Tuesday, November 07, 2006

telephone operator....

i heart rick mercer.

i'll bring you back to that later but first...you know sometimes your day starts off bad, and you end up in a blue funk all day.

my day started off horribly wrong. the phone rang early this morning, waking me up and it was some kind of telemarketer. i'm not sleeping well these days, so to be woken up from a deep slumber was not good. here is our conversation.

me: you can't phone this early
him (rudely) : why not?
me: you woke me up.
him (even more rudely): then why did you answer the phone? you shouldn't answer the phone if you are sleeping.
me: because i didn't know who it was. i assumed it was important.
him (surprised): oh.

i hate telemarketers. but i try to at least be pleasant to them. but lately, they have started out rude and just get ruder.

the ones that really get to me are the charities. i got this one the other day. this is how it went.

her: hi. i'm calling from one of your favourite charities. you've supported us in the past and i was wondering if we can count on you again.
me: i don't think so
her: yes. it was four years ago.
me: no. i think you are mistaken.
her: yes you did.
me: no, i didn't.
her: yes, you did.
me: what are you talking about?
her: mrs. (insert my mom's name.. haha i guess that would be mrs. neighbour of the beast here), you supported us....
me: that's not me. she died two years ago.
her: oh.
me: and i don't support telemarketing.
her: but there are plenty other ways you can support us.

i had one guy say to me, 'oh well, your mom supported us. would you like to?" look, buddy, i just told you my mom is dead. and your first reaction is to try and get money out of me?! and the aforementioned lady could have saved us all a lot of time by at least asking for my mom by name, instead of immediately going into her spiel.

the province newspaper keeps calling me as well. trying to get me to renew my subscription. i have never subscribed to the province. they insist i have. perhaps if when they called me and asked for someone by name, they would realise they are not talking to who they think they are. i have informed the province at least half a dozen times that the reason my mother stopped getting the paper was because she died. the last guy who phoned asked me if i had received my special offer in the mail. i told him no. he tried to sell me the paper. i gave him my standard line that i do not take any offers over the phone, and he could mail me something. he got all snarky with me and said 'we've already done that.". look, i don't need your crappy paper, i didn't ask you to call me, so leave me alone ok.

anyways, i didn't start this off to rant about telemarketers.

my original point was sometimes your day starts off bad and never gets any better. after the phone call, i jump into the shower and proceed to get shampoo in my eyes. a lot of shampoo. great. now i'm not only angry, but also in pain and in tears.

i decide to take some recyling back today. i can't find any parking and i do not want to take my cans and bottles on a tour of the neighbourhood so i give up.

i go the library. a mother there decides to let her child scream for ten minutes straight, causing all the other children in the library to join in. i go to check out, and the screaming child is in front of me in the line up. i go and find a place to sit and read until they leave. the child continues to scream.

i decided last week that i want a new job by dec 1st. i have sent out what seems like 1000 resumes in the past four days. i have had slim response so far. i know that isn't very long but because of the mood i was already in, it wasn't helping.

however, i just finished watching rick mercer and i laughed so much, that i laughed my blues away.

i would love to add some clips here but cbc's website is still down. so instead i suggest you all go to rick mercer's blog.

thanks rick, i needed you today.

12 comments:

Barbara said...

{{{{{668}}}}} sorry for the loss of your Mother. It must be very hard on you when the telemarketers do that.
I understand the love of Rick Mercer. Like I said in my post I blame that man for all my laughter lines.
As for finiding a new job have you tried the agencies?
I work for a temp agency and I let them worry about finding me a job...

mellowlee said...

Man, days like that SUCK HARD! I'm sorry to hear about your mother. Stupid telemarketers! Heartless bastards :( GRRRR! I pay Telus an extra 2$ for an unpublished number and guess what..THEY call me to ask if I would like more features, if I have any questions etc. Im thinking HEY, I pay you to not have strangers bother me...and now YOU are bothering me? oh mygaawwwd!

