No thank you!
Since the invention of mobile phones (cellphones to us here in South Africa), the telemarketeers have had a field day. Now they no longer have to wait for after dawn before they can harass you at home, they can now call you any time of the day or night at home or at work!
Normally on my land line at home I would ask my children to answer, because the chances are the call would be for them anyways.
But the latest in stealth technology is to hide the caller’s number! Now we have a deadly combination: They can call me directly, and they are forcing me to answer because I cannot screen the incoming call!
Recently I wrote over at my Project Management blog about this exact problem and what some other ingenious people are doing about it – funny really. But it is not so funny when you are on the receiving end of one of the ultra-annoying calls while trying to conduct a tense meeting – something that happens often in the life of a Project Manager. Sometimes I’m just really abrupt and rude.
But it seems like other people have a more humerous ways of dealing with it. For example jannie at seattlepi has some really good advice on how to handle a marketeer with a cheerful chant! I luvit!
My preferred method of searching for information is print, either paper or electronic. I can quickly scan it and pass over it if I wish. I find phone calls stressful, not funny. Most developing countries have anti-spam laws that govern telephone abuse but as of today there is not much that you can do – legally – in South Africa. Perhaps this is reason for a call to action! But in the mean time …
The funniest of the funniest pranks on a telemarketeer can be found right here it is about 2.5Mb but damn! this guy is good!
Now where did I store that old tape recorder 😉
August 5th, 2010 at 3:15 am
this is just what i was looking for thanks so much
September 10th, 2010 at 8:11 pm
It’s very good page [edited for brevity]