Getting Your Own Back

[Robin]

Just had this great email from a friend of mine and thought I'd share it ... go on lets all do it !


I suppose some degree of commerce would grind to a halt if telemarketers weren't
able to call people at home during the dinner hour. But that doesn't make it any
more pleasant.

Now Steve Rubenstein, a writer for the San Francisco Chronicle, has proposed "Three
Little Words" based on his brief experience in a telemarketing operation that would
stop the nuisance for all time.

The three little words are "Hold on, please." Saying this while putting down your
phone and walking off instead of hanging up immediately would make each
telemarketing call so time consuming those boiler rooms would grind to a halt.

When you eventually hear the phone company's beep, beep, beep tone, you know it's
time to go back and hang up your handset, which has efficiently completed its task.

When you get ads with your phone or electricity or gas bill, include them with the
payment. Let them throw the stuff away. Think globally; act locally.

When you get those pre-approved letters in the mail for everything from credit cards
to 2nd mortgages and junk like that most of them come with postage paid return
envelopes, right?

Well, why not get rid of some of your other junk mail and put it in these cool
little envelopes! Send an ad for your local chimney cleaner to American Express, or
a pizza coupon to Citibank. [Or a request for a donation!] If you didn't get
anything else that day, then just send them their application back! Just make sure
your name isn't on anything you send them.
You can send it back empty if you want, just to keep 'em guessing!

Eventually, the banks and credit card companies will begin getting all their junk
back in the mail.

Let's let them know what it's like to get junk mail, and best of all... THEY'RE
paying for it! Twice! Let's support our postal service. They say e-mail is cutting
into their business and that's why they need to keep increasing postage. We can
help!

Pass this along to all your friends and maybe we could get enough business for the
post office that they will not have to raise rates in 2005.

On a similar vein, I received a cold call the other day from a window company, and
they asked if I was thinking about upgrading my windows, oh yes, I replied
enthusiastically, I am currently on Windows 98, and was thinking of upgrading to
Windows 2000 or XP, to which the lady asked if I was taking the p*ss, oh yes, I
replied again, which was followed by a
dead tone on the phone.

[Heather]

Gonna pass this round the staffroom!! Brilliant !!


Heather,
xx

[philsmove]

It is really worth registering with the mail and telephone preface people and going ex-directory

I now only get the royal mail unaddressed junk, which I pop into the nearest post box

The best one was ages ago, when a friend living at a very remote cottage was rung up and persuaded to allow a rep to visit him, to demonstrate a vacuum cleaner

The sales man duly arrives having negotiated the very long bumpy drive

Needless to say my friend forgot to tell the sales lady he did not have electricity