As a manager, I get all kinds of calls. Sometimes switchboard puts them through to me, though why I am so lucky I don’t know. I don’t have a gatekeeper, I’m not important enought for an admin.
The one today though took the cake.
First off she started off a little too familiar; “James, you are a hard man to reach, harder to get to than George Bush”. Now one of the things that raised a flag was that it sounded like a pickup line. And her accent was distinctively southern US, when most of our offices in the US I deal with are in Oregon or Illinois.
So it was clear she was trying to imply she knew me or I knew her. Big mistake, as my first reaction is to try and place her.
Then she introduces herself and her company(which I’ve never heard of). She proceeds to thank me for filling in a customer responce card from “the magazine”.
Well red lights go off. I do NOT fill in those cards. I have done the occasional online survey, but I avoid those cards as the address gathering spamming tools they are. I haven’t filled in one of those cards in 5 years.
I suggest there must be a mistake, I haven’t filled in a card. She cuts me off and insists I did.
This is where I lose it. I don’t normally hang up on telemarketers, I did the job myself once, but this woman was clearly trying to deceive me.
I hung up the phone, without saying goodbye.
Does anyone think these tricky tactics work on IT executives? Do they think we are stupid?
James