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- <text id=89TT2482>
- <title>
- Sep. 25, 1989: Business Notes:Stockbrokers
- </title>
- <history>
- TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1989
- Sep. 25, 1989 Boardwalk Of Broken Dreams
- </history>
- <article>
- <source>Time Magazine</source>
- <hdr>
- BUSINESS, Page 57
- Business Notes
- STOCKBROKERS
- A Ringing In His Ears
- </hdr><body>
- <p> Merrill Lynch was bullish on Alan Schlesinger as a
- prospective customer, but the company's brokers pushed him a
- little too far. Five years ago, the suburban Boston lawyer began
- an epic campaign to stop Merrill Lynch's brokers, as well as
- numerous rival callers, from peppering him with phone pitches.
- First he wrote a polite letter asking the company to desist, but
- still the calls came. Then he wrote a more threatening note, and
- still the calls came.
- </p>
- <p> Schlesinger then sued the brokerage for invasion of privacy
- in Massachusetts county court and won the case last June
- (Merrill Lynch is appealing). The judge issued an injunction
- prohibiting Merrill Lynch from calling Schlesinger, yet barely
- two months later, a Merrill Lynch broker rang him up. The
- attorney filed a complaint for contempt of court, and Merrill
- Lynch was ordered to pay $300. Said a spokesman: "We tried
- everything to keep Mr. Schlesinger's name off the lists. But we
- have 12,000 brokers. One of the calls slipped through."
- </p>
-
- </body></article>
- </text>
-
-