A Note To All Cold Callers:

Dear Cold Callers Calling From Various Organisations & For Varying Reasons:

Please, for the love of God, STOP PHONING US! We are never going to buy/sign up for/discuss whatever it is you are aiming to sell/promote/research, so it would be easier on all involved if you would all just bugger off and leave us the Hell alone.

Thank you.

Yours faithfully,
Alice.

Seriously; this is beyond a joke now.
    Unlike other (lucky) people, I do not have the option of leaving the telephone whenever it rings and letting the answer-machine pick up the slack. Due to my mother's line of work, if it rings and we are in, we HAVE to pick up the phone; just in case. So unlike other (lucky) people, rather than being inconvenienced every now and again, both my mother and I are inconvenienced several times a day.
    I used to feel bad about telling the people on the other end of the phone - as politely as possible - that we weren't interested and hanging up. No longer. After two years of this, with calls increasing in frequency over that time, I am no longer simply fed up; I am incredibly pissed off. I am aware that the person talking to me is not directly at fault (everybody needs to earn a living somehow) and because of this I still try to keep my tone as polite as possible but after politely and firmly saying my piece (usually either "sorry but we don't conduct surveys over the phone. I'm going to hang up now, bye" or "sorry, but we never purchase or order anything over the phone. I'm going to hang up now, bye") I hang up; often while the poor woman/man is still speaking.
     How do these companies make any money from this?? They must do, otherwise the business of cold calling would no longer exist (apart from the hawking done on behalf of various 'charities', for instance, the business of calling from door to door to sell varying wares is all but gone), but I'm damned if I know how or why it happens. Nobody that I know appreciates receiving unsolicited phone-calls; nor has anyone I know ever been convinced into buying or signing up for anything.

... =sighs= ...

Sorry. I've had a bad week and three such calls in the past two hours. I'm feeling more than a little cranky right now and it was either scream at the latest lost soul that had the misfortune to ring me at that second (from the sounds of it, with the aim of talking me into agreeing to pay for a computer screening service) or rant on here.
     I chose the latter.

Got to go. My mini shift at SENSE awaits.

Alice x