Friday January 21, 2005

General

Scaring doorstep cold callers This unexpected incident has given me no end of (evil) fun and I will employ it again purposefully.

Today I had a doorstep sales person cold call trying to sell uPCV double glazing. They started with the normal ramble of only giving a quote, no pressure, etc, etc; when we all know that's not true. At first I couldn't even get a word in. When I did I asked what company did they represent. Lets call the cold caller's company company_A.

I wanted to know because I had already had a cold caller two days earlier trying to sell uPVC double glazing and I assumed it was the follow up pressure call, just reminding me that the fabulous discounts and offers would end today (only for more next week :)). But it wasn't the same company, two days earlier it was company_B!

So before the sales person could continue I piped up "For your interest company_B called round a couple of days ago". The look on the salespersons face was, as in the Mastercard advert, priceless.

Initially it was clearly horror. Over about the next ten silent seconds it turned to resignation and possibly even rejection. The penny had dropped from a long way up and was still falling.

The sales person just backed off down the drive. It was then that I unintentionally added the final nail and said, "They went around all of the street." That was it I suppose, this sales avenue was more or less closed or at least profit less.

All this happened, as I said, unintentionally. It was until I closed the door and sat down to continue with my lunch that I thought about the looks the sales person had given me and what must have been going through their mind at the time. One thing I do know though is I might just suggest something similar the next time a cold caller interrupts me.

(2005-01-21 05:51:53.0) Permalink Comments [2]