There are some days I hate the phone......

[poltr1]

Last week, someone from moveon.org called me and asked me to participate in their phone calling session. I was about to leave for my mens' group, but I took the call anyway. After hearing his spiel for a couple of minutes, I told him I wasn't interested in participating.

Today, someone from a mortgage company in Cleveland called and offered to refinance my home mortgage. I told him I didn't think I was eligible, in several different ways and reasons. He finally said something to the effect that I wasn't the expert on refinancing, but that he finally got the message. (I forgot that I had signed up for the Do-Not-Call Registry, and didn't think to tell him.)

I really hate the phone at times. Some days it's an instrument of torture.

I also hate myself for not having the balls to tell these people to back off, go away, and leave me alone. And I hate that my brain doesn't think of what to say until a few hours later, well after the moment has passed.

I'm so paranoid and distrustful about telephone solicitations that I won't do business with anyone who initiates the contact via telephone with me. I have no way of proving that the people at the other end of the line are who they say they are -- caller ID or not. I also won't give my full Social Security number over the phone even if I'm the one making the call. (Unless I'm on a secure telephone, like a STU-III or newer.) The telephone is one of the most insecure communications devices out there.

Comments

[athenawindsong.livejournal.com]

Sometimes, I ask for their home phone number. When they ask why I tell them that I'll give them an answer the next time they are home with their family eating dinner. And then I hang up.

Or, I tell them that we refinanced and we simply are not interested in doing it again. And then I hang up. It's their job to keep you on the phone so they are prepared with scripted questions to force you to answer.

Many times they call asking for Jim. The worst ones like bank lenders won't say who they are or why they are calling. It makes me feel like a second class citizen when they tell me they will "call back later" and infuriates me to no end because I must not be good enough to pester with lending information I didn't really want in the first place. Plus, I don't get to hang up on them which robs me of the pleasure.

Of course, there is always the tactic of "Are you paid enough to put up with nearly every person the computer system calls to be rude to you? Wouldn't your self esteem like a better job?" And then I hang up.

For a while there, we got calls from window replacement companies. I can't tell you how many times I had to tell these people we live in a registered historic house and they would have to pry my cold dead hands off these gorgeous, wavy-glass energy-sucking windows before I allow anyone to mess with the property value and historic significance of having the ORIGINALS. And then I hang up.