I’m sorry, she’s not in right now

Posted on March 12, 2004 @ 9:32 pm

Throughout the week, I’ve been engaged in a low-stakes game of cat-and-mouse with my new best friend: a plucky little telemarketer from Discover. It started on Monday when this telemarketer called to ask my wife if she would be interested in reopening her Discover Card account. Since she was out, the telemarketer asked when might be a better time to call back and reach her. Without thinking, I rattled off a random time to call back the following day just to get off the line as quickly as possible.

The next day, the same telemarketer — I recognized her distinctive accent — called back at precisely the time I had specified in our previous call. Again, my wife wasn’t around, so I came up with another time when she might be available the following day, just for kicks. On the third day, she called back, my wife was out, and we arranged yet another call-back time. This cycle continued throughout the week, with the same telemarketer calling back at a different time each day — always right on schedule, and as “luck” would have it, always when my wife wasn’t around. In fact, I just got off the phone with her a few hours ago.

Sure, continuing with this petty little game means that the telemarketing calls will keep coming, but it all somehow seems worth it when I think that I might be causing personal inconvenience and/or frustration in some telemarketer’s life.

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