People Who Return Mystery Phone Calls
What possesses them? They dial the number to find out if anyone has phoned while they were out. They don’t recognise the number. They call it.
Where I work there is a switchboard system and unfortunately all outbound calls appear to come from the same number – my number. I am forever answering the phone to people who start a conversation: “Hello. You phoned me”.
I respond in any number of ways. Sometimes I just say ‘no’ and leave it at that. They usually start shouting that I did call them almost immediately. Sometimes I point out that they have phoned me, rather than my phoning them. This never seems to make sense to them. Again they usually just start shouting about how I did call them.
Even when I persuade the caller that it was not me who has called them, they still can’t let it lie. They accept that I don’t know who called them, but they think they can work it out from what little information they have. They ask why they were called. Bearing in mind that I don’t know who they are or who called them, I tell them that I don’t know. They ask who my company are. I tell them. They’ve never heard of us and still they won’t hang up. What do they think is going on? That we’re that mystery company who phone people at random and hand out diamond encrusted space-ships if they call us back? They are always concerned that it might be ‘something important’. I work for this company. I can assure them that whatever it is can wait until the next ice age, but they are so thirsty for human contact that they will remain on the line to be abused by someone who clearly hates them. Me.
You may think that my antagonistic attitude exacerbates these situations, but it doesn’t. I have experimented and the end result is always the same. If you are nice, they think you can help and it merely prolongs the irritation.
Where I work there is a switchboard system and unfortunately all outbound calls appear to come from the same number – my number. I am forever answering the phone to people who start a conversation: “Hello. You phoned me”.
I respond in any number of ways. Sometimes I just say ‘no’ and leave it at that. They usually start shouting that I did call them almost immediately. Sometimes I point out that they have phoned me, rather than my phoning them. This never seems to make sense to them. Again they usually just start shouting about how I did call them.
Even when I persuade the caller that it was not me who has called them, they still can’t let it lie. They accept that I don’t know who called them, but they think they can work it out from what little information they have. They ask why they were called. Bearing in mind that I don’t know who they are or who called them, I tell them that I don’t know. They ask who my company are. I tell them. They’ve never heard of us and still they won’t hang up. What do they think is going on? That we’re that mystery company who phone people at random and hand out diamond encrusted space-ships if they call us back? They are always concerned that it might be ‘something important’. I work for this company. I can assure them that whatever it is can wait until the next ice age, but they are so thirsty for human contact that they will remain on the line to be abused by someone who clearly hates them. Me.
You may think that my antagonistic attitude exacerbates these situations, but it doesn’t. I have experimented and the end result is always the same. If you are nice, they think you can help and it merely prolongs the irritation.
posted by Blue and Brown | 12:22 AM
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