What kind of work are you looking for? I hate job searching. I love workopolis...it's how I got my current job as a casual for Vancouver Coastal Health.

Anyways, I'm glad Rick cheered you up! He is awesome!

Barbara Bruederlin said...

It's unbelievable how insensitive some people can be. You'd think if you were trying to sell someone something you would at least have a few people skills. My condolences on the passing of your mother and the bull-headed way that telemarketers are treating this.

Isn't it great that we can always count on Mercer? And his show is on at a time we can actually watch it! (I'm not letting that one pass)

Toccata said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Allison said...

Sorry to hear about the loss of your mother. I can't believe he said that to you!

Telemarketers are the worst, always calling or saying the most inapporiate things. I'm glad Rick Mercer was able to cheer you up though :)

Toccata said...

Ok, my computer skills are on grand display today, I only wanted to edit my post not delete it altogether. Everytime I see an author has deleted a post it makes me think they must have said something really awful and I swear that is not what I did 668 aka neighbour of the beast.

Was very sorry to read of the loss of your mom and like everyone else cannot believe the utter insensitivity of that blankity blank telemarketer. It would be nice if people came with a pause and think before you speak button.

Well, I certainly hope your Wednesday is a whole lot better than your Tuesday.

Mercer is fantastic. I love how he is so unapologetically Canadian. I liked how his horse started going backwards. It reminded me of the time he went down on the luge and it started going backwards once he hit the bottom.

668 aka neighbour of the beast said...

thanks very much all of you.

i had another crazy ass telemarketer call me today. this one was just one of those that wouldn't take no for an answer. i told her no, thank you very much three times before i just hung up on here.

i have an interview with a temp agency tomorrow. i had to do all of these tests today and i think i did ok. i have no idea how high i have to score. and apparently in a few tests, my advance skills are better than my basic skills. go figure.

eventually i'd like to work for one of the universities here. right now, i'd like find some temp/part time/casual work. i just need something for a couple of months right now.

toccata- haha, i saw your original comment. i did the same thing on mellowlee's blog yesterday. the rick mercer bit that almost had me in tears was kim jong-il fashions. and i do love the fact that rick is so canadian.

mellowlee- don't even get me started with telus. i hate them so much. i got into a huge fight with them over money they owed me, and admitted it. all i had was a question and this woman jumped all over me. i ended up screaming at her and calling her nasty names. which i never do. really, normally i am a very pleasant person. :)

barbara b - nice shot! and even his repeats are at a normal time!

Toccata said...

Good luck tomorrow. I hope you get on with the agency and they can find you something.

You are way more patient with telemarketers than me. I just wait long enough to make sure it's not a parent or a student which is usually right away once they completely mangle my last name,or call me Mrs.! There's an up side to having a last name that is not pronounced how it's spelled!

668 aka neighbour of the beast said...

well, it went ok. i think i will post about it later.

i have a crazy last name. it's pronounced exactly how it is spelled, but nobody ever thinks that. and that mrs. thing drives me insane. one telemarketer, after i said i wasn't interested, asked to speak to my husband!

Toccata said...

Oh my god, asking to speak to your husband! That's hilarious.

668 aka neighbour of the beast said...

i tore a freakin' strip of the guy! i was all like..is there any other name on the card? (i remember it was a bay credit card thing) what does the name on my card say? even if i was married, why do you think my husband can override my opinion? i went into what we call full terrier mode. where you get so incensed you are just yip yip yip yip...

Toccata said...

That's funny, full terrior mode.

My mom met my father during her first teaching position and they married but as soon as she became pregnant she had to quit. At that time, my mom is 76, you couldn't teach when pregnant. I don't know maybe they thought seeing a pregnant woman would give kids ideas. So once she had my older sister the principal asked my father if he would allow her to teach! Isn't that crazy. Luckily, my father knew my mother only to well to reply, "I think maybe you should ask her."

Have you ever had the, "Why aren't you married?" How the hell are you supposed to answer that one?!