[thechat] Telemarketers get what they deserve :)

Luther, Ron Ron.Luther at hp.com
Fri May 24 10:01:00 CDT 2002


Actually, the calls themselves don't bother me too much.

It's the [insert defamatory noun of choice] who collect the damn information for absolutely no purpose other than selling it to telemarketers that earn my wrath!  Grrrrr!

Example - Last month I went to rent a movie at Blockbuster, (a large video rental chain).  Understand that I already have one of their damn "id cards" that I have to carry around constantly, taking up space in my wallet everywhere I go on the off chance that I might actually need it ... and I was paying with cash - not a check or credit card.  There was absolutely no reason at all for them to *require* that I give them a home phone number before renting me the movie ... and yet ... those &^%$&^$$ honestly didn't want to rent me the flipping movie unless I gave them my home phone number!  [Yep - a business ready to turn down a cash transaction because they couldn't make another $.000002 by selling my phone number! *That* level of corporate stupidity should not be allowed to survive.]

[Unless I'm misremembering, I believe that information is already in their database from filling out the application to get the stinking id card! Their app programmer folks can't pull that out of the db? How surprising - not.]

FWIW - I told them my home phone number was '5'. That's all - just '5'.  "It's a 'vanity number' and I paid a hell of a lot of money for it so I'd appreciate it if you didn't let that get about."  That was good enough to confuse the hell out of the two teenagers behind the counter - and almost got me out the door - unfortunately, they had the presence of mind to call in the manager.  Damn!  Once I became boisterous (who? me?) and explained to the manager in no uncertain terms that I was unemployed, homeless, off my medication, believed telephones to be an instrument of Satan and lived in a box under a bridge near an abandoned factory in the center of the fifth ward barrio with nothing but my vcr and big-screen tv for companionship ... he 'consented' to rent me the movie.  Nice guy, that!

Maybe if enough other folks put up a fuss like this teh collective 'we' wouldn't have to put up with this shit!

RonL.
(Grocery chains are just as bad ... I have to carry a %^$^%$%^ Kroger's ID card in my wallet or else suffer paying a premium for groceries at their stores ... a &*&^%#$^ Randall's ID card in my wallet or pay 'extra' for groceries at their stores.  The Kroger's "contract" that you fill out to get the %^##&^% card clearly states that as a "benefit" of having the card you will never be asked for your phone number when writing a check at the counter ... a "policy" they "changed" immediately!) Grrrrrrrr!

Well!  *I'm* awake now!  Think I'll go mangle some user interfaces!





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