Telemarketers and Gym Memberships
As promised I've developed new techniques for dealing with telemarketers. I'm not a nice guy when you interrupt my dinner or my sleep to tell me a great way to get me out of debt, or to pay off student loans. I used to take satisfaction in just telling these people that I did not have student or credit card debt and that made them mad enough to hang up on me. Now we get home improvement loans and the usual debt consolidations and I get tired of it. Catch me on a bad day and I'll make a telemarketer cry.
The first new way I've come up with is somewhat annoying to them, but so is them calling me. What I've been doing lately is answering, upon finding out it's a sales call I'll pretend like I can't hear them. Then push a button on the phone. Doing this long enough you can actually hear their headset hit the ground. There are some that are persistant and will say "There is a problem with the connection sir." So I'll let off for a minute and say "Oh, it's fixed now," wait a few seconds, let them talk, then push and hold the button again. This is handy if you don't have an air horn by the phone (which I've found several people don't) because it's just as annoying. Usually I'll end the call by going "Man, does that noise hurt your ears? It's annoying isn't it?" I've gotten them to say "Yes sir, it does hurt my ears and is bothering me." That's when I go, "it annoys me almost as much as you calling me." It's usually a race to see who hangs up first but I usually win.
The next way put me in tears the first time I did it. We'll call it role playing. The phone rings...
Sales Caller - "Hello, we're looking for Mr. Raul Duke. Is he available?"
Me - "Tell me. What is the nature of your relationship with Mr. Duke?"
Sales Caller - "Um, I'm calling on behalf of..." you have to interrupt them here...
Me - "Save the pitch. This is Agent Smith. Mr. Duke was found dead this morning. This number showed up numerous times on his caller ID so we can't help but think you're involved somehow and we'd like to bring you in for questioning."
Sales Caller - "We don't actually know Mr. Duke....uh...um...uh..."
Me - "Sir for someone that doesn't know him you seem to have called an awful lot. You could be a stalker for all we know. Are you going to come in for question quietly or do we have to take you in to custody?"
Sales Caller - "CUSTODY? Oh Dear God...um...I'm so sorry to have bothered you..we really have no affiliation with Mr. Duke or his current situation...uh...um...uh...um..."
Me - "So you're not going to make this easy on us then? That's okay, we've traced this call. An agent will be by to escort you out of the building shortly."
Crying, they hung up the phone. I laughed so hard I didn't know what to do with myself.
My sisters personal favorite is to answer the phone, say the guy they're asking for isn't available, and when they say "Is his wife available?" she explodes at them. "WHAT?!?!? HIS WHAT!?!?! THAT BASTARD TOLD ME HE WAS DIVORCED!!!" They usually hang up on that one too.
So there you have it, new ways to handle those pesky sales calls. I know they're doing a job, and I should probably be nicer, but why encourage them to call more? Exactly.
Last weekend we "won" a membership to a new fitness center here so we went to check it out. It wasn't bad, and it was a good deal. If we join one, that will probably be it. We decided we'd go check out their competition since we were already out. This guy took almost two hours out of my day as his goal was to get us to sign up right then. I told him up front, we just wanted to see the place and not sign anything but he didn't care. He starts talking packages and contracts and then says "Since you've had a personal trainer and haven't worked out in a year, you're going to have to get one to start out with. So let's sign you guys up for this package. All you have to do is drop $2,000 today and sign a contract for $50 a month for three years after that." Having told this guy we weren't signing up we really tried to leave and he said "Okay, I've got pull here. I can give you guys a two week free pass so if you'll fill these out I'll be right back." The pass had two blanks for names at the top and 10 spaces below where you put your name for your friends. He comes back and we haven't filled that part out. He goes "You guys don't have friends? What gives? This is the best gift you can give a friend." I finally said "Well, we just don't believe in throwing our friends under the bus. If they want to come in, they know where it is." Then he said "What if they do come in and say they know you. I'll have to say 'Man, they could have hooked you up but they wouldn't give me your name so you're gonna have to sign up to work out here.' Seriously? What's keeping you guys from signing up? It's not like investing in a house, it's much better than that. You're investing in yourself. Everybody in town wants to be a member here. What's keeping you from committing?" I know his goal is to sign people up, but he really annoyed me. It was all I could do not to go off on him, but I refrained. He got mad that we didn't sign up and was done with us. We left and seriously, if we ever join another gym, it will not be that one.
