Privacy

I worked from home today.  The first time ever.  I thought it was brilliant.  I managed to catch up on paperwork, with no interruptions . 

I was busy beavering away when my mobile rang.  It wasn't a blocked number (sure sign of a "seller") so I answered it.

Some poor unsuspecting soul told me that he had been passed information that I had been in a road accident lately.    Now, I have never been in a road accident in my life so I knew it was one of those "compensation crazies" so I went to reply to the negative and then thought hang on......

"Yes,  I have"  I replied...." Yes, I broke my neck in my accident.  Is that the one you are talking about?"....

Stunned silence.  "Errrrr...."

" Are you talking about the one where I broke my neck and spent six months in hospital?"  

Again, stunned silence.....

"No?  No?  Are you not talking about that one?  No?  Well then ...."  and in slightly sweary words I told him to do one.

And before everyone gets all self righteous and tells me he is only doing his job and all that, well yeah,  he is but its a massive invasion of my time and its attention, quite frankly,  that I don't want.  And I am pretty sure that no one does. 

I really despise phone calls to my personal mobile like this.   I get hundreds of automated calls telling me to reclaim PPI - never had any.  Reclaim bank charges - never had one.  And I am expected to be bombarded with these calls daily.

I once took a phone call from a double glazing company trying to flog me windows over the phone ( I am going back a bit)  and their opening sales pitch was:

"You responded to a survey and asked us to give you a call to make an appointment...."

Errr no I bloody never.  And I kindly explained that I had just had all new windows and doors fitted. 

Anyway, this company rang me repeatedly for about two months, weekly, always with the same opening sales pitch.  It almost became harassment and I'm pretty sure in the end they were calling because they knew it wound me up so much.

In the end I made an appointment for a bloke to visit.  They were over the moon.  I made the appointment for one evening and they told me the man was visiting from Southampton and what his name was etc, etc.   On the day of the appointment, again 20 phone calls to confirm that this bloke was visiting.  Phone calls to say he was visiting from Southampton.  Phone calls to ask if I was in. Phone calls to tell me he was stuck in traffic.   They didn't bloody stop.

The bloke finally arrived and knocked on my door.  I answered the door and stepped out into the street.  I looked at the bloke and said
"Thanks for coming"  shaking his hand  "Do you think I need windows and doors?"  Pointing to my newly installed ones.
He looked at all of them in turn and said,  quite confused like  "No".
"Thank god for that"  I said "Perhaps you could tell that to the twats that have been phoning me every week for the last two months because they weren't taking no notice of me..."
And I returned to my house and shut the door in his face. 
He had the rage.  I mean proper shouting at me through the door.  And to be fair, you can't really blame him but desperate times call for desperate measures and all that....

Then I received a phone call from an equally enraged manager and got called all the names under the sun.  Surprisingly, they never did call again...

The point is this:

If I want insurance, a PPI claim, a bank charge refund, compensation after an accident I will go looking for it myself.  I don't want someone to keep phoning me offering it to me....it's annoying, frustrating and, in my opinion, a gross invasion of my privacy.

So, I am now thinking up ways of playing them at their own game.  Even if it is only for my own amusement. 

I think you should all join me.  And the next time you get one of these phone calls, and it will happen,  try something different.  Don't just say "no" and put the phone down.  Play along for a while......

It will never stop.  I know that.  But everyone needs to laugh.  Everyone needs to find humour in the most annoying situations. 

And at least you may be able to make the invasion of your privacy slightly more bearable....