I’m constantly amazed at the sheer audacity of companies that call people at home at all hours of the day with absolutely no forethought or consideration. Even though our number appears on the National Do Not Call Registry, we still get calls at all hours hawking one thing or another. While the registry restricts calls from telemarketers, there are a number of exceptions that allow political or charity organizations to continue to call. Now, if I were a charity, I think I’d be asking myself if someone who went to the trouble of putting themselves on the Do Not Call list is interested in being contacted by political or charity organizations.
That is, of course, not the case at all.
Every day, our answering machine bristles with a half-dozen “hang ups” from organizations whose automated systems call us each day and then hang up when no one answers the line. I don’t mind those calls – they’re screened, and I don’t have to deal with them. I do, however, mind the calls at 10:00 on a Saturday morning (a dignified snoozing hour, I might add) for Tom and Jerry’s Charity Organization for the Preservation of Something or Other. I don’t care. No one I know would call me at this hour. They’ve all learned to know better.
This phenomenon is not limited to anonymous charity callers, but to regular business that probe and intrude in the interest of the upsell (legitimate business contact is allowed even if you’re on the Do Not Call list). Our bank, in fact, called three different times inside of two weeks to try to upsell Ashley to a Visa Gold Card. We already have a Visa Gold Card. With our bank! A hospital in Charlotte called at 5:45am today to discuss billing for a recent hospital stay. Given they know me inside and out (literally), why didn’t they notice that I live three time zones away? Argh!
Yes, I’m feeling grumpy. But come on, this isn’t that hard to figure out.