| Just My Opinion!! |
| June 13, 2001 |
| How To Tell Someone to Fuck Off (And not hurt their feelings!) |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Let me set the scenario from last night: RRRIIINNNNGGGG........RRRRRIIIINNNNGGGGG...... "Hello?" I respond out of my semi-comatose state. "Hi, this is Susan on behalf of the Calgary Herald..." "I'm sorry, I'm not interested, thank you. I get all my news from the Internet." I cut her off in mid-sentence in hopes that I can spare her the trouble of her full sales pitch. "The Internet is a good tool, but sometimes you don't get the full story, plus you can't take the Internet with you" She rebuts. "Thanks again, but I get all I need from the Internet plus I have Internet access at work." "You can't take the net with you to read on the way to work" she reiterates. "This is true, but I drive or ride bike to work, reading would be dangerous" I respond with a slight edge of sarcasm in my voice in hopes that my new friend Susan would take the hint and end her practiced sales pitch early. "Well, for this month we are offering the Herald for an introductory price of only $10.00. Doesn't that sound great?" in a nauseatingly cheery voice. "Well.... NO, not considering I get all my news for free!" "How about local news, it is difficult to keep up to date on local current events on the net." "Where have you been?? I can go to the Herald or the Sun's website and get the headlines I need." Quick as ever she comes back with " You miss out on so much if you only go to our website..." "Like all the full page ads, I don't miss that. Please, I am not interested." My last resort at being polite. "It can be waiting for you at 5:30 in the morning outside your door, you don't even have to start your computer up!" I am getting angry at this point "Look, during the night CNN and ABC send headline reports that print off automatically on my printer. I am kind of busy and am really not interested in getting a subscription. I bid you good day." Her last resort is guilt "Don't you want to support a local business?" CLICK... I hang up on her. This is a true story, happened last night. First of all, I have a personal motto, "If I call you, I want it or need it. If you call me I neither want nor need it." Telemarketing has always been annoying but I find these sales people are getting more aggressive and in your face. First they offer the product, then push it, and then cram it down your throat. When that all fails, Susan tries to make me feel guilty for not supporting a local business. I guess the tactic is if the customer at first doesn't want the product they should really piss the customer off and then they are sure to buy! Riiiiight... Good logic! I don't like telemarketers; I much prefer email spam. At least spam can be quickly disposed of in the 'ol trash can. There is something to be said about a product that can't sell itself and must rely on pushy sales tactics; maybe the product should be changed in a way that it would be more desirable to the consumer. This way the consumer comes to the product. |