Saturday, February 03, 2007

Shocking Confession #5

One of my new favorite things to do when a telemarketer calls while Tate is crying is to hold the phone so all they hear is my son screeching in their ear!

Hee, hee!

Kelly says I'm being mean. You know what's mean? Calling at 9:30 at night while I'm in the middle of a bowl of Blue Bell & Magic Shell and watching last week's episode of The Office . . . and then not even trying to pronounce my last name correctly!

Now that's mean!

3 comments:

Chris and Sarah said...

Chris really likes to have fun with the telemarketers, too. One time a telemarketer called us trying to sell us the local newspaper. After Chris gave several legitimate reasons why we didn't want to take the paper, he finally said, "Ma'am, the real reason I don't want to subscribe to the paper is because I don't know how to read."

To this she replied, "Well, we have a lot of pictures in our newspaper."

Oh, the persistance!

Dr. Russell Norman Murray said...

Hi Wade,

When I was still working on course work back in the 1990's I had a summer job as a telemarketer. I did fairly well but in the end it became harder as more anti-telemarketing news came out in the media.

The management told us to use hard sell techniques as in making sure the person we were mailing the letter to agreed to an actual amount, but interestingly the old pro telemarketers got away with using soft sell techniques as in mailing the letter out without any actual amount. The old pros would follow up with calls a week or so later and use the idea that the pledge had been promised and suggested an amount.

I have more problem with debt collectors on the phone than telemarketers, as often the former are more rude and abrasive. I complained to a provincial government agency about one woman who tried to force me over the phone to tell her where my sister-in law had moved too.

Wade said...

Hey Sarah,

Ha! That's histerical!

I once got into a 10-minute debate with a lady who called saying, "I'm not trying to sell you anything - I just want you to come look at lakefront property on the market in your area."

She thought that just because she wasn't asking for $ over the phone she wasn't selling anything. I kept telling her that she was selling me the idea of seeing her property.

She eventually hung up on me when I pointed out that I was debating with her just for the heck of it and that I was only 1-year removed from college and was lucky to be making my rent each month much less than a mortgage on lakefront property.
_____________________________

Hey Russ,

That's crazy!

You're a good reminder that tekemarketers are people, too.

I think I would be nicer to telemarketers if they would say, "Hello, my name is Bob. I'm calling from Such & Such Company. Would like to hear how you can save $ on this or that?"

If I say No, then all I want to hear is a thank you and a click. But I'm more likely to give them a chance if they don't go right into their sphell as soon as I pick up the phone!

TFSB,

W