Note to salespeople

[lederhosen]

If you're trying to sell something to the both of us, waiting until my wife's out of the room and then pressuring me to make the decision unilaterally is a BAD idea. I may be fairly naive, but I recognise that one. Yesterday it was financial planning, but they tried the same thing back when I went to a house auction a few years back. Rey was working at the time, and I was unpleasantly surprised to find that "this is the limit my wife and I agreed on, no I cannot contact her at the moment" apparently translates to "please offer me finance so I can bid higher".

I wonder if these folk spend their free time inviting people to cheat on their partners? Because I'm having trouble seeing a difference.

Comments

[quizzicalsphinx.livejournal.com]

If it's anything to my credit as an insurance agent, the one objection I will absolutely not question is "Let me talk it over with my wife/husband." I've been upbraided for this by my manager, and was forced to tell him, gently, to go stick it in his ear.

[lederhosen.livejournal.com]

If anything, I'm *more* likely to buy from somebody who respects that sort of thing. The harder it's pushed, the less I trust the product.

[freyaw.livejournal.com]

The one that got my goat horribly was a phone salesperson who tried to convince me that Bastard had agreed, earlier that day, to buy something off of the salesperson. Since I was standing next to him when he hung up on them, I was not impressed... The question that must be asked, however, is: If Bastard had agreed to purchase something, why are they ringing up to try to induce me to also buy?

Usually I ask them to send me a paper document that Bastard and I can peruse as a couple. Then they suggest that they can call back when he gets home. I tell them that that will be in about four or five hours time, at midnight. They ask if there is any other time when we are both home. I don't start describing theoretical activities which they may be disturbing at these times.

[psychowoof.livejournal.com]

We were hit upon by a similar sounding approach, but it was from a supposed charity. They called and aslanspawh answered. They said that a Mrs. Aslanspawh* had agreed to donate $X to their charity. aslanspawh countered with, "That's interesting, there's no one here by the name of Mrs. Aslanspawh". They then proceeded to confirm our address and such and declared that they had spoken to Mrs. Aslanspawh a week earlier and she had agreed to donate $X to their charity.

Wonder how many senile old people this scam works on.

*Note: aslanspawh and I are married. However, I never took his name. The sure sign of a telemarketer is them screwing up my name, and I always hang up on said people after I've confirmed they're such. (I can't just automatically hang up, I never know when it could be some sort of emergency personnel calling to say aslanspawh has been hurt and all he's told them is call my wife.)

[lederhosen.livejournal.com]

Back before I married Rey, she and da_norvegicus were both listed in the phone book, and a lot of telemarketers assumed that they must be a married couple, causing much amusement when they asked to talk to Mr. Reyssurname. I don't think we've ever had outright scammers, though.

[psychowoof.livejournal.com]

Every once in a while we'll get a call for Mr. Mysurname. However, given that I'm not listed in the phone directory, directly, it's a rare occurrence.

[hpapillon.livejournal.com]

My mother took sadistic pleasure in going on about her messy divorce to any telemarketer who asked for Mr.MyMom. Otherwise she was stuck with rambling about bankruptcy to them.

[freyaw.livejournal.com]

People have a tendency to ask for Bastard, and when I tell them that he isn't here, ask if I'm Mrs Bastard. Informing them that Bastard isn't married seems to get people off of the phone - they thank me for my time, and hang up, or they try to sell me something so I can amuse myself by trying to get on their 'Do Not Call' list.

[culfinriel.livejournal.com]

I believe this is a messed up version of divide and conquer.

[vito-excalibur.livejournal.com]

It's their effort to fight the extremely effective negotiating tactic that is "You can try to convince me, but it won't do any good, because the decision is up to someone who you can't talk to." Work that one for all it's worth, because it's worth a lot.

[lederhosen.livejournal.com]

Oh yes. It made the house auction a lot easier to deal with (also helped that we had a good solicitor who'd given me tips on how to survive an auction and some of the other pressure tactics they'd use).