Previous Challenge Entry (Level 4 – Masters)
Topic: ANNOYED (04/05/18)
-
TITLE: Hang Up or Hang On? | Previous Challenge Entry
By Marlene Bonney
04/10/18 -
LEAVE COMMENT ON ARTICLE
SEND A PRIVATE COMMENT
ADD TO MY FAVORITES
“Br-rrr-ing!” the phone interrupts my novel’s climatic closing chapter.
Checking the caller ID screen with my fingers holding the book page in place in a death-grip, I recognize my local hospital’s name.
“Hello?”
“Hi, my name is Miranda. You have been selected to receive an all-expense-paid trip to Miami Beach. . .”
“What?!! Isn’t this the Henry Ford Hospital?” but I am speaking over the recorded message to no avail.
I re-check the ID panel. “Henry Ford Hospital” flashes in capital letters. Confused, I immediately call the hospital and am told that some unknown “hacker” has infiltrated the hospital’s phone database--“phone spoofing!”
“How low can someone go?” I mutter, although I shouldn’t be surprised, since I have certainly received my share of unwanted telemarketer cold or spam calls over the past few months. . .why, just last week, I answered a call at 9:00 in the evening! Expecting a friend’s normal chat, I picked up on the first ring. Instead, I was treated (make that, taunted) with a congressman’s recorded political alert about the state of our economy. As if I didn’t already get peppered with that all over the media.
“They get more brazen every week,” my next-door neighbor commiserated with me, “I actually got a sales call on SUNDAY while we were eating dinner!”
“I got that one, too!”
My ‘Do-Not-Call’ list already has the maximum 100 stored blocked numbers, so I’m at their mercy, kind of like a fly in a spider’s web. My brother-in-law either blows a whistle into the receiver (hung conveniently on his receiver’s cord), or starts talking gobbily-goop nonsense to act like a crazy person. I’ve begun hanging up on the recorded ones—LOUDLY, as if anyone can hear me on the other end.
Although I do not answer “UNAVAILABLE” or “UNIDENTIFIED” calls, there are still a myriad of ways persistent cold callers get around the caller ID screens, and I feel obligated to answer local numbers in case someone legitimate is trying to reach me. (I once, inadvertently, blocked a friend’s number I did not recognize and it created havoc with our relationship!)
I alternate between telling myself these telemarketing haranguers have to make a living like everyone else and patiently listening to their spiel and ending the call with ‘Have a blessed day,’ to resorting to less kind methods of eliminating them access to my phone number. Not wanting to resort to extreme tactics, I have been searching for a kinder way to terminate their calls:
“Hi, Mrs. Saunders, my name is Paul and I work for Rescue Ministries, a non-profit organization to—”
“Please just send me your literature in the mail and my husband and I will consider sending in a donation,” I interrupted.
“Yes, ma’am, I understand, but to cut costs, we no longer solicit by mail. Would you consider a one-time gift of $50?”
“No, I’m sorry, as I said—”
“Perhaps $25 would fit your budget?”
“As I said before, please send us your information in the mail and put me on your ‘Do Not Call’ list, and”
An abrupt dial tone ended that conversation.
And that’s the mild-mannered sales representatives. There are more aggressive ones that hold tantalizing carrots in our ears of “free” benefits attached to committing—and the buzzing mosquito flying around your head in the middle of the night turns into a smoothly-playing lullaby. I once canceled an order with a company because the customer service representative kept plying me to put more “add-ons” to my order for just the cost of additional postage/handling. Saying “no, thank-you” only led to yet another ploy. Asking to speak to the president, I complained about how such severe methods end up repelling the customer. As one of those, I would not be ordering anything else from them.
My most recent idea for thwarting unwanted solicitation calls is to say, “Please hold,” put down the receiver and walk away (instead of hanging up immediately) until the company’s beep-beep-beep tone tells me to finally hang up. Hopefully, word gets around that my number only costs them time & therefore, money.
* * *
"Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult. On the contrary, repay evil with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing."
(1 Peter 3:9 NIV)
The opinions expressed by authors may not necessarily reflect the opinion of FaithWriters.com.
Accept Jesus as Your Lord and Savior Right Now - CLICK HERE
JOIN US at FaithWriters for Free. Grow as a Writer and Spread the Gospel.
Thanks for your piece which is one many will relate to,
Blessings~