Why do I answer the phone?
posted on:
Jan '09
29
6:26pm
featuring:
It happened again. I was watching a movie, The Dog sound asleep on my chest, and the phone rings.
I have a sort of Pavlovian response to that bell and I immediately made a move to get up to answer the stupid thing. The Dog was unceremoniously dumped onto the futon since he didn't make much of an effort to move.
And who was it?
If you guessed tele-marketer, you are close.
It was the collection agency.
No, Lily and I are not in financial difficulty. But it seems like everyone that had our phone number before we got it is being hunted out by various collection agencies. Which makes me sort of concerned about the bad karma associated with my phone number but that's another matter entirely.
Every few months we get a rash of phone call from people looking for this or that person.
Today I was in a foul mood and kept the guys on the phone for a while. I sort of kept my cool but I can't resist needling these people when given the opportunity. I will talk down to them, treat them rudely, and, generally speaking, be a jerk.
The guy I spoke with today asked why I would not just give him my number so he could remove it from the system. First I wanted to know why he couldn't tell me what number was dialed. He didn't have an answer to that so kept on turning it back to me to just give him the number so he could get on with his work.
After that, and much frustration on his part, I told him I wasn't giving him the number because I am a cruel and vindictive person and I enjoyed wasting his time as well as my own. I told him this several times and even suggested that I knew he would complain to his coworkers, after he hung up, about the, um, insert description of me here, that just wasted 5 minutes of his day.
I finally gave him the number but the discussion was not over. I invited him to listen in on the end of the movie I was watching since, it seems, they can't just hang up on a person.
Is any of this necessary? Absolutely not. Heck, I know a lot of these people don't like their jobs but they need to earn some money. But something about these phone calls sets me on edge.
I've tried all sorts of tactics in the past. I've rambled on incoherently. I've tried to convert them to a religion - not important which one, just tried to convert them. I've even been nice and calmly explained the error of their call. Heck, I almost got a date out of one call - that was a long time ago, before I was married.
But the calls keep coming.
Is it time to get rid of the land line? Make the calls stop!
I have a sort of Pavlovian response to that bell and I immediately made a move to get up to answer the stupid thing. The Dog was unceremoniously dumped onto the futon since he didn't make much of an effort to move.
And who was it?
If you guessed tele-marketer, you are close.
It was the collection agency.
No, Lily and I are not in financial difficulty. But it seems like everyone that had our phone number before we got it is being hunted out by various collection agencies. Which makes me sort of concerned about the bad karma associated with my phone number but that's another matter entirely.
Every few months we get a rash of phone call from people looking for this or that person.
Today I was in a foul mood and kept the guys on the phone for a while. I sort of kept my cool but I can't resist needling these people when given the opportunity. I will talk down to them, treat them rudely, and, generally speaking, be a jerk.
The guy I spoke with today asked why I would not just give him my number so he could remove it from the system. First I wanted to know why he couldn't tell me what number was dialed. He didn't have an answer to that so kept on turning it back to me to just give him the number so he could get on with his work.
After that, and much frustration on his part, I told him I wasn't giving him the number because I am a cruel and vindictive person and I enjoyed wasting his time as well as my own. I told him this several times and even suggested that I knew he would complain to his coworkers, after he hung up, about the, um, insert description of me here, that just wasted 5 minutes of his day.
I finally gave him the number but the discussion was not over. I invited him to listen in on the end of the movie I was watching since, it seems, they can't just hang up on a person.
Is any of this necessary? Absolutely not. Heck, I know a lot of these people don't like their jobs but they need to earn some money. But something about these phone calls sets me on edge.
I've tried all sorts of tactics in the past. I've rambled on incoherently. I've tried to convert them to a religion - not important which one, just tried to convert them. I've even been nice and calmly explained the error of their call. Heck, I almost got a date out of one call - that was a long time ago, before I was married.
But the calls keep coming.
Is it time to get rid of the land line? Make the calls stop!
