Weird phone call
I just had the strangest sales phone call at 9:30 in the evening, almost sounded like a con to me. My suspicion is that he represented one of those companies that try to get you to subscribe to 5 monthly magazines for 5 years at a “very low rate,” only, he wouldn’t come out and say that. Here’s a sample from our conversation:
Me: Hello?
Caller: Hi. I represent the publisher of the magazines you subscribe to.
Me:What publisher?
Him: The publisher.
Me: Of what magazine?
Him: The magazine you subscribe to.
Me: Which one?
Him: All of them. Due to some error you haven’t been contacted, but the computer selected you for a 60 month extension.
Me: To what?
Him: To your subscription. Apparently there was an error and the computer pulled you out *yawn* to call and let you know, so if anybody else calls, just let them know you’ve been notified.
Me: Ok, but I have absolutely no idea what you are talking about. Notified of what?
Him: We represent over 250 quality publications, and you can select five of them.
Me: You don’t represent any magazines I subscribe to. I already subscribe to all the magazines I want and if I don’t already subscribe to them I don’t want them.
Him: Why not?
Me: Because I don’t have time to read them.
Him: Many of us don’t have time to read them, but if you read one article, it’s well worth it.
Me: If I don’t subscribe to it already, I read it online, and anything I subscribe to is a trade magazine and you can’t get it. Thanks for calling though.
I don’t know if the strategy was to confuse me so much that I get conned into giving out credit card information, or if the guy just sucked. The yawn halfway through was really entertaining, and it sounded like a bar behind him. I just did a reverse lookup on the phone number, in Kansas City, and nothing came up…almost tempted to call it back.
I hate having to wait to get our new number on the Do Not Call list. Too bad they couldn’t transfer our old number over here to the new house.
December 28th, 2004 at 11:18 am
My telemarketer calls (despite being on the list, i still get them) go like this:
him: I’m calling from . . .
me: (click)
December 28th, 2004 at 11:40 am
Usually, I hang up using the “count to 3 rule” (if nobody says anything by the time you count to 3, hang up!), but the wife answered this time. And they asked for “x”, which is the name I go by. Most telemarketers ask for “m” or “mr. 5,” and I immediately know I don’t want to talk to them. But they asked my wife for “m” and the number came up on caller ID (which most telemarketer #’s don’t). Plus, it seemed like fun at the time to mess with him (you gotta do that to telemarketers from time to time: if they’re selling windows, explain you have a windowless house).
December 28th, 2004 at 12:58 pm
Sometimes it can be fun to screw with them. Tom Mabe made a full-blown career out of it. One time, some years back while I was in college, I got a call from an especially long-winded fellow who was trying to sell me everything under the sun. The conversation went pretty much like this:
December 28th, 2004 at 2:18 pm
I always enjoy it when a telemarketer wants to sell me something auto-related. They are always a little taken a-back when I say that I don’t own a car. It’s like hello..I live in San Francisco where 30% of the population doesn’t own a car..do some market-freaking research.