Tele-torture 24x7

 Telemarketing has become a major source of exasperation for the common public in India. The amount of pestering done by telemarketers is way above the acceptable limit. Though we hear about various measures initiated by authorities to curb these pesky calls, there has been hardly any reprieve.

Someone wants to offer you a loan because of your good track record in repaying credit card dues. You politely say that you are not interested as you have no such requirement. But the call does not end there. There will be more push and prod from the other side, more questions like ‘Why don’t you avail such great offers?’, ‘Don’t you plan to buy some gift for your family members?’ This continues to a point where you perhaps disconnect your phone with a strong ‘NO’. Your costly and new smartphone is lucky to escape the fury, escape getting smashed and shattered into thousand pieces.

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You had a very busy and tiring week and badly needed some good rest during the weekend. After a lovely lunch prepared by your wife, you lay down and slip into a beautiful siesta. Suddenly you are jolted out of your deep sleep by the shriek of your mobile phone. A cacophonic background & a monotonous voice speaks to you with a twisted accent. She offers you to replace your existing mobile network provider with her company's offered with an attractive package. Annoyed and dying to get back to your sleep, you curtly say that you are not interested.

But she is not ready to let you go! ‘Why Sir? At least let me complete explaining our offer to you before you decide.’ She gives a damn about how badly you need your sleep. She does not care to say sorry for disturbing you on the weekend. No regret, no politeness!

Poor you! Your sleep has evaporated by now. Your mind is filled with anger and utter frustration. You keep tossing and turning on the bed for a while before calling it quits and abandoning the bed. The rest of the day is spent with a grumpy face.

And, then there are many frustrating tales every professional will be ready to share about how they get troubled with such phone calls when they are in the middle of important meetings/discussions.

Once my wife was a little late in responding to a call on her mobile. To her utter surprise, the voice on the other side was quite angry. He was a telemarketer and had the audacity to ask my wife for an explanation as to why she took so long to pick up his call! My poor, startled wife took a few seconds to make out what had happened and recompose herself. Before she was ready to give a piece of her mind, the guy arrogantly disconnected the call.

Telemarketing has become a tele-torture for the common people in India. There is hardly any decorum that is followed by this marketing arm of the companies. There are no defined hours or days – you can get bombarded with their calls at any time; be it the weekends, early mornings or late evenings. There is a lack of mannerism; especially if such calls are made at odd hours when you expect at least a polite apology for disturbing.

We have reached a stage where we grudgingly accept this nuisance as an unwanted part of life and each individual has devised his/her own way of dealing with it. The government/regulatory authority’s initiatives hardly brought any respite. DND services of phone service providers are hardly effective.

Do you have any such painful tele-torture experiences to share with?

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