MetaChat - I just got a phone call.

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19 January 2006

I just got a phone call. →[More:]"Hello, may I speak to the lady of the house?" he asked.

"There is no lady of the house," I replied.

"May I speak to the man of the house, then?" he asked.

"There is no man of the house," I said.

"Okay. Thanks for your time."

What could this call have been about? Why did he give up so easily? Is there something in the telemarketer's handbook that addresses this interaction?

post by: interrobang at: 21:01 | 14 comments

Is there something in the telemarketer's handbook that addresses this interaction?

There is if you're reading the 1962 version of the handbook.

posted by mudpuppie 19 January | 21:04

I think he gave up. Quitter.

posted by richat 19 January | 21:04

Hehe. I think you just confuzzled him. Right now he's probably asking his supervisor how to deal with this the next time it comes up.

posted by iconomy 19 January | 21:05

At least he was polite about it though. That's always nice.

posted by richat 19 January | 21:05

I always respond with "my parents aren't in right now". Always shuts em up.

posted by arse_hat 19 January | 21:07

Oh, sorry, it was me.

posted by orthogonality 19 January | 21:07

Orthogonality *was* polite about it. Weird.

posted by interrobang 19 January | 21:08

See? Orth can be quite polite when flummoxed.

posted by richat 19 January | 21:09

See what happens when you deviate from gender roles? Shame on you, Interrobang.

That poor, confused telemarketer probably jumped out of a window.

posted by SassHat 19 January | 21:56

When dialing interrobang, one should expect to say, "?!"

posted by jrossi4r 19 January | 22:07

The telemarketer probably assumed that meant you were a kid.

posted by stilicho 19 January | 22:21

I probably shouldn't share this, but I was a telemarketer in college for a major credit card company. When it was clear that I'd probably be wasting my time with someone (generally because they seemed to be playing games with me), I just let the call end without a fight and moved on to the next one. I assume that this telemarketer probably felt the same.

posted by amro 19 January | 22:40

Since the "no-call" lists went into effect, a very large proportion of boiler room operations are pure and simple scams. Asking for the woman of the house and then the man of the house suggests they're were trolling for people who could decide to part with a sizeable chunk of change. You sounded like chump change so they dumped the call and moved on to the next sucker.

I got a call earlier this evening from "The Deputy Sheriffs of America" -- an obvious boiler room scam operation. When I asked if the caller had a deputy in the room, she hung up. My next offer was going to be to send some over. The giveaway was when she said she was calling from a non-existant town in my state.

posted by warbaby 20 January | 00:55

That was Publisher's Clearing House calling to tell you that you won, and when Ed McMahon comes to your door on Sunday with a camera in tow, you should act surprised, but be dressed for TV.

posted by Hugh Janus 20 January | 09:15

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