It's quitting time on Friday and I'm outta here. I hope everyone has a great weekend!
The first new way I've come up with is somewhat annoying to them, but so is them calling me. What I've been doing lately is answering, upon finding out it's a sales call I'll pretend like I can't hear them. Then push a button on the phone. Doing this long enough you can actually hear their headset hit the ground. There are some that are persistant and will say "There is a problem with the connection sir." So I'll let off for a minute and say "Oh, it's fixed now," wait a few seconds, let them talk, then push and hold the button again. This is handy if you don't have an air horn by the phone (which I've found several people don't) because it's just as annoying. Usually I'll end the call by going "Man, does that noise hurt your ears? It's annoying isn't it?" I've gotten them to say "Yes sir, it does hurt my ears and is bothering me." That's when I go, "it annoys me almost as much as you calling me." It's usually a race to see who hangs up first but I usually win.
The next way put me in tears the first time I did it. We'll call it role playing. The phone rings...
Sales Caller - "Hello, we're looking for Mr. Raul Duke. Is he available?"
Me - "Tell me. What is the nature of your relationship with Mr. Duke?"
Sales Caller - "Um, I'm calling on behalf of..." you have to interrupt them here...
Me - "Save the pitch. This is Agent Smith. Mr. Duke was found dead this morning. This number showed up numerous times on his caller ID so we can't help but think you're involved somehow and we'd like to bring you in for questioning."
Sales Caller - "We don't actually know Mr. Duke....uh...um...uh..."
Me - "Sir for someone that doesn't know him you seem to have called an awful lot. You could be a stalker for all we know. Are you going to come in for question quietly or do we have to take you in to custody?"
Sales Caller - "CUSTODY? Oh Dear God...um...I'm so sorry to have bothered you..we really have no affiliation with Mr. Duke or his current situation...uh...um...uh...um..."
Me - "So you're not going to make this easy on us then? That's okay, we've traced this call. An agent will be by to escort you out of the building shortly."
Crying, they hung up the phone. I laughed so hard I didn't know what to do with myself.
My sisters personal favorite is to answer the phone, say the guy they're asking for isn't available, and when they say "Is his wife available?" she explodes at them. "WHAT?!?!? HIS WHAT!?!?! THAT BASTARD TOLD ME HE WAS DIVORCED!!!" They usually hang up on that one too.
So there you have it, new ways to handle those pesky sales calls. I know they're doing a job, and I should probably be nicer, but why encourage them to call more? Exactly.
Last weekend we "won" a membership to a new fitness center here so we went to check it out. It wasn't bad, and it was a good deal. If we join one, that will probably be it. We decided we'd go check out their competition since we were already out. This guy took almost two hours out of my day as his goal was to get us to sign up right then. I told him up front, we just wanted to see the place and not sign anything but he didn't care. He starts talking packages and contracts and then says "Since you've had a personal trainer and haven't worked out in a year, you're going to have to get one to start out with. So let's sign you guys up for this package. All you have to do is drop $2,000 today and sign a contract for $50 a month for three years after that." Having told this guy we weren't signing up we really tried to leave and he said "Okay, I've got pull here. I can give you guys a two week free pass so if you'll fill these out I'll be right back." The pass had two blanks for names at the top and 10 spaces below where you put your name for your friends. He comes back and we haven't filled that part out. He goes "You guys don't have friends? What gives? This is the best gift you can give a friend." I finally said "Well, we just don't believe in throwing our friends under the bus. If they want to come in, they know where it is." Then he said "What if they do come in and say they know you. I'll have to say 'Man, they could have hooked you up but they wouldn't give me your name so you're gonna have to sign up to work out here.' Seriously? What's keeping you guys from signing up? It's not like investing in a house, it's much better than that. You're investing in yourself. Everybody in town wants to be a member here. What's keeping you from committing?" I know his goal is to sign people up, but he really annoyed me. It was all I could do not to go off on him, but I refrained. He got mad that we didn't sign up and was done with us. We left and seriously, if we ever join another gym, it will not be that one.
It's quitting time on Friday and I'm outta here. I hope everyone has a great weekend!
8 Comments:
And The Rush does sound like some kind of night club. What the hell. I've actually been thinking about starting a gym. Doubt I'd do it, because I don't think there's much money in it, but I think it would be fun.