You know it used to be exciting to see “international phone call” on my caller display.
Not any more.
No, it’s not that I’m a blase international jet setter who isn’t impressed by these things.
It’s that I’m being trained by telemarketers. Like Pavlov’s dog, I am now conditioned to expect irritation when I see that message.
Because, more often that not, it will be a call centre somewhere else in the world (I’m guessing India) trying for the umpteenth time to get me to change my electricity supplier.
Today, it’s “Sainsbury’s” with a “fantastic offer”. Oh puh-lease. No it isn’t really Sainsbury’s, its someone who has probably never even seen a Sainsbury’s who tomorrow will be pretending to be Tesco. Or Jack the Ripper for all I know.
In these outsourced times, it seems to me that brands are stretching credibility to absurdity with this kind of thing.
What is the point of spending millions on advertising and store design and undermining it by, well, lying to me? (And I mean lying, and not in the excusable sense that Seth Godin talks about).
Anyway I’ve now registered with the UK’s telephone preference service in the hope it cuts down on this kind of intrusion.
