Company to close center thanks to no-call list

COLUMBIA, Mo. -- Citing the impact of federal and state no-call lists, Americall Group Inc. has decided to close its Columbia call center March 1, putting 175 people out of work. Americall has 16 call centers nationwide -- including two in St. Louis -- but will close only the Columbia center, said Jeffrey Johnson, human resources manager in Columbia. Americall decided to close the site because its lease expires this year, he said. Employees were told of the closing Friday. Naperville, Ill.-based Americall merged with Business Response Inc. in 2002. The company said at the time it would add 550 jobs to the Columbia call center, giving it a total of 750 local workers. State and federal no-call laws, however, have had a major effect on the telemarketing industry in the past two years -- even for companies not directly affected by the regulations, Johnson said.

Some of Americall's other locations provide outbound collections and survey services, which can be limited by the no-call laws, while the Columbia center provides inbound sales and customer support services.

"It doesn't apply so much at this center, but at the company overall, I think (no-call laws) did have some effect," Johnson said.

Despite the no-call lists, some new call centers have opened in Missouri, said Jim Grebing, spokesman for the Missouri Department of Economic Development. The state's approximately 8,300 telemarketing jobs include a large number of workers at inbound call centers unaffected by the regulations, he said.