Hanging up the phone
26/01/19 05:19
It is not natural for me to ignore people. I like to be polite and to pay attention to what they have to say. But I have larked to hang up the phone on some callers and I allow some emails to go unanswered. Here are a few examples.
I used to listen to part of the sales pitch for extended car warranties. I just hang up and usually block the number from which I received the call. That doesn’t seem to stop the sellers from calling me again. Here’s the deal. I drive a 20-year-old car with over 277,000 miles on it. I think it’s trade-in value is about $1. Its private party sales value may be $500 on a lucky day with a desperate buyer who has no way to buy a better car. I might have to put $300 worth of new tires on it to get that much. I don’ think they really offer extended warranties for this kind of car. And I’m not likely to purchase an extended warranty that costs more than the value of the car. Our “new” car is 8 years old. I’m willing to pay for repairs when they are needed. One of the advantages of older cars is that you can often anticipate major repairs and you have adjusted to the cost of on-going maintenance.
I don’t mean to be rude, but I spent a few months working on a telephone poll once. I know that a hang up doesn’t hurt and it allows you to go on to the next call without wasting your time. One of the worst types of call to receive is one that talks to you and goes on and on and takes a lot of time, but doesn’t answer the necessary questions. So I just hang up.
At work, I have little patience for people who are trying to save our “business” money on credit card processing fees. Those callers are live persons, but they seem to have no concept of how a church works. I guess they imagine that most of our income comes from credit cards. We do allow members to use credit cards to make donations and I wish the processing fees were lower so that more money went directly to our ministries, but the callers never seem to understand that we need a way to integrate our credit card processing with our financial management software and they have no concept of how church financial management is done. I’m thinking they have a 0% chance of a sale and so I hang up and let them go on to a conventional business.
As to emails. No, I don’t want to write a review about your product that I purchased online. I’m a professional writer. I think my words are worth something. Here’s the deal. How about I charge about what I pay for a service technician. I think the going rate is around $120 per hour with a minimum charge of 1/2 hour. I could write a lot of product reviews at $60 each. Rave reviews that require dishonesty would have to cost more, however. Actually, I’m not sure I want to sell my honesty. I don’t think they’d want me to write: “I like the product. I’d give it 5 stars, but purchasing it means I get weekly emails requesting product reviews. I’m so tired of those emails and the constant post-sales harassment that I have to give it 1 star. I’m considering never purchasing from this vendor again.”
I’ve routed all of the emails from one company in Burlington Washington to my spam folder. Yes, I did give them my email address to make a purchase without a paper receipt last summer, but no, they don’t have any bargains worth a 2,600 mile round trip to pick them up. I thought not using paper bags and paper receipts was a good way to reduce paper waste. It is a good thing I don’t print out my emails to read them. In a way I guess they are better than the company from whom I made a single online purchase. That gave them my shipping address, so they send me paper catalogues in the mail every month. If I were interested in paper catalogues, i wouldn’t have looked up their products online. I actually do care about paper waste and the challenges of recycling in our location. They aren’t helping and their attitude doesn’t make me want to spend my money with them.
Note to my dentist: If an actual person called to ask me how I was doing after an appointment, I might think it was nice. The robocall about my recent teeth cleaning is not necessary. It did make me think of a great product idea for a clever computer programmer. I’d like them to develop a robocall program that I could install on my phone that would detect incoming robocalls and wait until the opportunity to leave a message. I could record a message to leave on their machine. “Your robot has contacted my robot. If I cared about your message, I would have answered your call in person. Then again, if you had cared, you would have called me in person.” I don’t know how much my dentist spent on the robocall program, but I wish he’d offer a discount to customers who decline to receive robocalls. Actually, I’d be happy if he’d simply offer the option of not receiving the calls. Then again, the last three times I’ve had my teeth cleaned the dentist hasn’t been in the building. I’m told he reviews my x-rays and would call if there was a problem, but I’m beginning to wonder if he is a real person. Maybe they only have robots except for the hygienists who clean your teeth and the clerk who takes your payment.
