Telemarketing

[bluefirebird]

Not only do I get an overdose of calls that hang up when I answer - and this despite my number being registered with the anti-marketing agency - twice this week I have had calls from people that I have no idea who they are, or any means of verifying if they are who they say they are but they are insistent on verifying that I am who they are trying to contact.

The first one didn't get much more than "yeah?" out of me (several times) as I waited for him to explain himself before HE hung up. Then today the woman asked three times, could she speak to xxxxx and every time I answered that that is me. Until I said "how many times do I have to tell you, you stupid idiot" and then she hung up on me.

I don't want these phone calls in the first place, but have to put up with them because every once in a while they come from someone who has legitimate business with me and needs to speak to me - like credit card companies.

Sometimes I have fun, because if they ask for me by full name - including marital status - they usually get it wrong, so I tell them that the person they are asking for doesn't exist. But it seems that increasingly my deep voice, which I think gets even deeper when I am annoyed/exasperated, is interpreted as belonging to a man and that is certainly not who they are after contacting. It does have its uses though, as it allows me to impersonate my other half when I have to sort out business on his behalf and they will only talk to him in person...

Comments

[ferneberga.livejournal.com]

Here in Bilbao I get those kind of calls too, but the ones that really get on my pip are from 'Home English', one of those scams, which tell you English can be learnt in next to no time. Needless to say I answer these people in English, which they can't understand. I've tried to telling them politely/rudely that this is basically taking coals to Newcastle, but do they delete me from their lists? do they heck.
Others have S.Am people as their teleoperators, whose Spanish is totally different from that of the Spanish State, coupled with the fact they tend to employ people with bad diction, and who speak so slowly.... Asking them to speak clearly or to clearly specify who they wish to speak to is like getting blood out of a stone, because here they start off by saying: Good morning/afternoon, my name is so and so, delighted to make your acquaintance, I'm calling.....
A good tactic though when they ask if they can speak to you or the householder is to ask them to wait a minute while you check and leave the phone off the hook 2 or 3 minutes. Sometimes I answer in English straight off, which flusters them inordinately.
I can't stand these people either by the way. It's one of my pet hates

[bluefirebird.livejournal.com]

Seems the bad things in life are pretty much the same the world over.
Although I guess there are people much worse off who would love to have the problem and the telephone that it comes with!

I seem to be more philosophical early in the morning!

[ferneberga.livejournal.com]

The effects of globalisation and the fact people tend to copy the bad things instead of the good things.

Indeed until a couple of years back there were a couple villages in the Spanish State without telephone and TV due to the geography of the land, or at least that was the excuse of the respective companies!