Wednesday, July 19, 2006

Phone calls.


I guess many of you know I love Beans!! Thankfully the kids do too...eating and creating Art with them!!!

Surfingfree was talking about Telemarketers the other day and it seems since then I have been getting lots of calls. Usually I firmly and politely say No thankyou and hang up. Now I have been on the other end of the phone as a telemarketer in Canada, selling subscriptions to the Toronto Star Newspaper in my backpacking days. I only worked 9-5 so didn't annoy people in the evening however woke a few people up who told me not too politely where I should go!!!!

Last night around 7pm the phone rang and I thought it would be Marcel so answered it in a very cheerful "Hello Michelle speaking" which is how I always answer the phone anyway though I could have been sounding a little too sexy because I thought it was my husband who I haven't seen for over two weeks!! The guy on the other end took this to mean he and I were going to be firm friends possibly more, "Hi Michelle, how are you going this evening? I bet it is a lot colder down there in Canberra compared to up here in Brisbane." Maybe in my single days I would have chatted away quite happily to this guy about lovely Brisbane and all...BUT it was 7pm and I was on my own trying to get 3 not very willing children organised for bed!!! He then launched directly in to his speech about how I could save lots of money on my phone bill. ".....and how does that sound Michelle?" I laughed...it was all I could do and then said "You know what I just don't give a s**t how much my phone bill is, I am so busy at the moment!" I think he was quite shocked that I should talk like this in the initial stages of our 'friendship'. "Oh, so you don't give a s**t about the savings you could make?" Now I wasn't sounding 'sexy' anymore!! "No I don't! Now you have a good evening!" and hung up!

I have had others who hear the noise in the background and say "Oh it sounds busy at your place....i just want to talk to you about.." or "those kids are having fun!" when all they are doing is running around the house naked and not doing what I say!
Why can't Telemarketers be taught what many households are doing between 5-8 and have some compassion and say something like "OK I will call you in a few years when you might have more time. I hope you get the kids to bed early and you can have a relaxing evening".

9 comments:

Alice said...

Some States are bringing in laws to make it illegal for telemarketers to ring during certain hours. I'm not certain of those hours, but I think 6.00pm is the latest. I'll try and find out more - not that it does one bit of good if they keep ringing, especially the call centres from India. Now I usually say something like "Whatever you're selling, I don't like it and I don't want it. Goodbye." and hang up.

Alice said...

See below - it's actually a 'Do Not Call Register' whereby you can register your phone numbers and supposedly telemarkets will be unable to use those numbers.

http://www.govtech.net/magazine/channel_story.php/99999

SnowWhite said...

Hi LMBo about your cold caller lol Used to do it as a 9-5 but for a companys client base no cold ones but your post reminded me of a morning talk show thing they did here on Nova fm, had to pull the car over for I was laughiung so much. The woman when she answered the phone let the guy go on and on for ages then burst out with the tourets syndrom lol she was faking it but the cold caller nearly pooped himself and couldn't get off the phone fast enough. I usually tell them yeah I am interested can I call you later possibly in the middle of your dinner with your family and bug you then or even better on your day off. NAB used to call us on Sunday am's lol they get the message quite fast lol.

Tanya said...

I had the opposite problem. I had been wanting AAMI to call me to arrange an insurance quote and they kept calling my mobile phone during the day when I was at work. I kept telling them to call me in the evenings and they said they would, then about a week later I'd get another call while at work. This went on for about 6 weeks until one evening when they finally did call at the time I had said, and YOU were visiting!

But really, they're just doing a job and most of them realise that it sucks and that it is awful to call you at those times, but it's do that or be jobless. I try to be nice to them when I cut them off. I tell them no thanks, have a nice evening and then I hang up. Sort of how I talk to mum.

Tanya said...

MOTHER, I WAS JOKING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Alice said...

Tanya - what were you joking about??? Oh, that's right, you NEVER tell me to have a nice evening!!!

My float said...

I only respond to people who are doing research surveys...i feel so bad for them and i think it's a crappy way to earn a few bucks. but the call centres in india? they get short shrift!! espcially in the middle of the day when i'm trying to get some work done or put the little one to bed. and i also get about five to 10 hang-ups a day. they're cold callers because no one i know would be so mindless!

Unknown said...

Oooooh, I HATE telemarketing calls!
You can usually tell when they're from overseas, as there is a slight delay before they say anything. They are quite sneaky too - they will dial two numbers at a time and the first person to pick up they keep, the other one they hang up on. I know this because I happened to answer the phone one day the exact same time someone else did - I heard him saying hello!
I usually cut them off before they can get a word in and say I'm not interested, but they can be persistent, and that is when I might get a bit cranky LOL

Pear tree cottage! said...

I had one the other night also but he didn't say S***! to us. my husband took the phone and explained in very long winded terms how our phone bill if they said could be halved would be a great thing as it is almost $1000.00 a month and man on the end got very excited and got the supervisor to be told the man (hubby) was ahving a piece of him.........No! shocked not my hubby.

I love the beans art in the picture too lol lol lol

best wishes