while working today, the phone rings (i am still not used to having a land line. always flinch.) i pick it up and can immediately tell it is a telemarketer.
now, two things at this juncture:
1) i do not believe in ‘limousine’ charity. it is my sincere opinion that charitable donations have become the means by which people abdicate and absolve themselves of any level of personal care for their fellow human beings. but that’s another blog entry and i’ll write it another time.
2) i absolutely abhor hard sell tactics, regardless the venue. there are only a few things that will get my back up faster than attempting to force anything on me. anything whatever.
so now… this fellow is calling with the local police department. he is calling on behalf of families of officers slain in the line of duty. he duly reports that they have seen eight such instances this year already.
i couldn’t help it, i had to chuckle. this year already as in 2008, or has someone magically moved this state across the date line and it’s 2008 and i just missed it?
i said nothing. he continued and asked if i might care for those left behind and express that care with a donation of $35 or $50 dollars. he then paused as if i should tell him which of those two amounts i wanted. instead, i told him that i was sorry, i could not afford it.
he went on to say that was perfectly fine, they also were more than happy to accept lesser donations of $20 or even only $15 dollars.
at that point, i told him, “my apologies, i just moved to north carolina and am still sleeping on the floor. i have eaten nothing but raisin bran, bagels, or grits since being here. oh, and coffee. perhaps he would know of some kind organization like maybe ‘mattresses for the arthritic’ who might help me out so i could save enough money to be able to donate to families who have insurance benefits and entire city organizations standing by to help them?”
absolute. silence.
at which point i proceeded to explain that i am on the national do not call list. now i realize that the law enforcement agencies seem to ignore that federal call list, and i haven’t quite gotten angry enough yet to do something about it… but it was just the pin prick needed for this fellow. he coughed, stated that obviously, i shouldn’t have to donate (!!!), wished me a good day and hung up.
i do believe that is the first time in my life a telemarketer actually ended a call both politely and without prompting.
this last sentence, of course, the only humor to be had in it.
ah well. back to work.