own popularity. By 9:00 a.m. Tuesday morning over 200,000 people had signed up, by 11:00 a.m., the government webpage handling registration crashed from the demand.
The crash does not come as a surprise. A recent survey shows nearly two thirds of Canadians were planning to join the list.
If you're on the list you're off limits to telemarketers. The penalty for companies is up to $15,000.
You can register any Canadian phone, landline, cell phone or fax.
The idea was to register by phone or on line. Your registration will expire every three years. And there's no cost to get on board.
Once the Government webpage and phone lines are working again, it takes 24 hours for your registration to take effect. And companies are given a 30-day grace period.
There are quite a few exceptions: political parties, charities, and companies that have existing business relationships with you can still call.
Market researchers, poll takers and surveyors are also exempt.
It also won't prevent you from getting junk mail --like pre -approved credit card applications --to get rid of those you'll have to register with the Canadian Marketing Association.
The webpage did get back up again after a few hours. At last count more than 334,000 people had registered via online and telephone. More than a million people had tried to call in.
With a report by CTV British Columbia's Chris Olsen
