I have been slack in updating my blog these past few days because of a breakdown in my home internet connection (and that’s a story to be told at another time). I’ve finally got it fixed but not without some “head hitting against the wall” encounters with Streamyx and TM Point.
Anyway, today I’m going to write about these annoying telemarketers again. Do you notice that they have become more aggressive lately? I suppose times are tough right now and people are not spending as much as they used to. I got one call on Monday from a sweet sounding lady telling me that I have been specially invited to a new product launch. I asked her what product and she said it was a multi-purpose kiosk. People can come to this one-stop kiosk to pay bills and make reloads. So I told her I don’t pay bills at a kiosk, I do mostly online payments through my bank. Then she said, no, no, you don’t need to pay bills at this kiosk, all we want is for you to come and listen for half an hour and we’ll give you a free voucher for a 3-night hotel stay at one of four locations within Malaysia. So I agreed to go the following day after work as the place where the “launch” was to be held is on the way home. Of course, I knew that the free voucher is not really free, for sure they are selling something and they want me to come and listen to their sales pitch and hope I’ll buy whatever they are selling.
On the day that I was to attend the “launch”, I decided not to go. I was about to call the lady to cancel the appointment when she called me to remind me to attend. I told her that I had decided not to go. The lady asked me why and I said that I had other things to attend to. Then she said, how come the previous day I said I could come and now I say I can’t come. She also said she had printed out the voucher in my name already. She sounded like as though I had caused her some inconvenience and that I owe her an explanation. That was when I got annoyed and told her that it was she who called me to attend this “launch” and I didn’t ask to go. Also, why do I need to give her a reason for changing my mind about going. Grrrr, next time, I’m not going to entertain all these idiotic callers.
Ah Loot told me that she accompanied a friend to one of those product launches and when they didn’t want to buy the product, the guy scoulded them for making him talk to them for 30 minutes. If they were not interested, they should have told him after five or ten minutes of listening. Anyway, Ah Loot’s friend got the free voucher for a hotel stay even though they didn’t buy anything.