Do you remember Andy Rooney, who used to offer a rant at the end of CBS’s program 60 minutes? I could do that job.
I used to listen to part of the sales pitch for extended car warranties. I just hang up and usually block the number from which I received the call. That doesn’t seem to stop the sellers from calling me again. Here’s the deal. I drive a 20-year-old car with over 277,000 miles on it. I think it’s trade-in value is about $1. Its private party sales value may be $500 on a lucky day with a desperate buyer who has no way to buy a better car. I might have to put $300 worth of new tires on it to get that much. I don’ think they really offer extended warranties for this kind of car. And I’m not likely to purchase an extended warranty that costs more than the value of the car. Our “new” car is 8 years old. I’m willing to pay for repairs when they are needed. One of the advantages of older cars is that you can often anticipate major repairs and you have adjusted to the cost of on-going maintenance.
I don’t mean to be rude, but I spent a few months working on a telephone poll once. I know that a hang up doesn’t hurt and it allows you to go on to the next call without wasting your time. One of the worst types of call to receive is one that talks to you and goes on and on and takes a lot of time, but doesn’t answer the necessary questions. So I just hang up.
At work, I have little patience for people who are trying to save our “business” money on credit card processing fees. Those callers are live persons, but they seem to have no concept of how a church works. I guess they imagine that most of our income comes from credit cards. We do allow members to use credit cards to make donations and I wish the processing fees were lower so that more money went directly to our ministries, but the callers never seem to understand that we need a way to integrate our credit card processing with our financial management software and they have no concept of how church financial management is done. I’m thinking they have a 0% chance of a sale and so I hang up and let them go on to a conventional business.
As to emails. No, I don’t want to write a review about your product that I purchased online. I’m a professional writer. I think my words are worth something. Here’s the deal. How about I charge about what I pay for a service technician. I think the going rate is around $120 per hour with a minimum charge of 1/2 hour. I could write a lot of product reviews at $60 each. Rave reviews that require dishonesty would have to cost more, however. Actually, I’m not sure I want to sell my honesty. I don’t think they’d want me to write: “I like the product. I’d give it 5 stars, but purchasing it means I get weekly emails requesting product reviews. I’m so tired of those emails and the constant post-sales harassment that I have to give it 1 star. I’m considering never purchasing from this vendor again.”
I’ve routed all of the emails from one company in Burlington Washington to my spam folder. Yes, I did give them my email address to make a purchase without a paper receipt last summer, but no, they don’t have any bargains worth a 2,600 mile round trip to pick them up. I thought not using paper bags and paper receipts was a good way to reduce paper waste. It is a good thing I don’t print out my emails to read them. In a way I guess they are better than the company from whom I made a single online purchase. That gave them my shipping address, so they send me paper catalogues in the mail every month. If I were interested in paper catalogues, i wouldn’t have looked up their products online. I actually do care about paper waste and the challenges of recycling in our location. They aren’t helping and their attitude doesn’t make me want to spend my money with them.
Note to my dentist: If an actual person called to ask me how I was doing after an appointment, I might think it was nice. The robocall about my recent teeth cleaning is not necessary. It did make me think of a great product idea for a clever computer programmer. I’d like them to develop a robocall program that I could install on my phone that would detect incoming robocalls and wait until the opportunity to leave a message. I could record a message to leave on their machine. “Your robot has contacted my robot. If I cared about your message, I would have answered your call in person. Then again, if you had cared, you would have called me in person.” I don’t know how much my dentist spent on the robocall program, but I wish he’d offer a discount to customers who decline to receive robocalls. Actually, I’d be happy if he’d simply offer the option of not receiving the calls. Then again, the last three times I’ve had my teeth cleaned the dentist hasn’t been in the building. I’m told he reviews my x-rays and would call if there was a problem, but I’m beginning to wonder if he is a real person. Maybe they only have robots except for the hygienists who clean your teeth and the clerk who takes your payment.
Do you remember Andy Rooney, who used to offer a rant at the end of CBS’s program 60 minutes? I could do that job.