The world is no longer a safe place. You can't just sit at home and enjoy the peace and quiet and not have anyone bother you.
It starts with the telephone. Our phone rings several times a day...and 95% of the time, its either a sales person, or a recording of a sales person, or some person asking for a donation for something. I got tired of answering the phone all the time, and getting asked for money. I don't have a lot of extra money to throw around, and if I am unhappy with my phone company, or my TV reception, or if I decide I want to refinance my house, then I will get up and I will do the research, and I will find out what I need to do to get what I want.
Why is it that these sales people think they can keep on calling you up and that you are just sitting at home waiting for them to tell you their newest and greatest deal of the week? I honestly wonder if a lot of the people that do switch phone companies really do it to save a buck or two, or if they just think they might get a few weeks of peace from the phone calls by switching, before the company they switched from figures it out and starts calling them up and asking them to switch back.
I think I am a salesperson's nightmare...long distance...I use a calling card, and its cheaper than any of their plans, plus it ensures that none of my five kids can pick up the phone, dial randomly and end up talking to someone in France. Calling card...its cheap, its convenient, and I have it memorized, so I can go anywhere and use anyone's phone, or a pay phone, AND its prepaid, so I can spend just what I want to spend on it every month...and I don't get any surprises. I am also a pro at just shutting people down. I just cut them off mid-sentence and tell them no. No I don't want another credit card, Nooooo we just finished refinancing our house and are not looking to do it again right now, and NO! I don't want cable or satellite TV. Still, I have gotten tired of talking to these people at all. And then there is the other side of the whole thing... The ones that call asking for donations. Of course I feel bad for people with cancer, and of course I want to support the volunteer firefighters, and yes, I think the children's hospital is deserving of a donation. But, I am not made of money, and I have generally found myself to be a sucker for sad causes. So I stopped answering my phone. I am also an untrusting person. Let me tell you, that I have no guarantee that the person talking to me on the phone is really a volunteer calling to get donations for the police, the fire department or anywhere else. Yes, they send you an envelope with a letterhead and all that, but you know what? Those can be faked too. So I am not going to commit to any donations over the phone anyhow. I know where I can find the information if I want to just send out a donation to a worthy cause...and I donate frequently to my church. People are still calling me though. Even though I don't answer the phone anymore, they are calling. Every morning at the same time in fact...the phone rings...and I don't answer it. And they don't leave a message. I have told my friends and family that I don't answer the phone, so they know to leave a message and that I will pick up if I have a free hand and if the volume of kids yelling and screaming is low enough for me to have a conversation on the phone. I have gotten to the point that I am ready to pick up the phone, and tell the salespeople, or the donation begging people to take me off their lists and leave me alone.
The other day, I am sitting at the computer, checking the email, or reading a blog or something, and there is a knock at the front door. Normally I can't hear a knock at the front door, but since the computer sits right next to the window that is at our front porch, I heard. I looked up, and there, just visible through the slats of the mini blinds, is a white polo shirt, and the dish network logo.
Great. Here I am in my PJs, and not too excited, but I am sure he can tell I am home, so I go into the library room (the reason I can't hear the front door most of the time is that it opens into a small room that we use for the library and there is a second door between that room and the rest of the house). I open the front door, and peek around the edge, keeping my plaid PJ bottoms and garishly neon T-shirt out of sight. He starts his "We are in the neighborhood.." spiel, which I cut off. Actually, it was remarkably like a phone conversation.
"We are offering some good deals in your area." he says
"We aren't interested."
"Do you have cable?" he asks
"No. We had it before, but we moved here and didn't want cable anymore. We don't even watch regular broadcast TV."
"We have some really good deals, as low as $20."
"We don't want to bring all the sleaze that comes with it into our house, no matter how cheap it is"
"Bla,bla,blah"
"We don't want it."
"Okay, thanks."
So the world is not safe...they couldn't get me to answer the phone, so they have to come and bother me while I am in my PJs (although that one wasn't really the dish network's fault since it was almost lunchtime...I just had a slow start that day.) I just want to be left alone. Friends and family are welcome, but anyone who is looking to sell something...please just stay on the other side of the street. I am not buying today...
