Friday, February 6, 2009

Listen People!!!

Well I'm back for another round of hilarity.

Does anybody out there enjoy receiving telephone calls that are "wrong numbers"? Of course not. I can tell you for a fact, we get our share of "wrong numbers" at the Roth Household. Unfortunately, our telephone number is similar to the Erie County Public Defender and the Erie County Humane Society. Go figure. Their phone numbers are 1 digit different than our phone number.

We always check our caller i.d. when someone calls our home. If it is a name or number we don't recognize, we simply let the answering machine handle the call. For years we have been getting wrong numbers, sometimes as many as 5 calls per day. Since I'm on hiatus (laid off) from my job, it has been increasingly annoying.

Let's go back in history for a moment. A few years ago I decided to record a greeting that lets the caller know who they have called. It goes like this, "You have reached 626-xxxx, this is NOT The Public Defender NOR the Humane Society. If you would like to speak to Mark or Jan leave a message at the tone". I have two words, "Listen People".

Okay, back to the present. It amazes me how many people do not listen to the greeting message. Most people will hang up when they realize they have dialed the wrong number. Sometimes they will call back 2 or 3 times just to verify they have the wrong number. For the other people that actually leave messages for The Public Defender or The Humane Society I have two words, "Listen People"!!!

I've come to the conclusion that there are a lot of people that are just plain "Stupid". For example. We've had little old ladies calling and asking if we can spay her cat. Leaving her name and number so we can get back to her. I had a notion to call her back and say, "We don't spay no stinking cats". You are probably thinking that's insensitive of me. No, I'm not insensitive, that's just the way my brain processes information. "Listen, People".

Another instance occurred this week. A young 20 something lady called thinking we were the Erie County Humane Society. She was from the Ottawa County Humane Society and wanted information regarding bingo night that the Erie County Humane Society has, to raise funds for the animal shelter. She said, "My name is Julie with the Ottawa County Humane Society. I would like some information regarding your bingo night". Blah, Blah Blah. I felt like calling her back to punk her too. "Listen People"

Hey, you're probably thinking I'm making this stuff up. Not a chance. I have a vivid imagination, but not that vivid. But I do have two words. "Listen People"

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Maybe you should start having a little bit of fun with the calls ala' Tom Mabe. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=un_PjRXV5l8