02 June 2005

Dealing with telemarketers: Try honesty.

I decided to put off going to Santa Cruz for a few days. I need to get there eventually… likely next week. Meanwhile, this has been a nice little mini-vacation.

Mom gets a lot of telemarketer calls. I just registered her on the do-not-call registry. Everyone seems to want her to refinance her mortgage (even though—and probably because—she recently paid it off) or wants me to refinance my college loans.

Anyway, I picked up the phone one morning and was greeted by, “Mr. Leslie?”

“Yes.”

“We’re from [some mortgage company]. Do you own your home?”

“No,” I said truthfully. “I pay rent.”

“Oh. Well, we’re sorry to bother you.” And he hung up.

“You’re gonna have to have me answer all those types of calls,” I told Mom later.