So this morning my phone rings. I answer it and I hear that momentary, silent pause that tells you a telemarketer is on the line. First a little backstory. About a year ago I had an eye exam and bought new glasses at a certain national-chain eyeglasses store. I don’t want to disclose the name, but it rhymes with HensCrafters.
Telemarketer: “Hello I’m calling from HensCrafters to remind you of your eye exam appointment.”
Me: “I’m sorry, I do not believe I have an eye appointment scheduled at HensCrafters.”
Telemarketer: “Yes, it was scheduled during your last visit to the store.”
Me: “When I was there a year ago?”
Telemarketer: “Yes that’s right sir.”
(Now I never schedule appointments in advance like that, not even for the dentist, who I religiously visit every six months. I know this is not true.)
Me: “I don’t think so. I did not schedule any appointments like that.”
Telemarketer: “Well, would you like to reschedule your appointment?”
Me: “No, but there is one thing you CAN do for me.”
Telemarketer: “Yes sir?”
Me: “Please remove me from your calling list.”
The karmic justice side of the story is, I wasn’t real happy with the service I originally got at HensCrafters and I wasn’t sure if I wanted to go back there. I should call and thank them for helping me make a decision.
Hi Jon:
Your response was good. Must be the day for telemarketers. We also got one this AM but I hung up before I could find out whether it was Henscrafters. Like that name. Reminds me of my boyhood farm days when I helped raise (craft) chickens so they would produce eggs. No telemarketers back then.
what you recieved was a follow up on an appointment you agreed to when you accepted the original appointment.if you ( this counts at websites even more so )agree to services,most businesses will tell you in their agreements that you will be callled at some point in the future.take a wild guess as to why…ready for the answer?because it promotes their business.make sense? would you begrudge a businessman’s right to earn a living and feed his family?if you were simply unsatisfied with the service you recieved why not just be an adult and say that to the rep.i would bet they would be so interested in keeping you ,you might even get a freebie,is it worth all of the time you’ve spent negatively speaking about telephone calls?maybe,but,jon what you have to remember is the blois (or bloy) were in louis XIV’s court and we must always concede to our benevolence and nobility.
What you fail to notice in my post was that I never made a followup appointment. This was obviously a telemarketer, not someone from the local store calling me. Yes I did have a past relationship with them, so yes they did have a right (according to Wisconsin law) to make an unsolicited sales call to my home. Did I complain to them about the unsolicited call? No. Was I rude and disrespectful to the telemarketer? Absolutely not.
Our culture is plagued by advertising. I see it on television I have to pay for, I see it when I go to the movie theater, and I see billboards along the highway scarring a beautiful landscape. Politicians cannot get elected unless they spend obscene amounts of money on advertising. Is it too much to ask that I not hear it on my telephone?
If as you suggest, I express the concerns on my past relationship with HensCrafters to the telemarketer in an effort to do more business with them, I am only rewarding the unsolicited call with more business. I would rather reward a company that goes out of their way to provide good service in the first place, than patronize one who relies on deceptive sales practices.
Part of being noble includes recognizing honorable and dishonorable behavior, and rewarding it accordingly.
Aside from that, thanks for the comment. I always appreciate hearing from distant relatives here.
What a great line – “Part of being noble includes recognizing honorable and dishonorable behavior, and rewarding accordingly.” Amen to that.