Seriously, who doesn’t hate getting these calls? “Can I speak with the person in charge of your advertising?” “Can I speak with the owner or manager of your business?” It just takes up time and I’ve tried being nice, no really I have. I try saying “no thank you” or “I’m not interested.” It just doesn’t work. I’ve tried reasoning with them “We simply don’t do much business through the yellow pages”. “Ma’am, it says here you generated X number of calls from the yellow pages.” “Well sir, in this digital age I just don’t think that’s the place to put our advertising dollars.” This would be on a good day.
Here are some doozies I’ve done in the past. I once told the guy posing to work for Xerox claiming I needed to order toner or the price would go up that he should be ashamed of himself. I’ve said the same thing to the people who ask to speak with the person in charge of our AT&T account who doesn’t really work for AT&T. I’ve made that horrid sound from…I think it was The Ring, into the phone.
Lately I’ve taken to just setting the phone down on my desk and going on about my business. I just think it’s rude to simply hang up, I know to feel that these tactics are better just shows my unique level of crazy. Sometimes I will hear the sales person drone on for several minutes before hearing “are you there?”
I do get that these people are simply doing their job, and that they really don’t deserve to take the brunt of my suppressed aggression, but it is just such an intrusion to my day.
What crazy things have you done when cold-called by a telemarketer?
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