Dude!

[missroserose]

I just got an email from the supervisor of that telemarketer who called yesterday, asking me to call her. I did so a bit apprehensively, but she was actually quite gracious and apologized very sincerely (several times) for his behavior yesterday. I tried to be equally gracious about it, since she was very kind - my favorite bit of the conversation was when I said something like "It's possible he was just having a bad day," and she replied, "Well, he certainly will be having a bad day when he gets back from training. There's just no excuse for that - I have kids who don't behave that way!" Apparently they're a pretty large corporation and they take this kind of thing fairly seriously.

Mr. Telemarketer, you have just been PWNed right up PWN street and out of PWNsville, USA. And not even by me. =D

Meantime, Joe gave me a bit of advice in how to deal with telemarketers - the "Release" button on the phone is great because it hangs up on them but they don't hear a click or anything. He said his favorite kind are the ones who immediately launch into some long-winded spiel - he just hits "Release" and lets them go until the dial tone kicks in again. I'll probably try something like that in the future...

Comments

[bkleber.livejournal.com]

That's really beautiful. Congrats :-)

Damn. I wish I had a release button on *my* phone...

[roseneko.livejournal.com]

If you have a flash button (the one used to switch lines for call waiting), sometimes that works the same way. Seems to depend on the phone, though.

[sigma7.livejournal.com]

Mr. Telemarketer, you have just been PWNed right up PWN street and out of PWNsville, USA. And not even by me. =D

Nine kinds of awesome. Good work. The civil approach only seems less cathartic at first blush. You are an inspiration.

[roseneko.livejournal.com]

I'd have to agree about the civil approach. I could've gotten all pissed off at them, sure, but that would just have brought me down to his level and certainly wouldn't have made them want to help me out. It's so very much more satisfying when you know that not only have you taken the moral high ground, but they're even more PWNed than they would've been if you'd lost control.

That and it really wasn't this woman's fault. She'd taken a day off and was horrified at some of the emails that she'd received when she got back. I have a feeling this might have something to do with the training she mentioned they were undergoing today...

[errant-variable.livejournal.com]

Appropriate response. I hope he gets to watch repetitive training videos.

Good to know what the button is for, too. :)

[decibel45.livejournal.com]

Someone somewhere made a game out of trying to see how long you can tie up the telemarketers, since the longer they're on the phone with someone who won't buy, the less money they make. You got points for various things, like 1 point for each minute, +5 if you got them to repeat the spiel, +2 for talking to a manager, etc.