Tuesday, May 08, 2007

Barbarians At The Gate

There are a few things that drive this bear crazy, and one of them is a call from a foreign call centre trying to get me to switch my telephone account.

First of all, I don't have a "home phone" in the conventional sense... I use VoIP because I can call just about anywhere in the world for a few cents.

Second, I don't have a degree in quantum mathematics, so I am unable to work out how a phone bill actually works,

And third, my hearing's not so great, so I have a little difficulty understanding anyone trying to sell me something with a heavy Indian or Asian accent.

Enter the "Do Not Call" register, launched by our Federal Government early this month. That ought to have been the end of it.

But last night, there was a knock at the door.

"Who is it?", I shouted. No answer, just another knock.
"Who is it?" I shouted again.

"Good evening sir, I wonder if I might be having just one minute of your time."

I opened the door.

"Good evening sir, my name is Sanjay, and I would very much like to be talking about your telephone service, because the telephone cables in this area have not been very reliable."

"WHAT?", I said, somewhat taken aback by the appearance of a call centre person on my very doorstep.

"Perhaps you might be liking to switch to our new telephone service," he replied, following the same tired old script he was using when he called a few weeks back.

Dr J quipped that what we're going to need now is a "Do Not Knock" register.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Are you kidding????? OMG. This is appalling! You should stick a note to your door saying that the first born, belonging to any stranger knocking on your door will be fed sponge cake and red cordial in copious amounts should they dare to knock on your door if they are in fact selling goods.

That takes the cake.

pitfinder said...

Wow.

There are part of my country where doing this could get him seriously hurt. Kind of like the whole road rage thing. Only with guns and stuff.

Good luck to the not-so-tele marketers.

Ms Brown Mouse said...

The do not call register appears to be pointless because there are exemptions: Charities, Pollsters, anyone you've ever bought something from before (an "established" relationship) and they've already said its unenforcable against the o/s companies/callers. I figured what's the point and will just continue to screen all calls.

Matsby said...

I love how they got Sanjay out of the call center. That is an awesome way to get around the no call register. Plus, I bet Sanjay's happy that his company is sending him on a real-life walkabout down under.

And Morgan's right, people can still call begging about a charity. I get calls nearly every month or so asking for money for cops - and I have to tell the person that I hate cops. But they still call back next time.

Identity Crisis said...

You aren't serious! Are you? Seriously?

No. This is a joke. Definitely. Yes.

Chester The Bear said...

No. No joke. Seriously.

Actually, I felt sorry for the poor guy.