Aargh! Phone sales people!

[propita]

So I just got a call asking me if I have a computer. Then launching into the problems of malicious websites. "Thank you, but I have an anti-virus I'm happy enough with."

Oh, they're not selling anti-virus software. Yadda-yadda-yadda. I can barely understand what she's saying due to her accent. "Thank you, but I'm not interested in buying anything."

Oh, they're not selling anything. Yadda-yadda-yadda. "Thank you, but I'm trying to be polite before I hang up on you." THAT got through.

Very polite, but I hate phone sales. Especially ones that chatter away before they get to the damn point. I got a spider solitaire game to get back to.

I'm not sure which is worse, the phone call itself or hearing them natter on without telling me the purpose of the call.

 

[Amaris]

I like the "this is not a sales call" that immediately launches into a sales call.

 

[SeerSGB]

Oh some do get sneaky. I had one a few weeks back that called up doing a "poll" about gas prices, driving habits, do I believe we need to fund alternative fuel research beyond current levels, etc. Seemed a bit political, then it got to the point: "Do you know that <dealer I forget name of> has the lowest prices in the county on new pre-owned fuel efficient cars? Why not..." <cue spiel and me hanging up>

 

[trekkiedane]

I'm quite happy that I live in a place where that sort of solicitation (and the door-to-door kind) is illegal

Now, if only we could get rid of the door-to-door missionaries too!

 

[sbk1234]

Keep a whistle next to the phone for such situations, and don't be afraid to use it.

 

[Trekker4747]

I'm quite happy that I live in a place where that sort of solicitation (and the door-to-door kind) is illegal

Now, if only we could get rid of the door-to-door missionaries too!

House: Oh! You're selling religion!. I'm sorry I just bought some from the guy in the turban who came before you.

 

[Kestra]

I don't pick up the phone if it's a number I don't recognize. I can always get in touch with whoever if it turns out to be something important.

We keep getting calls on our condo phone that show up on the caller ID as "BREAST CANCER". I'm sure it's just some group that wants a donation, but it's still slightly disturbing.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

Why would you not hang up as soon as you realize it's not something you're interested in?

 

[trekkiedane]

I'm quite happy that I live in a place where that sort of solicitation (and the door-to-door kind) is illegal

Now, if only we could get rid of the door-to-door missionaries too!

House: Oh! You're selling religion!. I'm sorry I just bought some from the guy in the turban who came before you.

I'd forgotten that line!

Now I'm sorry that they accept a NO and then never return -I could have used that line!

 

[Adm_Hawthorne]

I used to tell phone sales people that the person they asked for was dead. I would then go on a long, sobbing rant about how I can't understand why they keep calling asking for the person in question when I've asked them to stop calling (sometimes I had and sometimes I hadn't).

That normally stopped it. But, that was back before the DNC list.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

I used to tell phone sales people that the person they asked for was dead. I would then go on a long, sobbing rant about how I can't understand why they keep calling asking for the person in question when I've asked them to stop calling (sometimes I had and sometimes I hadn't).

That normally stopped it. But, that was back before the DNC list.

You're just horrible.

 

[Adm_Hawthorne]

Yes... yes, I am a horrible and vindictive person at heart.

I thought we had already determined this?

I also used to tell Jehovah's Witnesses that I'd love to talk to them but the chicken I was about to sacrifice to Satan just go loose. So, unless they wanted to help me catch it and hold it down in the Pentagram chamber for me while I decapitated it, they'd need to leave.

They normally didn't come back either.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

Yes... yes, I am a horrible and vindictive person at heart.

I thought we had already determined this?

I also used to tell Jehovah's Witnesses that I'd love to talk to them but the chicken I was about to sacrifice to Satan just go loose. So, unless they wanted to help me catch it and hold it down in the Pentagram chamber for me while I decapitated it, they'd need to leave.

They normally didn't come back either.

I'm normally nice to JWs, but one time I was in a bad mood and I just popped off with, "Sorry, but I've already got Jesus. He's in my basement and he told me to tell you to stop believing in fairy tales." And then I shut the door in their faces.

I kinda feel bad about that.

 

[bluedana]

I used to let the telemarketer get to his or her first natural pause -- usually a rhetorical question -- because I worked as a TM part-time when I was in college and that's the point where you start to get paid. I got over that as the TMs got more and more obnoxious, calling me by my first name as if we're old friends, telling me I donated before when I know I didn't.

Now, I turn on my bright cheery voice and say, "Oh, no thank you!" as if they're offering me something, and hang up.

 

[RandyS]

I don't pick up the phone if it's a number I don't recognize.

Well, it's about damn time. I was starting to think I was the only person who got this concept.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

I don't pick up the phone if it's a number I don't recognize.

Well, it's about damn time. I was starting to think I was the only person who got this concept.

I do the same, unless I'm expecting a call from an unknown number (like a Verizon tech on one of the umpteen occasions where they've had to fix my DSL.)