Pandemonium wrote:
I can relate but I'd never melt down like this guy. I usually get on average about 10+ spam type calls like this per day, 7 days a week on both my cell and home land line. All hours. Mostly, I just let the answering machine screen the calls and call back anyone worth doing so who bothers to leave a message. Sometimes it's an opportunity to flip the situation if I'm in a pranking mood and have a few minutes to kill. I fake an old lady voice, act like a psycho, talk in phony foreign accents, drag on the call asking dumb, redundant questions..... Contractors are the worst, especially ones that want to fix you up with "Solar" (power? glasses? tanning booths?) calling from a noisy call center. I'll really fuck with whoever is calling if it's an especially egregious call like the one about "Hi, this is Microsoft (calling from a munged number longer than my display can show) your Windows PC has been compromised and we will help you fix it..." A recent one I kept the barely English speaking lady on the line for about 5 minutes before she finally wised up I was fucking with her and hung up on me.
Some of that is funny, but also kinda cruel to some dude/lady who is just working a shit job to make ends meet.
I totally understand that it would be frustrating not to be able to answer your phone half the time though................. and if the guy/lady are douchbags, I would have no qualms going mental on them (no threats, just messing with them, like you said). Though, I know some call centers, the people get credits for staying on the line with people, some are by commission only, and get a paltry hourly wage otherwise. So you might actually be helping them out.