Friday, June 13, 2014

Congratulations, you have won a $2000 prize! Here we go again.

Isn't it wonderful when you hear those magic words? It's even better when you have forgotten that you had actually entered a competition, until the lovely lady on the end of the phone, who addresses you by name, reminds you of the online survey, one of many that you had completed lately, has borne fruit.
Well that happened yesterday and she got me when I was tired so I let her continue; after all, I didn't want to be rude. Hell she had taken time out of her busy day to be nice to me and actually do something for me. Isn't the world wonderful at times. She continues to wax lyrical about my luck and that the prize was about $2000 worth of grocery vouchers at a well known supermarket. Now, to put things into perspective, I often tell people that they should never believe that you get something for nothing! out the window with that sage advice as she continues to pretend that she knows me well; in a sense she does, but more about that soon.
She has a lovely British tone to her voice, a quality that seemed to trap me; perhaps it was the sheer enthusiasm or way she had of making me believe that I had to respond by listening without interrupting, something exceedingly hard for me to maintain.
Suddenly the call took on a new direction. It seemed that the focus of winning a prize shifted to one whereby I 'could' win the prize. There were conditions. Why the feck didn't I tell  her I wasn't interested in the following offer? She asked me what life insurance I had. I meekly told her and she suggested that her company could do better and all I had to do was to meet with a representative of her company and see if they could do better. I told her that at my age, I wasn't interested in increasing my cover I had on my life and that indeed I had reached a stage where I should be cutting everyday expenses, in the run up to retirement in the future. No one wants to spend more than their income after all.
That was no problem she assured me and wouldn't it be better to even save a few dollars a week by changing provider. OK, she had well and truly worn me down. I was hungry and just wanted her to ---well you know---F----off! I let her arrange for a colleague to visit me the following Thursday to present me with an offer and finally she 'let me go.'
When I put the phone down I was left with this feeling that I had been thoroughly mauled by a great white shark of the insurance industry. How the hell did I let that happen!?
That night I kept thinking about what 'I had allowed.' How dare her talk me into something that I now consider to be entirely frivolous. I don't want or need to change companies.
Today that feeling increased and I decided to take action. The pushy lady had left me cell phone number of the 'agent' who was going to visit me on the Thursday. I texted him and said that I was no longer interested. he has not replied. If he comes, I shall let my Jack Russell entertain him outside the gate and inquire why he did not respond to my text. If the 'lovely lady' rings I shall inform her that I have several 'modalities with which I use when dealing with salespeople who contact me 'cold.' I would label my first response as Code One and would maintain a professional politeness. If she persists, I shall lift the level, warning her the next level would be one which involved forceful language. Finally if the hint is not taken, I shall resort to 'gutter language and by that stage it could well be necessary for her to call the police because, well--- such words are quite creatively impossible to follow through on if biology is brought into the area under discussion.
All this could have been avoided if I had not persisted in filling in those damn online surveys. They are not a tool in which you are helping yourself, by winning prizes. They are merely a tool by which information about you is gathered in order to come back at you to sell 'products' at a later stage, so from now on, if I fill in a survey I am going to 'have fun,' declaring all sorts of income levels and affiliations with groups that could well attract the attention of spy agencies, world wide and possibly have me banned from many institutions!

YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!