Archive for November 9th, 2006

What drives me nuts

Hi John,

While you were away Steve had a moment where I should have taken on the role of pedant…so I’ll do it now instead. During Tuesday’s TV ratings, Steve mentioned that Seven had a certain amount of dollars for a show instead of viewers…he must have been thinking about the Melbourne Cup at the time.

I hope you got the wedding card I sent by fax (the one with the drawing of you and your new wife at the Melbourne Cup).

Have a great day,
Samuel Gordon-Stewart
Canberra

(This email is ineligible to win any prizes due to me winning some DVDs on New Day Australia a couple weeks ago).

3 comments November 9th, 2006 at 11:30am

Telemarketers and door-to-door sales

Good morning John,

The call you had on just after me this morning about telemarketers has really struck a chord with me…my mobile number, like most, is not listed in the phone book, yet somehow Telstra’s sales department which carrier I’m with and seem to enjoy ringing me to try and get me to change to them. I don’t mind them ringing, and having worked in a Telstra Call Centre (not sales thankfully) I understand what the people go through and I try to be nice to them…but they have no right…none whatsoever to know which carrier I choose to be with. The telephone network needs to know so that calls can get through…but Telstra sales, when I am not a Telstra customer, should not have access to that information.

To Telstra’s credit, the girl on the phone was very nice when I said that I am happy with my current service and let the call go…but I’m still annoyed with Telstra for what they did.

About those door-to-door sales…well you might recall that in April (or maybe it was May) one of the jobs I applied for saw me whisked away to the other side of Canberra following a door-to-door sales rep around before I could find out what the company did. Incidentally this bloke was trying to get people to change electricity and gas provider, and wanted to see people’s bills…the tactics and mind games they use are scary…I particularly like their trick of telling you that a lot of your neighbours are changing company and they don’t want you to miss out, but they can’t tell you who has changed due to privacy laws, and the offer expires as soon as they leave.

I have a tip for you John…most companies do not run their own door-to-door campaigns, they employ one of a handful of agencies to do the work, and these agencies build up a bit of a database of houses to avoid…the way to get on that list? Be rude or get angry with them…I know it’s unpleasant to do, but it’ll get you on the blacklist quicker than you can say "I’m not interested".

Also, I won a couple John Wayne DVDs on Flicks and Things in your absence…are 2UE Promotions using super glue on the parcels these days? I had to attack the package with scissors to get the darn thing open…and it’s a good thing I didn’t win your Melbourne Cup sweep, because the DVDs came with a letter stating that I’m ineligible to enter competitions for 30 days.

Have a great morning John, and a big hello to Charity, Irene, Johanna, Georgie, and just in case he is listening at this hour, Craig who runs a wonderful cafe in Dickson.

Regards,
Samuel Gordon-Stewart
Canberra

5 comments November 9th, 2006 at 01:00am


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