Z is coldly polite

You know that work I was talking about yesterday?  I hin’t done it, as we say in Norfolk.  I have done stuff, I cleaned the kitchen and hoovered the drawing room and I watered the greenhouse and picked vegetables, but I only answered a few emails and not the tricky ones.  Well, not that tricky.  But there was a bill to the church that I queried in writing and the bloke looked me up and phoned – I pointed out that I’d not put in my phone number because I needed a written reply for the records – he said he’d check out things and write, but three months have passed and a new copy of the original bill has turned up, with no covering letter.  I’m none too pleased.  I’ll email my reply – reluctantly, as I don’t really want to send out my address, but nor do I want a new one to have to keep checking – as I really can’t be doing with more phone calls.

The other email I know I have to reply to is another nice lady whose china is not Lowestoft and I’m going to have to tell her.  I’ll do it tomorrow morning, I promise.

I’ve had several annoying phone calls in the last few days.  We’re registered with the Telephone Preference Service for both our phones (not had any problems with the mobiles as yet)  but I had a phone call on the internet phone on Saturday and two on the landline today, each from the same marketing company wanting to carry out a survey.  I’ve checked, they aren’t covered in the TPS regulations.  In each case, the caller has been Indian and I’ve been brusquely polite – twice I’ve put the phone down and once it was put down on me.  Tonight, I was cooking dinner when the phone rang again and the Sage answered.  A minute or two later, he brought it to me and an Indian man was starting to ask questions.  I said that my husband had just given me the phone, was he from a marketing company?  He said, oh no, he was phoning on behalf of my telephone provider.  Okay, I replied, who is that?  He didn’t want to answer, but when I pressed, he said it would be either TalkTalk or BT.  Neither of those is my telephone provider, I’m registered with the Telephone Preference Service not to receive cold calls and I don’t want to answer any questions, I said.  And put the phone down.  I used to be polite – well, I’m not rude in the least but I am not welcoming.  I am heartily fed up with this sort of thing.  I do have sympathy for the people phoning, poor devils are up all night as India is 5 1/2 hours ahead of us and it was 7.10 when he phoned – but that’s not my problem, I’m afraid.    Next time I’m phoned by that marketing company, according to the advice on the TPS website, I have to ask them to take my number off their calling list.

Al and Dilly have looked after the greenhouse beautifully, tied up the cucumbers which were in a right pickle, and weeded thoroughly.  I have picked a lot of cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, aubergines and chillies, and made ratatouille this evening.  It was about half a pound of each vegetable-worth, and I thought I’d add a little chilli to give some zing.  I nibbled the end of a small one, which was okay, so I cut off the other end and tasted again.  I just touched my tongue to the bit I’d cut off.

I downed my glass of wine rather hastily.

It was a very small chilli that, deseeded, I added to the pan of ratatouille, but when we came to eat it, it was still notably spicy.  Very good, but not quite classic.

Tonight, I’m going to watch University Challenge (I’m sure I’ve mentioned that Bamber Gascoigne was my childhood heartthrob so it’s a sentimental thing, though Paxo isn’t the same at all) and then read.  Possibly an earlyish night.  Maybe not.  I’ve got lots of books to read, more buying and borrowing than reading recently.

As I said in the comments earlier, the rumour that the fire in the flat at the weekend was started deliberately has been confirmed as a fact.  Some people are horrible, aren’t they?  A minority of course, but a nasty one.

16 comments on “Z is coldly polite

  1. Dave

    I must admit I’ve become more abrupt with cold callers these days. A couple of times I’ve used Eric Morecombe’s line: ‘I’m sorry, I haven’t got a ‘phone here’ (before putting the ‘phone down).

    Reply
  2. Z

    Even the TPS website tries to put you off registering, by mentioning that possibly welcome callers, such as charities, won’t be allowed to phone you – well, that is all the more reason to sign up as far as I can see.

    I am pretty brusque with chuggers too, nowadays. I resent the fact that, were I to set up a direct debit as they ask, it would just pay for a few hours of their time and not a penny would go to the charity. And I’ve stood in the street on flag days, collecting for a charity that has got a licence to do so. Chuggers don’t have any such licence and want a lot more of my money, and they are not even volunteers.

    Reply
  3. Mike and Ann

    What, please, is a chugger? Ref lady’s ‘Lowestoft’, it’s always difficult telling people that their swans are, in fact, geese.These days, when pressed about the value of their ‘treasures’, I point them towards the auction rooms, and advise them to ask the auctioneers to either value the item or suggest a sensible reserve price. Sorry, I don’t suppose you/they want the job, either.