It starts with the telephone. Our phone rings several times a day...and 95% of the time, its either a sales person, or a recording of a sales person, or some person asking for a donation for something. I got tired of answering the phone all the time, and getting asked for money. I don't have a lot of extra money to throw around, and if I am unhappy with my phone company, or my TV reception, or if I decide I want to refinance my house, then I will get up and I will do the research, and I will find out what I need to do to get what I want.
Why is it that these sales people think they can keep on calling you up and that you are just sitting at home waiting for them to tell you their newest and greatest deal of the week? I honestly wonder if a lot of the people that do switch phone companies really do it to save a buck or two, or if they just think they might get a few weeks of peace from the phone calls by switching, before the company they switched from figures it out and starts calling them up and asking them to switch back.
I think I am a salesperson's nightmare...long distance...I use a calling card, and its cheaper than any of their plans, plus it ensures that none of my five kids can pick up the phone, dial randomly and end up talking to someone in France. Calling card...its cheap, its convenient, and I have it memorized, so I can go anywhere and use anyone's phone, or a pay phone, AND its prepaid, so I can spend just what I want to spend on it every month...and I don't get any surprises. I am also a pro at just shutting people down. I just cut them off mid-sentence and tell them no. No I don't want another credit card, Nooooo we just finished refinancing our house and are not looking to do it again right now, and NO! I don't want cable or satellite TV. Still, I have gotten tired of talking to these people at all. And then there is the other side of the whole thing... The ones that call asking for donations. Of course I feel bad for people with cancer, and of course I want to support the volunteer firefighters, and yes, I think the children's hospital is deserving of a donation. But, I am not made of money, and I have generally found myself to be a sucker for sad causes. So I stopped answering my phone. I am also an untrusting person. Let me tell you, that I have no guarantee that the person talking to me on the phone is really a volunteer calling to get donations for the police, the fire department or anywhere else. Yes, they send you an envelope with a letterhead and all that, but you know what? Those can be faked too. So I am not going to commit to any donations over the phone anyhow. I know where I can find the information if I want to just send out a donation to a worthy cause...and I donate frequently to my church. People are still calling me though. Even though I don't answer the phone anymore, they are calling. Every morning at the same time in fact...the phone rings...and I don't answer it. And they don't leave a message. I have told my friends and family that I don't answer the phone, so they know to leave a message and that I will pick up if I have a free hand and if the volume of kids yelling and screaming is low enough for me to have a conversation on the phone. I have gotten to the point that I am ready to pick up the phone, and tell the salespeople, or the donation begging people to take me off their lists and leave me alone.
The other day, I am sitting at the computer, checking the email, or reading a blog or something, and there is a knock at the front door. Normally I can't hear a knock at the front door, but since the computer sits right next to the window that is at our front porch, I heard. I looked up, and there, just visible through the slats of the mini blinds, is a white polo shirt, and the dish network logo.
Great. Here I am in my PJs, and not too excited, but I am sure he can tell I am home, so I go into the library room (the reason I can't hear the front door most of the time is that it opens into a small room that we use for the library and there is a second door between that room and the rest of the house). I open the front door, and peek around the edge, keeping my plaid PJ bottoms and garishly neon T-shirt out of sight. He starts his "We are in the neighborhood.." spiel, which I cut off. Actually, it was remarkably like a phone conversation.
"We are offering some good deals in your area." he says
"We aren't interested."
"Do you have cable?" he asks
"No. We had it before, but we moved here and didn't want cable anymore. We don't even watch regular broadcast TV."
"We have some really good deals, as low as $20."
"We don't want to bring all the sleaze that comes with it into our house, no matter how cheap it is"
"Bla,bla,blah"
"We don't want it."
"Okay, thanks."
So the world is not safe...they couldn't get me to answer the phone, so they have to come and bother me while I am in my PJs (although that one wasn't really the dish network's fault since it was almost lunchtime...I just had a slow start that day.) I just want to be left alone. Friends and family are welcome, but anyone who is looking to sell something...please just stay on the other side of the street. I am not buying today...
2 comments:
When I was younger, I found it quite effective to tell the sales people that the person they were looking for recently died. With a few fake tears and an occasional story of the mortition showing up so I had to go, they generally didn't call back. One day I told my PE teacher that my mom died... That didn't go over really well.
Otherwise you can go the the online registry to get your name taken off the list and then nobody will ever call you again. We never get those calls. We only get calls from collection agencies for the people that used to have our phone number, boy are they in trouble.
People!
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