Tuesday, June 19, 2007

... alanis, a new verse for your song

about a month ago I participated in an over-the-phone survey. I do these often, most of them are students in university trying to finish up their thesis, or companies looking for info. Over the phone, under 5 mins, I'm happy to help.
Last night I got a call from a company saying I'd won a prize and that they'd be there to drop it off in half an hour.
I like prizes.
I sat out on the front porch awaiting the gifting! Another call arrives, it's the dispatcher checking the directions, my gift is on it's way, and "oh by the way, we'll have you answer a quick question about our product".

me: but I don't have your product, how can I answer a question about it?
them: right, we know you don't have one, it's an industrial grade product, we're giving you one.

I scratch my head and wonder how I can answer a question about an industrial grade air purification system... and the car pulls up. Smiling guy gets out of the car, dragging a giant box behind him.... and starts to launch into a sales pitch. fantastic (insert eye roll here).
he asks to plug it in so I can give my opinion of the product... so we do... and he continues to talk about air polution ect ect ect ect.... he talks for about 7 minutes before I stop him and say: "I'm sorry, I don't have time for this, see that girl who just came into the house? She just took a train in from Toronto so we could got to dinner together, the person on the phone told me I was getting a prize, not that I had to entertain you in my home." (nodding toward rebecca.. I didn't bother to tell him that she lives in town and takes the train from work everyday.. or that we were just going to go grab some food from tim hortons....)

he kept going.

I stop him again... "no, seriously, I need to leave now, thank you for coming though."

he gathers his stuff and goes....

now, the funny part is, this guy is selling an air purification system... we had to put out one of those "air sponges" after he left because he smelt so badly of smoke... our house stunk....

3 comments:

Northumberland Independent said...

That is pretty sad. I don't understand how these schemes actually work out enough for it to be profitable.

Like you are going to buy their product when they pitch it to you based on a lie.

T said...

hahahaha!!!

I love phone surveys...especially when they have time...and especially when they are political ones. I totally messed up one of the surveys one time by giving them stupid answers. I found out later that week on the news that it was serious survey...ops.

Next time I think you should make the person say 'simon says' before every question

Crilly said...

Did they actually leave a "prize" for you? Other than the smoke and smell?