(no subject)
Alright, to start with, never buy an Orange mobile phone. (That's the company, though buying one coloured orange isn't likely to be a good idea either.) Having done so, ooh, 12 months ago, I am now getting a nuisance call about twice a day, trying to sell me another 12 months contract in the guise of a "free upgrade". They all do it, of course, but Orange appear to have sold my details to every jackass on the planet.
So, I've had a fair old chance to come up with interesting ways to deal with unwanted sales calls. My methods so far have included:
1) Monosyllabic unhelpful answers: Eventually they get to the end of their script and give up.
2) Pretend it's a bad line, and you can't understand a thing they say: Again, they eventually give up.
These are both fun, but have the drawback that you still have to speak to them. This leads to my latest method. I say hello, they do their introductory spiel, and then I say nothing. Nothing at all. Existential doubt sets in at the other end. I had a fabulous couple of calls of this kind today. I went silent, and the guy just sat there going "Hello? Hello? Can you hear me?" for a few minutes. Then I got his manager, who did the same thing, only she sounded really annoyed with me. You know, like I was wasting their time or something. Obviously, they could hear ambient room noise, so they knew I was there. Eventually, after passing the phone back and forth, they hung up. So far, so ho-hum.
The next thing I know, they call back. I answer, say hello. He does his spiel. I say nothing. He then proceeds to scream at me down the phone. He literally bellowed "HELLO!?" at me at the top of his voice, four or five times.
I mean, the guy's selling me a phone, right? Am I going to buy a phone off someone who screams at me?
So, I've had a fair old chance to come up with interesting ways to deal with unwanted sales calls. My methods so far have included:
1) Monosyllabic unhelpful answers: Eventually they get to the end of their script and give up.
2) Pretend it's a bad line, and you can't understand a thing they say: Again, they eventually give up.
These are both fun, but have the drawback that you still have to speak to them. This leads to my latest method. I say hello, they do their introductory spiel, and then I say nothing. Nothing at all. Existential doubt sets in at the other end. I had a fabulous couple of calls of this kind today. I went silent, and the guy just sat there going "Hello? Hello? Can you hear me?" for a few minutes. Then I got his manager, who did the same thing, only she sounded really annoyed with me. You know, like I was wasting their time or something. Obviously, they could hear ambient room noise, so they knew I was there. Eventually, after passing the phone back and forth, they hung up. So far, so ho-hum.
The next thing I know, they call back. I answer, say hello. He does his spiel. I say nothing. He then proceeds to scream at me down the phone. He literally bellowed "HELLO!?" at me at the top of his voice, four or five times.
I mean, the guy's selling me a phone, right? Am I going to buy a phone off someone who screams at me?