webofevil | Telesales

The telephone preference service, which allows you to avoid being cold-called, expires—it turns out—after a certain period, apparently six months, at which point you have to renew it. You will of course have completely forgotten by the time six months is up, so the first you’ll know of it is when you suddenly get cold-called again, which is what happened to my mother the other day:

“Hallo,” said a chirpy voice. “I’m calling from $company and we sell solar energy products that—”

My mother interrupted him politely. “I’ve already got solar heating, thank you.”

For some reason this upset her caller. “There’s no need to be like that,” he said, affronted.

My mother, surprised, found herself trying to placate him. “But it’s true, I’ve got solar panels installed...”

He would not be reasoned with. “There was no need to be rude,” he snapped.

My mother’s patience saw which way the wind was blowing and made itself scarce for a moment. “Thank you for your concern,” she said icily, and hung up.

Given the sheer amount of abuse I endured when I did my own brief stint in cold-call telemarketing all those years ago—that’s telemarketing, not telesales, by the way; the difference is you’re not reliant on commission, and so can sleep at night—I can confidently state that that man is not cut out for his current line of work.