Telemarketer's Hall of Fame?

I had a small incident with a telemarketer tonight and it reminded me of another incident a few weeks ago.

I had to stay home that day to wait for the cable guy. Anyway, while waiting, I got calls from four different telemarketers in a half-hour period. By the fourth phone call, I was pretty pissed so when the caller started by saying "Mr. Stembel?" I replied with a annoyed "Yes??!" It didn't phase her. She started out telling me her records showed my present mortgage interest was well above the going rate. I interrupted her spiel and told her, "Sorry, I just refinanced!" (a lie), and hung up.

Immediately the phone rang again and the same voice said, "Mr. Stembel, did you just hang up on me?"

"Hmm," I chuckled, "yes, I think I did!" No telemarketer had EVER called me back after I hung up on them.

"Well that was rude, Mr. Stembel."

"No ma'am," I sputtered, "YOU were rude to call me without my permission."

"No, Mr. Stembel, I was trying to save you some money. You should be grateful."

"Grateful?" I yelled, "You're the fourth telemarketer to call me in the past half-hour! I'm actulally pretty upset at all of you."

"That doesn't give you the right to be rude to me, Mr. Stembel. Now here's the deal, even if you just refinanced, I can probably still save you money. What is your new rate?"

"Wait a minute here, I was rude to you because I don't like telemarketing or telemarketers, and I don't want to discuss this with you. If I did, I wouldn't have been rude to you."

"You were rude because you were frustrated. I understand that, now let me try to save you some money. What is your current interest rate?"

"Look, Miss," (I was fuming now) "I lied to you. I didn't just refinance, and if I choose to refinance in the future I will refinance with a company of my choosing. I'm not going to refinance with a company I know nothing about!"

"Mr. Stembel, let me send you my quote and you can compare it with any company you choose, fair enough?"

"NO! I refuse to do ANY business with a telemarketer because that merely encourages telelmarketing! If no one bought anything from you creeps, we wouldn't be getting all these annoying calls all day, and all evening!"

"So let me get this straight, Mr. Stembel, you refuse to save money so you can uphold a noble cause you have no chance of winning?"

"Uh, yes, I guess that's a fair statement," I mumbled.

"Don't be silly, now I believe your present interest rate is 7 3/4%, correct?"

"Miss, you just don't give up do you? You are good, you are VERY good! But, I'm not buying."

Pause. "Yes, Mr. Stembel, I am good, I'm damn good! Good bye"

What can I say? :shrug: If there's a "Telemarketer Hall of Fame" she'll be first in line!

then I'd spin it around on her and tie her up for about 2 hours like I'm actually interested.

:evilgrin:

..... you were on the phone with Lily Tomlin doing her classic "one ringy dingy" bit.

She was trying to get your financial/personal information. Telemarketing operations take no for an answer; they're in it for the volume.

...and a worthy opponent.

Just say, "We do not take calls from telemarketers. If you call back you'll be sued." and hang up. (Optional to add: "and you'll lose.")

on Memorial Day? Needless to say, I was EXTREMELY rude to that one!