OK....I've got a temper and a sarcastic streak and usually it's slow to boil, but when it does....watch out.
I do not suffer fools and I DO NOT suffer door to door sales people who compete with each other to get one to change their utilities companies...electricity, gas, phone etc.. I don't get these type of phone calls because I'm unlisted and it's against company policies....or I bloody well hope it is because anyone ringing me about the type of thing I'm about to describe won't know what hit them. And it won't just be the sound of the phone being slammed down in their ear.
A few months ago one of these sales people caught me at a bad time when I wasn't feeling so well and talked me into changing electricity companies for a pathetic extra discount that came to less than $50 spread over a year. I don't know why, but I must have agreed just to get rid of him because he wasn't going otherwise and I didn't feel up to my usual "Not interested. Go away," before he could launch into his speech.
We are billed on utilities quarterly by default, but other arrangements can be made like monthly, depending on the company. I elect to have my phone and internet billed on a monthly basis....it's not so much of a shock. Actually, I have a card that I use to pay it at the Post Office before the bill even comes which is handy.
Anyway, back to the electricity company.......luckily there was a 10 day cooling off period and I let them know I was staying with the supplier I'd been with for years and years and from whom I already get a discount. OK...that one was reasonably easily fixed and not too traumatic and annoying.
Last week another one turns up from a different company offering a measly, so called competitive discount and I don't know what else because I cut him off at the pass and told him to go away. I'm not interested. He was still talking as I shut my front door and trying to get me to open it again. He was one step away from having the police called to remove him when he gave up. Just because everyone else in my street is taking up the offer, which is utter rubbish by the way, doesn't mean I want it.
There must have been something suspect about this particular guy as my dog growled at him and she usually welcomes people, anyone in fact, with a big doggy grin, as long as I'm present and all is calm. Not that these people get inside my front door....Oh no....I'd never get rid of them. Much like certain youths who peddle their bicycles around and wear black and white. Come to think about it I haven't seen any of them for some time, but they are easy enough to discourage.....usually.
So, today tops the cake. I'm on my way out to an appointment, car and house keys in hand, closing and locking the front door to my house, and I see a guy with a clipboard heading up my driveway AND wearing the logo of a well known ELECTRICITY company on his jumper. He starts to talk and shows his ID, I say I'm on my way out, he ignores me and tries to go into his spiel, I say STOP I'm not interested I'm busy so go away, he continues and ignores me. By this time I'm fuming.
I don't swear (most times) or need to threaten to get my point across, but this guy really made my blood come to steaming point. He goes on with the "everyone in the street is changing over for an initial discount and you'll see the benefit if you'll listen." He totally ignored me and that I was going out, not interested and getting angrier and angrier. I wanted him off the property before I left which is why I didn't just jump in my car and storm off down the road. Not that he had a reason to come back and I did check his ID, but it's the principle.
Another thing that's really irritating is these people are all outsourced and don't speak English well enough to get their point across and don't know when to take no for an answer. I'm not having a go at people's ethnicity or language or anything else, but I can't often understand what they are saying, let alone agree in good faith to change my utility companies or anything else. I hate having to ask several times what a person said in a conversation I DON'T want to have, and I don't like being rude unless there's no other option.
To be fair I imagine they are told by their employers to push and push, or at least that's the impression I get because they just will not give up until the point of verbal violence or in some case I'd bet, physical violence is threatened. At least when they come to the door there's more chance of understanding them, but over the phone....that's frigging hopeless.
Next one who comes my way selling anything, trying to get me to switch companies, or anything else will feel the results of the frustration the last three caused me. It's still got me agitated and that happened a couple of hours ago. But then I did stay up until the early hours in Hyboria so I have self inflicted weariness and "got out of bed on the wrong side" syndrome.
Then again, I'm finding as I get older I have less tolerance and patience than I used to have for bullshit. Actually, it's a good thing most times as more and more I'm finding being a nice and civilized person gets you nowhere in this world. I just wish it hadn't taken so long...XD.
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