Well, it happened again.
My husband is a marshmallow when it comes to telemarketers. I thought I had trained him, but I guess I was wrong.
When I receive one of these aggravating-work-interrupting-leave-me-alone phone calls, it comes pretty naturally now to say “Thank you, but I’m not interested” and then hang up before they can come back at me with one of the multitude of reasons why I am, in fact, interested.
My husband, however, is insulated from the day-to-day assault I put up with. So, when he happens to be home when a telemarketer calls, he actually listens to their spiel. And worse, he believes them.
About three years ago, a telemarketer called at our home, but they were pretty slick. I never even suspected the woman was selling something. She said she needed to speak specifically with my husband and I unknowingly opened Pandora’ s box. I gave her his office number. Ugh.
These people know how mushy men are. They know women have to put up with this abuse all the time and we don’t believe anything they say. So she bypassed the wife and went straight for the kill.
The “deal” was that my husband could buy all these magazines at absolutely no cost. All he had to pay for was postage. He bought it hook, line, and sinker.
To make a long story short, the “postage” comes out to be the same or more than if we had ordered a subscription directly from the publisher. Our credit card was instantly dinged for three years’ worth of “postage” on several magazines we didn’t need in the first place.
I was furious. “Don’t you know the saying, ‘If it seems too good to be true, it probably is’?” I asked through clenched teeth.
I tried to cancel his “order”, but they threatened legal action because they had him on tape saying “yes” to all their questions. I couldn’t believe such a smart man could be so duped.
After that, I forbid him from talking to telemarketers. Ever. “Blame it on me,” I said. “Tell them your wife won’t let you talk to them.”
Sure enough, the next sales call that he answered, I overheard him saying, “No, I’m not interested.” But he didn’t hang up. I got worried. He listened to the comeback, but I was so proud when he added, “No, you don’t understand. My wife says I’m not allowed to talk to you people.”
Fast forward three years to this week. I had a weird call at the house that shot up red flags like crazy. She told me the company she was with, which remarkably implied nothing about what she was trying to sell. Something like “CMS Corporation”. She also wouldn’t tell me what it was in regard to and when I pressed her for more information, finally said, “I’II just call him at his office.”
I knew it was THEM. Those bad magazine people. They are the only ones who know his office number. I began to fret.
“Surely he will resist them, I told myself. “Surely he remembers these bad people.” But I knew they were slick. It would be hard for him.
Well, he didn’t remember, they WERE slick, and he was duped again. He was instantly taken by the allure of getting all these free magazines AGAIN, this time “because the magazines aren’t really interested in your subscription money. They just want to show huge circulation numbers so they can sell advertising.”
And all we had to pay for was the postage.
He is forbidden from ever talking on the phone again.