    Reply
  4. 63mago

    I once got a phonecall on my portable by a lady who saied she would be calling me on behalf of my phonecompany. She did not mention the company name nor address me with my name, but asked me who I were in a pretty brisk, not say rude way.
    I disconnected the phone. The contract with saied company ends this month and I feel absolutely no inclination to enter into another one.

    Reply
  5. Z

    Ooh sorry, “charity muggers”* – those enthusiastic young people who approach you in the street asking you to sign a direct debit for a monthly donation to a charity. They are perfectly genuine of course, but they are paid and there is a team leader who gathers them all together regularly for a pep-talk. He did it once right next to me when I was sitting waiting for my son in Norwich once.

    This particular lady is in America and a relation was sold some pieces as Lowestoft many years ago, so it’s fair enough for her to ask! And occasionally someone sends us a picture that really is Lowestoft and wants us to sell it. The Sage never minds helping – sometimes I have to discourage him from being too encouraging to someone we can’t really help, in fact.

    That’s the thing, Mago, they try to make it sound as if they are doing us a favour and some of them aren’t even that polite.

    *http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=chugger

    Reply
  6. martina

    I received a phone call from a phone company(not the one used by the office). They went into their schtick about great prices etc. I told them “thank you, but we don’t have a phone” and hung up. Boss overheard all this and roared with laughter.
    Now I find out from Dave that it wasn’t a very original line.

    Reply
  7. lom

    We get calls like that, saying they are ringing about our BT line, we don’t have a BT line and the other day one to tell us our computer was not working. Funny I said it hasn’t told me it’s not. They hung up.

    Reply
  8. Z

    It was your original line, Martina, and if I came up with a joke of Eric Morcambe’s I’d be quite pleased.

    I don’t get many sales calls since registering and, of those I get, I know they are likely to be dodgy (as I say, just asking for opinions and preferences isn’t illegal under TPS regs at present). The Sage gets calls from ‘financial advisors’ wanting him to buy shares and investments.

    Reply
  9. Dave

    While I was at my mother’s she got one of those ‘phone calls that said her computer wasn’t working – and that it was spreading viruses. She believed them, and was about to give them her credit card number so that they could fix it on-line when I took the phone from her and pointed out that she hasn’t got the internet at home, so this was a con. I was quite abrupt to the caller.

    Reply
  10. Roses

    I am a member of the TPS and when I do get the odd sales/marketing calls, I tell the person on the other line so and demand to speak to their manager.

    Funnily enough I never get put through. I wonder why?

    Reply
  11. Dandelion

    I like to be abrupt also. The minute they do their opening gambit, I just say “I didn’t ask for a phonecall, and I don’t want one, thank you very much, good-day”. Then I hang up the phone. I am with TPS also, though lately I think some companies have found a way round this.

    Reply
  12. How do we know

    awww.. these nasty phone calls just do not end!!! i have been getting 4 (yes, 4) calls a DAY for an insurance on my car. The insurance was renewed 2 months ago. The calls started 2 months before the renewal date and have not stopped. I am unabashedly rude.

    Once i politely asked the caller what orgn they were calling from and their name etc. Then informed them, “Tell your MD to get an anticipatory bail. I am reporting you guys for criminal stalking.”

    Reply
  13. Sir Bruin

    Have you noticed how these callers with Far eastern accents now seem to have names like Trevor or Paul?

    | did once tell a caller that I had no interest in knowing what type of windows she had, so she had no business asking me about mine.

    Reply
  14. Blue Witch

    My understanding is that the TPS only covers calls originating within the UK, but that it covers every type of call that you haven’t requested from within the UK (but I’ve been registered for years, since the TPS first came out, and haven’t checked recently).

    If a number comes up ‘international’ or ‘withheld’ on my caller display, I just pick up the phone ad say nothing until they do, then, unless it is someone I want to speak to, I say, “Do you know what the Telephone Preference Scheme is?” and, depending on their answer, add some other gem and hang up, or just hang up. Some of them even have the audacity to ring straight back afterwards. Those ones get treated to a few letters from the interntaional phonetic alphabet.

    Reply
  15. Z

    I did check, and it says that market researching isn’t covered.

    I had another call today, when we were bricklaying. I was brusque and said I was working and not pleased to be interrupted, and the chap apologised.

    Since registering, I’ve had very few calls until recently, although the Sage gets quite a few wanting to con him out of his hard-earned for spurious share advice. I doubt those chancers, even if they aren’t conmen, are registered with the TPS. I’m more forceful than the Sage in dealing with these types, but they don’t ring to speak to me.

    Reply

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