Monday, June 30, 2008

Whatever!?

Over the past week we've been getting calls from the Harvard Business Journal and the Washington Post, begging us to take part in a survey of some sort. Almost every time they call (and it's been almost 2-3 times daily), we pick up and let them know that we neither have the time nor the inclination to participate. Yet, they keep calling.

Most of the time we let it go to voicemail but occasionally we pick up and explain politely to the person on the other end (because they're just doing their job after all), that we're still not interested thank you.

Last night they called again (surprise) and Hubbie picked up the phone, explaining our disinterest for the millionth time. Several minutes later he headed out to the garage and, as he closed the door, the phone rang again. Since I was sitting comfortably on the couch, covered in dogs, I decided to let the answering machine get it. "Hello you've reached and , please leave us a message!" (For those of you who have never called us, our joint voicemail greeting is very happy and sweet, recorded just after we got married.)

Then, there was the perfunctory telesales 'pause', a sigh from the woman caller, and then loud and clear over the speaker she said "Whatever!"

That's right: whatever.

The telemarketer (or telesurveyor, whatever) actually took the time to leave us a snotty message, insulting our greeting.

To say I was peeved is an understatement. Which is why, when they called back again (not 10 minutes later), Hubby leapt for the phone and asked ever-so-politely that they please remove us from their list. He knew that some venomous retalliation was brewing in my throat. The woman he talked to had the audacity to argue with him about this request, telling him 'this wasn't a sales call'. You're right about that, honey, because a sales person would have been hungry enough for a deal that they wouldn't have insulted us on our answering machine.

WHATEVER.

3 comments:

Urban Koda said...

You have to question the intelligence of those who take these jobs as well... I've been getting a similar one from a telemarketing place in Illinois - They're not selling anything, they just want information on my medical insurance.

I got upset because I'm on the national do not call list. His response was "Well what insurance company are you with?"

I then explained that I wasn't prepared to share that information and asked to be put on their do not call list.

He said he would and then asked which Insurance Company I was with. I signed loudly obviously highly annoyed by this point, and said that I thought the fact that I did not want them calling again and that I didn't feel it was any of his business should have given him a clue.

"So what Insurance Company are you with?"

He then went on to explain how he couldn't add me to their do not call list until I gave him the information he needed from me.

At this point I just hung up the phone - No point in letting my kids here the stream of profanity that was about to be unleashed.

Morons!!

MACMD said...

They're trying to get your insurance info because they want to be able to say that your relationship with that insurer allows them to contact you (since they probably have some 3rd party affiliation with the insurance companies). It's one of those loopholes in the Do Not Call.

Urban Koda said...

Could be...

I did some research online, and the particular company has a reputation for ignoring the do-not-call list. So then I did some more digging, and found out that if a company ignores the list, and you report them, their name goes into a database, which may be used as a resource if the company in question is ever investigated - violating the list does not trigger an investigation though. The whole thing sounded kind of fishy to me, but then we do have it courtesy of the Bush Administration...

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