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# No sales pitch over phone equals no case in court
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/no-sales-pitch-over-phone-equals-no-case-in-court/
- Published: 2002-05-06T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T00:16:14.000Z
- Author: Andrew Fixmer
- Tags: Crime, Santa Monica, #archive-import

*No sales pitch over phone equals no case in court*

A Santa Monica man sick of listening to sales pitches left on his answering machine claims one telemarketer violated his rights as a consumer.

However, Deverin Karol’s attempt to sue Nowalk-based Bolsa Financial, Inc. Thursday failed to convince Santa Monica Small Claims Judge Pro Tem Richard Shcolnek that the telemarketer violated federal laws.

Karol said two pre-recorded messages left on his answering machine in January by the company within two weeks of each other violated the Federal Telephone Consumers Protection Act.

The law prohibits companies from calling consumers randomly and trying to sell unsolicited goods and services over the phone. Violators can be forced to pay the consumer up to $500 for each infraction. Karol was asking for $1,000.

Christopher Wells, a Bolsa sales representative, argued his company complied with the law because the messages did not try to sell services but only offered a free financial analysis. If the messages were returned, callers would then be pitched a home loan, he said.

“We identify ourselves at the beginning of the message so the listener knows right away who the business is,” he said.

Wells denied that his company used pre-recorded messages or that it made more than one call to Karol.

However, Karol shot down that claim quickly when he produced the tape from his answering machine which had both messages left by Bolsa Financial, as well as his caller ID box that showed Bolsa made two calls to him.

Not clear on the law, Judge Shcolnek took the case under advisement. After researching the statutes, Shcolnek ruled last week that Bolsa wasn’t to blame because no sales pitch was actually made to Karol.

“It was a pretty cut and dry case,” Karol said Friday. “I can’t understand why the judge disagreed with me.”

Wells said Shcolnek probably realized Karol was trying to take advantage of the company.

“We have called millions of people and there are predatory people out there taking advantage of the law for their own profit,” he said. “There are a number of Web sites out right now that are trying to teach people how to make a profit out of cases like this.”

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on May 6, 2002.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/050602.pdf?ref=smdp.com)