Phone calls
I had a realization tonight. I've always thought that I was uncomfortable talking on the phone to people I didn't know. But that's not the case. I'm perfectly happy to talk to pretty much anyone as long as there is some reason for me to do so. This applies to friends, customer service, and ordering stuff. As long as I have a purpose to the call it's fine.
However, the class of people that this doesn't apply to are telemarketers. I have no reason to waste my time with their stupid questions. I will politely end the conversation as fast as I can. I don't want to waste my time, and I don't usually make it a habit to be rude to people. Well, unless they are rude to me first.
Of course one of the ways to be rude to someone is to waste their time. So if a telemarketer starts to be annoying and won't accept my polite attempts to end the conversation I have no issues being rude and hanging up.
Anyway, this realization came after an ill-fated phone call this evening. Over the past week I've gotten several phone calls from (866)887-7682. The first 3 I didn't answer because I don't answer phone calls from 800 or 888 or 866 area codes, usually they are telemarketers. No message was left and the number kept calling me.
The fourth call I answered. The man calling me asked if he could speak to Clara Lee. I asked him who was calling and he promptly hung up. This made me angry. So I tried to call back, the number was on my phone after all. The first time I called back it rang 3 times and then hung up on me. The second and 3 times I called back I got a canned message saying "the next available representative will be with you shortly" and then it hung up on me. The next six times I called back it randomly swapped between those two responses.
Tonight, when I saw (866)887-7682 appear on my cellphone screen, I picked it up. The lady on the other end asked if she could speak to Clara Lee. I said "This is she". Which I have said ever since my Mom answered yes to a similar question and got her phone service randomly changed. The lady then asked if she could ask me a few questions about the car dealership that I most recently took my Civic to.
Now, as you may be able to guess by my writings up to this point this phone number had quite severely annoyed me. They had wasted my time with spurious phone calls. Their behavior of repeatedly calling while not leaving a message and immediately hanging up when I finally answer and ask who is calling had definitely achieved the rude level.
I was not in the mood to answer any sort of question about my current car maintenance needs/work. So I told the lady how annoyed I was with the previous behavior of people calling from her number. I emphasized how displeased with their bad customer service I was. She apologized perfunctorily and then launched into the sales pitch.
Her: "...blah blah Deals from Honda blah blah... so do you know the mileage on your civic?"
Me: "Yes, I know the mileage."
Her:"...and it is?"
Me:"Oh! You want to know? I don't want to tell you. I'm perfectly happy with the car service I got, but I really don't like the customer service I've had to deal with. I don't want to talk to you at all. Bye!" /click
Almost I hope that they try to call back again. I would enjoy being rude. But really I hope this exchange puts me on their do not call list. This sort of shit wastes my time. Next time I get my car serviced I will threaten the dealership with loss of my business if they try this sort of time wasting bullshit survey again.
posted by Clara @ 10:06 PM
4 Comments
4 Comments:
Exactly!
I hate that stuff.
The thing that's been eating at me lately is when I call someone on business, leave a message, then never hear back. This has most recently been in the context of getting work done on my house - calling around to get people to do plaster, paint, floors, etc. You'd think that, even if we weren't in a construction slump, these people would be customer service-oriented enough to at least call back in a day or two. I'm still waiting to hear back from a guy about roof insulation. It's starting to get cold here!
Yeah, you'd think that if you're trying to give someone money they'd at least help the process along a little bit...
I found your blog and this post through a Google search of the number, which just called me. Not for the first time, unfortunately. The number looked familiar but I usually save numbers like this to a contact named, "Do Not Answer" for next time. Not sure why I didn't do that with this number last time but that has been fixed.
The last time I was called it was to let me know that the dealer I bought my car from had an urgent need for pre-owned cars and to encourage trade ins was offering some great incentives on new models that the operator was dying to go over with me. I thanked her for calling and politely said I was happy with my car and not interested in a new one. I was next told that the smart financial decision would be for me to take advantage of the current incentives, which, by extension, I guess I am to understand I am not smart for not being interested in. I responded something along the lines of, "the smarter financial decision is for me to continue to drive a car that is paid for rather than buying a new car not because I need one or even want one but because the dealer needs trade ins." I was next asked how long I plan to drive my car to which I responded, "until the wheels fall off." At this point I again thanked her for calling and let her know that I didn't have anything else to say on this matter and that I was now hanging up, which I did.
If you're hoping to get black balled and not called again by this company, good luck. They are paid to call you, not to not call you. The only way to get them off your ass is to clearly instruct them to take your number off their list, which they are legally obligated to do. And don't forget to thank your dealer for either selling your number to these telemarketers or paying them to call you.
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