my bank just lost major karma points

[truepenny]

*ring*
*ring*
*ring*

Me: [having checked Caller ID, and thus knowing that this is XYZZY Bank] Hello?

[pause]

Automated Voice: Please hold the line for an important incoming call.

[pause: I fret about my bank balance and a whole horde of unlikely but not impossible disasters]

Automated Voice: Please continue to hold. I'm still trying to connect.

[pause: I continue to fret]

Automated Voice: Please continue to hold. I'm still trying to connect.

[pause: I continue to fret]

Automated Voice: Please continue to hold. I'm still trying to connect.

[pause: I continue to fret]

Automated Voice: Please continue to hold. I'm still trying to connect.

[pause: I continue to fret]

Real Person: Hello, may I speak to Sarah?

Me: Speaking.

Real Person: Hi, this is X from XYZZY Bank. How are you today?

Me: Fine.

Real Person: This is a courtesy call to let you know about our spring loan promotion.

Me: No, thank you, we're not interested.

Real Person: Oh. Well, thank you for your time and have a nice day.

Me: You, too.

*click*

Now, I have no actual problem with the Real Person in this little playlet. He was polite, and didn't give me grief about cutting him off before he got his spiel launched. (He actually sounded all of about a nervous sixteen.)

I have a SERIOUS problem with the Automated Voice because that fucker was lying to me. This was not an important call. Moreover, I am deeply and profoundly annoyed by the tactic of making me answer the phone and then wait on hold for a call I don't even want. I would be annoyed if it was somebody "important" pulling this stunt (like, oh, say the president of XYZZY Bank); for a unsolicited telemarketing call ...

I balrog.

Comments

[fidelioscabinet.livejournal.com]

This never fails to reduce me to frothing rage.
When the recording starts out, asking me to hold--I hang up. If's that important, a real person will call back.

[marith.livejournal.com]

For the last couple of weeks I've been getting 2 calls a day from a computer who says "This is important not a sales call please call this number and when you do mention this tracking number". That's it.

I think they're just trolling to see who is foolish enough to call back and compile a list of numbers to sell. No idea how to stop this sort of thing. gr.

[raisedbymoogles.livejournal.com]

Ugh, I hate, hate, HATE those things. You call my house and ask me to hold? Nuh-uh. Not kosher. I keep telling my folks to put us on the do not call list...

((On an entirely unrelated note, hi, huge fan, this is me gushing and being a shameless fangirl, etc.))

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

Getting on the Do Not Call list--which takes like two minutes TOPS--reduced the number of unsolicited calls we get down to almost zero. Now I can go for days without the phone ringing at all, and it's only charities and institutions with which we allegedly have a relationship that harass call us.

[raisedbymoogles.livejournal.com]

See, that would rock. *mental note: pester parents again.*

[sstaten.livejournal.com]

I've been getting this sort of thing at work. I'm the operator here (among other duties) and we recieved a new block of numbers for a new building last november. Well, they don't actually make old numbers *dead* anymore, they just roll them over to the new number (they had added an area code when they took these "out of service" 2 years ago) until they reassign the number.

Sorry, I can't make a mammogram appointment for you or fill your perscription, we do Aerospace engineering and are not a hospital...

Oh yeah, and whoever the marketing genius who decided recorded marketing calls with NO OPTION to opt out was a good idea deserves to be flayed.

[meronine.livejournal.com]

I get automated calls a lot, so now if I pick up and there's silence when I say hello I just hang up. It's never important when there's silence.

[papersky.livejournal.com]

I have told my bank, and also Bell, that if they ever ring me again with an "offer" when I'm either cooking or eating, I'm making alternative arrangements, because there are other banks and phone companies in the world.

They've been surprisingly quiet since.

[smills47.livejournal.com]

You could try what we did and just permanently turn off the phone's ring tone. Guaranteed 100% effective. (Family and friends know our cell phone numbers.)

[carandol.livejournal.com]

In the UK, we have this thing called the Telephone Preference Service. If you register your phone number with it, it means companies aren't allowed to ring you up and try to sell you things. Once you're registered, if you *do* get someone cold-calling, you just have to say "I'm registered with the TPS" and they get very apologetic and ring off, because they know they're likely to get a hefty fine.

[owlfish]

Yes, but there's the whole international workaround. They aren't technically bound by the rules if they're calling from aboard. Which is why I STILL get two or three junk calls a day, as far as I can tell.

[visionarioalma.livejournal.com]

Sorry, completely unrelated to the post, but I found your blog through your website, and I just wanted to say that I've loved reading your books so far. Amazing characters, wonderful story, just everything is great. I'm not trying to be all fan-boy-esque, I just really wanted to compliment you on an excellent series. I can't wait to read the Mirador!